The role of networks in the implementation of human rights in the Asia Pacific region

The aim of this chapter is to challenge the focus on ‘institutions’ (the lack of them, their potential, how to build them) in discussions about human rights in the Asia Pacific region. I argue that the ‘European paradigm’ of ‘third party institutions delegated with the power to impose top-down binding rules on sovereigns enforceable by third-party judicial resolution’, ¹ is not the only effective form of implementing human rights. In particular, it is argued that an emphasis on such institutions ignores the power of networks.² In the vast and heterogeneous regions of Asia and the Pacific, networks are well-suited to ‘the progressive, incremental elaboration of human rights norms which are implemented largely voluntarily’.³.