The Southeast Asian region must stand together on World Humanitarian Day
to face the innumerable challenges that threaten humankind, Asean noted on
Monday.
Asean Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan said the humanitarian community face daunting challenges and complex
human tragedies each year.
Both human and natural disasters
threaten the well-being and lives of millions of people, he said.
“Human suffering steadily increases
as typhoons, earthquakes, and other environmental hazards destroy entire
communities and claim lives. Whole populations continue to be displaced and
threatened as a result of human conflicts,” Surin said in a statement.
Citing a recent example, he said
that the Philippines had just been drenched by relentless rains from the
monsoon, flooding entire cities and towns in Central Luzon and Metro Manila a
few weeks ago.
Besides natural disasters, the
region suffers from the ravages of human conflict, resulting in thousands of
displacements across the region, he added.
“In the face of such challenges,
Asean believes in the humanitarian imperative. Indeed we should all embrace the
spirit of helping, not only as a matter of policy but also as normal practice
and our guiding ethos,” he said in the statement released this weekend.
The spirit of helping is also
inspired in the Asean Charter spirit that suggests “one caring and sharing
community,” he said, promoting a "people-oriented Asean" and
"upholding international humanitarian law.”
“We have also been proactive in
fostering regional cooperation and building capacity to deal with various kinds
of natural and human-induced disasters. In December 2009, the Asean Agreement
on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) entered into force. We
went two steps further: first by producing a Work Program in 2010 as a set of
actionable steps for the realization of the regional treaty, and second by
establishing the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA
Centre) in 2011 as the operational engine of AADMER,” he said.
Asean’s capacity for humanitarian
response was tested at the height of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May
2008, causing140,000 deaths.
In 2009, the Asean Leaders
assigned Surin as the humanitarian
assistance coordinator for both natural disasters and pandemics, reaffirming
Asean’s priority in humanitarian efforts in the region.
Mizzima News
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