Human Rights and the ASEAN Smart Cities Network: Covering Unaddressed Civic and Social Concerns

The development of smart cities through the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) has accelerated the growth of Southeast Asia's capital and important cities. However, a growing concern has been how much the intentions of Southeast Asian cities to achieve 'smart city status' consider the basic elements of human rights and the provision of essential public services. The first policy recommendation is to acknowledge the vulnerability of the underprivileged, personal security, and social inclusion in governing smart cities to counter the possible derailment of democratic progress in the region. The second recommendation is to strengthen engagement with bottom-up and grassroots level initiatives to avoid a 'development' model imposed by external funding stakeholders. The policy brief uses secondary data from 2018 to 2024 on the ASEAN Smart Cities Network projects and identifies civic and social concerns that arose during this period.