Human rights body a hard sell for Asean.

Byline: Sheridan Mahavera

THE proposed Asean human rights body appears to have run into a wall after lukewarm response from a grouping that abhors political interference, writes SHERIDAN MAHAVERA. PROTESTS and starving Rohingya boat people may have grabbed the headlines at the aborted Asean Summit in Pattaya, Thailand in April. But the diplomats who hammer out these agreements and the ministers who sign them were not really that worried about such inconveniences of democracy.

The global recession was at the top of their minds, and before the protesters broke into their meeting hall, the officials were set to sign documents that would help keep the economies of Asean's 10 member countries from going under.

Now, Asean leaders and diplomats are scheduled to hunker down to put in place a human rights body that they think might end …