A coalition of Indonesian human rights group
has expressed concern that the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human
Rights has been preparing an important rights declaration in secrecy, without
consulting any of the stakeholders.
Yuyun Wahyuningrum,
a senior adviser on human rights and Asean from the Human Rights Working Group,
said that the AICHR was currently working on the Asean Human Rights Declaration
that was scheduled to be presented to foreign ministers of the regional
grouping in July.
The
draft is expected to be signed by the Asean leaders during a regional summit in
November.
“The
AICHR has really been secretive in dealing with a document that will impact the
lives of the 580 million people who live in Asean,” Yuyun told the Jakarta
Globe on Sunday.
She
said that since July 21 when the first meeting of the drafting group was held,
there had not been any consultations with stakeholders, including civil society
representatives, victims of human rights violations or others.
“There
are grounds for suspicion and worries about the process,” Yuyun said, adding
that so far the AICHR had also never made any draft of the declaration public
or even available to the stakeholders.
She
said that the people of the 10 member states of Asean — Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam — deserved to know about the contents of such a key document that would
affect their lives.
“The
secretive nature of the process has also left many people in the region unaware
that such a human rights declaration is even being discussed and prepared,”
Yuyun said.
The
AICHR is a human rights body established by the Association of Southeast Asian
Nation in 2009 during the groups’ summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, and acts as a
consultative body responsible for advancing and protecting human rights in the
region.
Thailand
and Indonesia are the only two countries not represented by government appointees,
but rather by members elected by local rights groups.
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