Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism Statement on the ASEAN Charter

[November 21, 2007] The Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism
(Working Group)congratulates the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) for transforming itself into a rules-based, legal entity through the
adoption of an ASEAN Charter. We are indeed looking forward to an ASEAN
governed by “the principles of democracy, the rule of law and good
governance” and where there is “respect for and protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms”.

The incorporation of a human rights body as an organ of ASEAN (Article
14, ASEAN Charter) is a breakthrough for human rights in the region. We
are elated by this development. The Working Group now anticipates the
terms of reference (TOR), which shall concretely state the powers,
functions, mandate, as well as details of the ASEAN human rights body. We
strongly urge ASEAN Foreign Ministers to draw up the TOR for the ASEAN
human rights body and its time frame for completion as soon as it can so
that it may begin to function. The Working Group encourages ASEAN to have
the TOR and time frame as an output of the next ASEAN Foreign Ministers
Meeting.

The Working Group has been cooperating with ASEAN and supporting its
human rights endeavours, including the human rights areas of the
Vientiane Action Programme, since 1996. As such, we are pleased to be
officially recognized, in Annex II of the ASEAN Charter, as one of the
“entities associated with ASEAN”. The Working Group shall continue to
engage ASEAN, in particular, on its commitments in the Charter to
establishing the ASEAN human rights body and in “upholding the United
Nations Charter and international law, including international
humanitarian law, subscribed to by ASEAN Member States”.

We are also encouraged by ASEAN’s affirmation in the Charter to
“promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are
encouraged to participate in, and benefit from, the process of ASEAN
integration and community building”. To achieve meaningful and fruitful
engagement, ASEAN should regularly consult and involve ASEAN peoples in
its decision-making processes.

The Working Group calls on ASEAN governments to abide by the Charter
which they signed. The Charter has been adopted; the region now
looks to its leaders for its effective implementation.