These provisions represent continuity in the thinking of ASEAN leaders over the
last 20 years (the JCAMM 1993 called for a “balance between the rights of the individual
and those of the community”) but also a departure, since the catch-all provision that the
exercise of human rights can be limited by the “requirements” of the “general welfare of
[people]” (as well as the more specific caveats that accompany it) goes beyond that in
previous ASEAN documents.100 This may be a concession to conservative states to
secure their support for universalist provisions in the Declaration. Article 9 refers to a
need to avoid “double standards” and “politicization” in the realization of human rights
and freedoms, repeating language used in the 1993 Bangkok Declaration, and firing a
shot across the bows of Western states perceived as meddling in the affairs of ASEAN
member-states using human rights conditionality.