Parallel Battles for Burma and Asean’s Human Rights Commission

The Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) will meet in Rangoon starting this Sunday to finalize the draft of the long-awaited Asean Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). Held in a country that has for the past year made headlines in the international media for its reforms, this event might be seen by some as evidence of a “new” Asean and a “new” Burma. However, looking at it as an Asean citizen and a longtime activist for democracy and human rights in Burma, I see something entirely different.

While the AICHR will be discussing a human rights document that is supposed to protect our fundamental rights, I will be thinking of my Kachin brothers and sisters. For the past year, they’ve seen their villages burnt, fathers and brothers tortured or killed, and had mothers, sisters and daughters raped by Burma Army soldiers.

I will also be thinking of my colleagues still languishing in prisons for the simple reason that they decided to speak up for people’s rights and for a better Burma. There are still hundreds of them behind bars, forgotten by the international community.

That Burma is changing is hard to deny, but for activists, ethnic people or myself, Burma is still a long way from being a country where people’s human rights can be respected and protected […]

ASEAN Human Rights Declaration Cannot Move Forward Without Genuine Consultation of Civil Society

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) today called on ASEAN to delay the putting of its draft declaration on human rights before the foreign ministers of members states next month pending a fully inclusive, meaningful and transparent consultation of civil society and other stakeholders […]

High Commissioner For Human Rights Urges ASEAN to Set the Bar High with Its Regional Human Rights Declaration

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday offered her encouragement to ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in drafting a regional human rights declaration, but called for a meaningful consultation […]

The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration: Drafts must be published and subject to meaningful consultations with local, national and regional civil society and human rights defenders

We, the undersigned international human rights organizations, are concerned that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has yet to take the necessary steps to ensure that the process of drafting the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration […]

Total Reform Is Needed to Make AICHR Independent, Effective and Relevant to the ASEAN Peoples

The performance of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has been disappointing and wanting, epitomized by the lack of transparency, failure to consult with civil society organizations and no demonstrable progress in protecting and promoting human rights, according to a civil society assessment report on the performance of the AICHR for the period of October 2010 to December 2011 […]

AICHR’s Consultation on ASEAN Human Rights Declaration: Too Little Too Late

The ASEAN human rights Commission appears to plan a one-off, token “consultation” with civil society, and only after it will have finalized, most if not all, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration – this is outrageous and utterly unacceptable, said the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA TFAHR), a coalition of non-governmental organizations in Southeast Asia […]

Joint Statement on Calling AICHR to Release ASEAN Human Rights Declaration

We, the undersigned civil society organizations and networks from Southeast Asia, express our grave concern and disappointment over the continuing secrecy in the drafting process of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) […]

Cambodia vows to finalize ASEAN human rights declaration this year

Cambodia aims to finalize the drafting of an ASEAN Human Rights Declaration this year as it chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodian Human Rights Committee chairman Om Yin Tieng said.

“This is a big job and needs a lot of discussions. However, we are confident that we can finalize it by this year,” said Om Yin Tieng, who is also a senior minister and chair of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights in 2012 […]