ASEAN Rights Panel Aims to Finish Work Next Year

SINGAPORE, Singapore -- A panel that will draft terms of reference for a Southeast Asian human rights body aims to complete its work within a year, a regional official said Saturday.

Each member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will nominate two people to join the 20-member panel, said the official.

He said the panel hopes to complete its work in time for submission to an annual meeting of the group's 10 foreign ministers in Bangkok about one year from now.

"The terms of reference for the human rights body hopefully would be ready for submission to the ASEAN ministerial meeting next year," the official said.

On the example of those who could join the panel, one country will likely nominate an ambassador and an academic who specializes in human rights, he said.

The official was speaking after senior regional officials met with the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, a coalition of experts, non-governmental representatives, officials, and human rights commissioners.

Their talks came ahead of the annual foreign ministers' meeting which begins in Singapore Sunday night.

Singapore's foreign ministry, which will chair the meeting, said in a statement that during their gathering the ministers intend to meet with the panel which will draft the rights body's terms of reference.

At their annual summit last year in Singapore, ASEAN leaders signed a charter which committed member states to notions of democracy and human rights and for the first time set out principles and rules for the group.

Under the charter, a human rights body would be established in a region that includes countries with poor human rights records, such as Myanmar.

Activists fear ASEAN, which cherishes a policy of non-interference in domestic affairs of members, could establish a toothless rights mechanism.

Tommy Koh, of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said last month there was a division within ASEAN between Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, which have national rights commissions, and Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

 

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 19:41:00 07/19/2008 on www.inquirer.net