One of the key areas of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter is the setting up of dispute settlement mechanisms for non-political agreements, Rodolfo Severino, director of the ASEAN Studies Center said here on Monday.
Severino said "We have a dispute settlement mechanism for economic agreements. But for the others, socio-cultural, political security, we don't have. So the idea is for dispute settlement mechanisms to be embedded from now on in each ASEAN agreement."
It has come one step closer, with the deposit of the instrument of ratification for the ASEAN Charter by Myanmar. Myanmar is the 7th member of the ASEAN to ratify the Charter.
Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have not ratified the Charter. Some members of the Philippine senate have threatened to block the ratification of the Charter unless Myanmar releases opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos Malaysia,Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Charter, expected to come into force by next year, aims to transform the ASEAN from a loose association into a rules-based organization which will encourage members to take agreements and commitments seriously.
ASEAN officials have said that only about 30 percent of ASEAN's agreements and commitments have been honored and implemented.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loogn said in the opening address of the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting Monday that the timely ratification and implementation of the Charter will itself be a signal of ASEAN's resolve.
Lee said the ASEAN has decided to press on with the ASEAN Charter's implementation without waiting for all ten members to ratify.
Source:Xinhua
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