SINGAPORE (AP) — Southeast Asian leaders on Tuesday adopted a landmark charter to integrate the region as a legal organization bound by one set of rules but failed to include a mechanism for enforcing human rights.

ASEAN leaders pose for a group photo in Singapore Tuesday.

The charter only calls for a new agency to review human rights among the members of the 40-year-old Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The document gives the body no powers to punish violators — an apparent diplomatic victory for military-ruled Myanmar.

Human rights occupies only a few paragraphs in the ASEAN Charter, whose main aim is to make the bloc a legal and rule-based body similar to that of the European Union.

It took 21/2 years to draft and still needs to be ratified by member countries through Cabinet decisions, referendums or parliamentary approval before it becomes final.

On Monday, the Philippines warned that its Congress would be hard-pressed to ratify the charter unless Myanmar upholds the document’s principles of democracy and human rights.

ASEAN is facing intense pressure from the West to force Myanmar’s junta to allow democracy after its troops suppressed pro-democracy protests in September in a brutal crackdown that left at least 15 people dead.

The U.S. said Monday that ASEAN’s credibility and reputation were at stake because of Myanmar, and the EU imposed fresh sanctions on its junta, including an embargo on imports of timber, gems and metals.

ASEAN was founded during the Cold War years as an anti-communist coalition, evolving into a trade and political bloc. It consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.