WHEN the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) agreed in 1993 to consider creating a regional human rights body, some member countries that were not really enthusiastic probably thought they were safe: at the time, there seemed no way it could happen. 

For Asean, the human rights issue was so sensitive it was rarely discussed, and one of Asean's cardinal principles was that members not meddle in the "internal affairs" of other members. Today, key obstacles remain and a human rights body will not be formed any time soon by the 10-member group. 

For one, communist-ruled Vietnam has just taken over the year-long rotating chairmanship of Asean from democratic Thailand. But as the Asean agenda broadens, some officials at last month's meeting in Bangkok said the question was not whether the human rights body would be created, but when. 

"Probably it'll take a few years, but I think it's inevitably coming," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, joining the meeting as a regular "dialogue partner" of Asean.

"In the time that I've been foreign minister, 4.5 years, it's extraordinary how human rights issues have worked their way up the agenda of Asean countries . . . other countries in the region are also moving in that direction. Even Burma is talking about the idea of establishing an independent human rights commission. There's a trend."

Param Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian lawyer and member of a non-government group seeking an Asean human rights body, said: "When we started this initiative in 1995, many people felt we were dreaming. We now feel that dream will be realised . . . there is a wind of change."

In the 1993 meeting in Singapore, Asean foreign ministers stressed the "importance of strengthening international co-operation on all aspects of human rights" and "agreed that Asean should also consider the establishment of an appropriate regional mechanism on human rights". 

Such bodies now exist in the Americas, Europe and Africa, but not Asia. 

The Asean effort has been made more difficult by its expansion since 1995 to include Vietnam, Laos and Burma, one of the world's worst violators of human rights. 

Backed by the United States, the European Union and other world powers, Asean's democratic minority is having a greater impact than the authoritarian majority in charting the future of Asean. That will be more the case once Indonesia resolves its internal problems and can shift some attention outward. 

Also, while it does not publicly admit it, in recent years Asean has been softening its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. Knowing that international isolation of Burma was hurting Asean as a whole, some member nations have been quietly pressing Burma to improve its human rights record and to open talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

The leaders of the Philippines and Indonesia have criticised Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's jailing of his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim. 

After the Asean statement in 1993, human rights advocates in several Asean countries formed a regional "working group" to lobby for a human rights body. 

The Asean foreign ministers met with the working group in 1996. In 1997, they dropped their insistence that national human rights commissions be formed in each Asean country before a regional body could be established. Today, the only Asean members with national commissions are the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, while Thailand is setting one up. 

Last month in Bangkok, the working group gave Asean a draft agreement on forming the Asean Human Rights Commission. The document said the commission would represent all contracting states but act independently. The commission would accept complaints of violations from individuals, groups, and contracting states, and recommend to the governments measures to resolve those complaints. It also would investigate alleged violations on its own initiative.