Working Group Submits POA to ASEAN

The Plan of Action (POA) for the establishment of an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism was submitted to the ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in Phnom Penh last June 14, 2003. This POA is a product of the Conference on Regional Systems for the Protection of Human Rights last October 6 to 11, 2002 in Strasbourg France and the Third Workshop in Bangkok. Participants from ASEAN states representing their respective governments, national human rights institutions, and civil society groups were convened to come up with the said POA, which is based on a step-by-step, multi-track, and multi-sectoral approach involving the people and governments of ASEAN. Incorporated in the POA were the recommendations made in the First (Jakarta, 2001) and Second (Manila, 2002) workshops for the ASEAN mechanism on human rights. The Working Group prepared a Roadmap, which was pursuant to the POA, and submitted it to the Third Workshop for an ASEAN Regional Mechanism on Human Rights, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 28 to 29, 2003.

The action plan sets four ventures to be taken up by the Working Group. First, it seeks to involve ASEAN governments in its pursuit for a mechanism by drafting a concept paper about the proposed regional human rights system; by strengthening the involvement of ASEAN officials in the initiative through appropriate exchanges and dialogues; and by directly linking with heads of state to encourage them to take steps to promote and protect human rights in their respective countries and in the region.

Under the Plan, the Working Group also seeks to broaden its support base and constituency through soliciting the support of ASEAN parliamentarians (AIPO), ASEAN People’s Assembly, national human rights institutions, and civil society groups. Establishing a Southeast Asian Centre for Human Rights is deemed necessary to serve the following functions: promotion, training and education, database building, information exchange, networking, institutional/capacity building to national human rights institutions, research and publication.

The Working Group has also identified new issues and challenges that have surfaced in the past years that are crucial in the establishment of a regional human rights system. Aside from the issues raised during the workshops held in Jakarta (2001) and Manila (2002) such as human trafficking, migrant labour, and internal conflicts, other matters have also proven to be of equal importance, like new anti-terrorism laws or proposed laws and their impact on human rights, the need to respond to questions and challenges on the mechanism, and the correlation between foreign investments/multi-national corporations and corresponding human rights values and the rule of law.

Finally, the Working Group will follow-up on its existing efforts in maintaining its position with ASEAN. Confidence-building measures and a step-by-step process will be continuously undertaken while making references to expressed initiatives in previous joint communiqués.