In each region, various methods of trust building have been implemented with the objective of fostering transnational cooperation: capability building, capacity building and knowledge sharing. However, both regions diverge in their legal architecture, which impacts their approaches in developing trust and cooperation. The EU uses mutual trust to maintain a certain legal diversity, while guaranteeing a minimum level of equivalence of human rights protection. In ASEAN, diversity remains deeper and the perception of national sovereignty is more conservative. A regional instrument, namely the ASEAN Charter, has been adopted to harmonise human rights standards in the region but there are doubts on its actual implementation and on its impact in the development of mutual trust in the region. Although it is true that there are strong concerns regarding the balance or rather the imbalance between security and protection of human rights over the world, including in the EU where checks and balances have been implemented and are enforceable, these concerns are even more prominent in ASEAN.
The contribution will underline the confrontation between regional’s standards and values and how the differences and similarities impact on the implementation of trust building methods in each region and in the relations between both regions.
