AICHR EYES ADOPTION OF LANDMARK HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATIONS AT OCTOBER ASEAN SUMMIT
By Nurul Hanis Izmir & Nur Atiq Maisarah Suhaimi
KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) aims to adopt two landmark declarations at the 47th ASEAN Summit this October, marking a major step forward for the region’s human rights agenda under Malaysia’s ASEAN chairmanship.
Malaysia’s representative to AICHR, Edmund Bon Tai Soon, said the two declarations – ‘ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment’ and the ‘Declaration on Promoting the Right to Development and Peace, Towards Realising Inclusive and Sustainable Development’ – have been in development for two years and are now nearing completion.
“It will be a landmark declaration if we can adopt it. It will only be the second declaration on human rights that ASEAN adopts since the 2012 ASEAN Human Rights Declaration,” he told reporters after attending the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Interface Meeting with AICHR representatives, here, Tuesday.
He said AICHR is working on the ‘ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment’, and has received strong support—led by Malaysia—for its adoption at the October summit.
The initiative responds to growing concerns in the region over climate change, pollution, and the displacement of communities due to environmental degradation, he said.
Bon said the declaration would incorporate important human rights principles such as the right to public participation, the right to environmental decision-making, freedom of information, and access to justice.
“For example, if you have pollution, what do you do? This declaration provides a framework for action,” he said, adding that the second declaration being pursued is on the right to development and peace, which builds on ASEAN’s existing 2012 human rights commitments.
Elaborating further, he said the right to development is a concept unique to ASEAN, which goes beyond economic growth to encompass political, social, and cultural development.
“If we manage to adopt both declarations in October, it would be the first time in 13 years that ASEAN adopts two human rights declarations in a single year.
“These declarations matter because once adopted, they become instruments that people in ASEAN can rely on. That is the purpose of the commission – to bring human rights closer to the people, to make it real and not just abstract ideas on paper,” he emphasised.
Bon, who currently chairs AICHR, also highlighted the commission’s efforts to strengthen ASEAN’s approach to peacebuilding, particularly in response to ongoing regional conflicts.
He said AICHR has been holding workshops on developing a “template” or framework that ASEAN can use whenever conflicts arise, either within or between states.
“It’s not just about Myanmar or Palestine. We are trying to come up with a consistent and institutionalised approach to peace. Right now, responses seem ad hoc,” he said, adding that AICHR is also focused on supporting the ASEAN Special Envoy on Myanmar and finding ways to reinforce the bloc’s Five-Point Consensus in addressing the crisis there.
On other developments, Bon said Malaysia has proposed that November 18 be designated as ASEAN Human Rights Day.
"I'm (Malaysia) suggesting, we haven't decided yet, the leaders haven't decided, but we suggested November 18 to be the ASEAN Human Rights Day," he said.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Representative to AICHR Nguyen Trung Thanh said ASEAN members should reinforce ASEAN as a family and progressive dynamic to move forward.
"ASEAN must be there for ASEAN. ASEAN-driven, ASEAN-centred, people-centred, driven by ASEAN, motivated by ASEAN and for the interests of ASEAN in a changing world," he added.
-- BERNAMA
