The Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Federal Parliament's Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is currently conducting an inquiry into human rights mechanisms and the Asia-Pacific Region, writes Andrew Witheford.

The Sub-Committee is currently conducting public hearings, and John Greenwell, one of AIA’s founding members, and I, participated in one of these hearings in Canberra. The Committee members present were: Kerry Rea, Member for Bonner and Chair of the Sub-Committee; Philip Ruddock, Member for Berowra (former Attorney-General and Minister for Immigration) and Deputy Chair; NSW Senator Michael Forshaw; South Australian Senator (and former Amnesty staffer) Sarah Hanson-Young and Member for Newcastle Sharon Grierson.

In our verbal submission we outlined our views on a range of issues, such as United Nations human rights mechanisms; the development of human rights protection mechanisms in Southeast Asia and the Pacific; and our concerns with some aspects of Australia's human rights diplomacy in the region. There were lots of incisive questions from the parliamentarians on many regional issues and how Australia could help to promote human rights.

A key factor in the region is the development of elements in civil society (and some governments) promoting the observance of human rights, reflected in the decision by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to establish a Human Rights Body. This in itself is an achievement given the presence at the ASEAN table of authoritarian countries with poor human rights records, such as Burma and Vietnam. We offered the view that while such a body would be modest in its ambitions in the short to medium-term, it would be unlikely to be used as a mechanism for covering-up abuses, given the regional trend referred to above.

We also expressed our concerns at the potential danger of Australia's bilateral human rights dialogues - which are currently held with China, Vietnam and Laos – becoming formalised processes that quarantined human rights issues from the rest of the bilateral relationship, with inadequate transparency to Parliament and the Australian community.

Find out more about the Terms of Reference and submissions to the Inquiry (including Amnesty International's).

Andrew Witheford is Government Relations Manager for Amnesty International Australia, and is based in Canberra.