Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region: Towards Institution Building

The Asia-Pacific is known for having the least developed regional mechanisms for protecting human rights. This edited collection makes a timely and distinctive contribution to contemporary debates about building institutions for human rights protection in the Asia-Pacific region, in the wake of ASEAN’s establishment in 2009 of a sub-regional human rights commission.

Drawing together leading scholarly voices, the book focuses on the systemic issue of institutionalising human rights protection in the Asia-Pacific. It critically examines the prospects for deepening and widening human rights institutions in the region, challenging the orthodox scepticism about whether the Asia-Pacific is "ready" for stronger human rights institutions and exploring the variety of possible forms that regional and sub-regional institutions might take. The volume also analyses the impediments to new institutions, whilst questioning the justifications for them. The collection provides a range of perspectives on the issues and many of the chapters bring interdisciplinary insights to bear. As such, the collection will be of interest to scholarly, practitioner, and student audiences in law, as well as to readers in international relations, political science, Asian studies, and human rights.

Dr Hitoshi Nasu is a lecturer in law at The Australian National University and a deputy director of The Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL). He is the author of International Law on Peacekeeping (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009).

Associate Professor Ben Saul is Co-Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law at the Faculty of Law, The University of Sydney, and a barrister specialising in human rights law. He is the author of Defining Terrorism in International Law (Oxford, 2006).