"ASEAN lags behind other regions on stakeholder engagement & access to remedy in the context of business & human rights," 03 June 2018

ASEAN...significantly lags behind its African and American regional counterparts in the context of stakeholder engagement and access to justice, thereby undermining the region's capacity to mitigate and remedy human rights impacts as a result of business activities.

...ASEAN has not yet caught up in terms of institutional building, particularly in engaging civil society and opening up avenues to remedy for communities affected by and vulnerable to human rights violations linked to business activities.

Human rights violations linked to business activities...continue to take place throughout the region. These cases involve not only domestic and transnational corporations, but more significantly, state-owned enterprises and intra-regional consortia.

Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, stakeholder engagement is integral to human rights due diligence, yet ASEAN as a body, including the ASEAN InterGovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), has refused to commit to such processes. Serious challenges concerning access to justice and human rights protection, particularly for rural, urban poor and indigenous communities, as well as social minorities, remain unaddressed.