<![CDATA[Maritime security in the ASEAN region faces serious challenges due to the rise of transnational crimes, such as human trafficking, narcotics smuggling, piracy, and other cross-border offenses. Efforts to counter these crimes often focus on state security aspects, yet tend to overlook the protection of human rights for ship crews, migrants, and coastal communities. This research aims to analyze the responsibilities of ASEAN member states in ensuring maritime security in alignment with human rights principles and to examine the need for regional legal harmonization in tackling transnational crimes within ASEAN waters. The research problems include: (1) how maritime security legal frameworks and human rights protections are regulated in addressing transnational crimes in the ASEAN region; and (2) what constitutes an ideal construction of state responsibility to balance security interests and human rights protection. The research method employed is normative legal research with conceptual, statutory, and comparative approaches to maritime security policies and regulations in several ASEAN countries. The results indicate a disharmony of norms and differing standards of human rights protection in maritime law enforcement practices among ASEAN states. The philosophical novelty of this research lies in the paradigm shift from state sovereignty-based maritime security toward human security-based maritime security, which places human rights as the ethical and normative foundation for maritime law enforcement. This research concludes that strengthening regional cooperation and legal harmonization within ASEAN is a primary prerequisite for achieving effective, just, and sustainable maritime security.]]>
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