ASEAN Approves Controversial Human Rights Declaration

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November 18, 2012

ASEAN Approves Controversial Human Rights Declaration

by Irwin Loy

Southeast Asian leaders have signed off on a controversial region-wide human rights declaration in what they say is a landmark moment.  But critics say the declaration is insufficient and will give countries an excuse to ignore, rather than protect, human rights.

Heads of state from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations hailed the agreement as a significant milestone for the region. In a ceremony on Sunday, leaders from the 10-member bloc etched their signatures on a region-wide Human Rights Declaration.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan had only praise for the accord when speaking with reporters afterwards.

“I think that is a major, major development... the leaders have just signed that into a declaration committing themselves, every government, every country, to the highest standards, existing and available. And this certainly can be used to monitor the practice, the protection, the promotion of human rights here in the ASEAN countries," he said.

However, many rights groups say the declaration will likely fall short of minimum standards, even though ASEAN leaders have touted recent additions highlighting the importance of existing international laws.

Of particular concern, critics say, are sections included in previous drafts that suggest rights will be considered in light of “regional and national contexts." The same passage remains in the final declaration released publicly late Sunday.

“You cannot have a national or regional exception," said Phil Robertson, who is with New York-based Human Rights Watch. "You cannot set out a wide range of instances, like public morality, when all these rights would not apply.  All they have done is they have put the loopholes up front and then they have tried to decorate around them.”

About five-dozen rights groups from across ASEAN have also signed statements criticizing the declaration.  Critics have also slammed the process behind drafting the declaration.  An ASEAN committee was formed to create initial drafts, but these were never released publicly, even during limited consultation sessions with civil society groups.

“So far, we are working on leaked drafts, or sometimes just rumors," said Mora Sar, who is with the ASEAN Grassroots Peoples’ Assembly. "If they signed it in this current form, we as civil society, we are really upset.”

Rights groups have tried to make human rights a pressing issue during these meetings, particularly ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated visit, which is scheduled to begin Monday following a stopover in Burma.  But it is likely that ongoing debates over territorial claims to the South China Sea, as well as discussions on the economy and potential new free-trade areas, will dominate upcoming summit meetings.

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http://www.voanews.com/content/asean-summit-opens-in-phnom-penh/1548305.html

Phil Robertson

Deputy Director, Asia Division

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NEWS RELEASE - “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration should maintain international standards,” urges key UN expert group

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true&LangID=E

“ASEAN Human Rights Declaration should maintain international standards,”
urges key UN expert group

GENEVA (16 November 2012) – The largest body of independent experts in the
United Nations Human Rights system today called on the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to ensure that international human rights
standards are maintained when they come to consider the adoption of the
ASEAN Human Rights Declaration this Sunday, 18 November.

“It is imperative that, as a minimum, ASEAN’s landmark human rights
instrument maintains international standards to complement the work of the
UN human rights system,” said Michel Forst, who currently chairs the
Coordination Committee set up by the independent experts designated by the
UN Human Rights Council to address specific country situations and thematic
issues in all parts of the world.

In an open letter* to ASEAN member States, the group of international
experts stressed the need to reaffirm in their Declaration the duty of
States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms
regardless of their particular political, economic and cultural systems -
one of the key principles of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action, adopted by 171 States in 1993 to forge a new vision for global
action for human rights into the next century.

“The raison d'être of regional human rights instruments is to establish
minimum standards that all domestic laws need to comply with, which may
involve the amendment of domestic laws if these violate human rights,” Mr.
Forst said. “The right to life, for example, is a fundamental right upon
which all other rights depend, and any credible human rights instrument
should unconditionally protect it without making it contingent on the
provisions of domestic law.”

“In relation to the right to life,” the Committee Chair warned, “provisions
such as ‘in accordance with national law’ could be used to shield States
against scrutiny by international human rights mechanisms concerning the
excessive use of force by law enforcement officers, state failure to
protect people against non-state actors and the continuation of the use of
the death penalty.”

The Human Rights Council independent experts also drew attention to
provisions in the draft ASEAN Declaration which seek to ‘balance’ rights
with individual duties. “This is not the wording of international human
rights law,” they pointed out. “Advocating a balance between human rights
and duties creates much greater scope for Governments to place arbitrary,
disproportionate and unnecessary restrictions on human rights.”

“With regard to legitimate restrictions, under certain conditions, on the
grounds of ‘morality,’ ‘public order’ and ‘national security,’” Mr. Forst
noted, “the Human Rights Council experts are acutely aware of the risk of
these terms being used as a pretext by Governments to place arbitrary,
disproportionate and unnecessary restrictions on human rights”.

“We strongly encourage the inclusion of language which makes explicit that
the restrictions must be provided by law and conform to the strict tests of
necessity and proportionality, and that these restrictions may not put in
jeopardy the right itself or apply to rights that are non-derogable under
international law,” he said.

The experts also called on ASEAN to consider in their declaration the
issues of statelessness, the right to seek and to enjoy asylum from
persecution in other countries, and the international customary law
principle of non-refoulement (to prevent persons from being returned to
countries where, for instance, they will be subjected to torture). “Again,
such provisions should not be contingent on domestic laws,” underscored Mr.
Forst.

“The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration should take its place as a landmark
document which contributes to an improvement in the human rights situation
in South-East Asia,” the Committee Chair said.  “To achieve this, we call
on all ASEAN member States to consult further with the people of the
region, including civil society organisations, and to take on board their
concerns and aspirations.”

“The independent experts of the Human Rights Council Special Procedures
stand ready to provide further advice to ASEAN in this historic task,” he
added.

(*) Read the Open Letter of the Coordination Committee of Special
Procedures on behalf of mandate holders of the UN Human Rights Council:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/SP/LetterASEAN_Nov2012.doc

ENDS

“Special procedures” is the general name of the independent fact-finding
and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address either
specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.
Currently, there are 36 thematic mandates and 12 mandates related to
countries and territories, with 72 mandate holders. The Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights provides these mechanisms with support for
the fulfilment of their mandates.

Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/index.htm

Thematic mandates:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/themes.htm

Country mandates:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/countries.htm

The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/vienna.htm

For further information and media requests, please contact Daniel Collinge
(+41 22 928 9173 /dcollinge@ohchr.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 /
xcelaya@ohchr.org)

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CWC on ASEAN Letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affair

Dear Your Excellency,

Warmest greetings from the Cambodian Women's Caucus on ASEAN.

On behalf of one hundred and seventy-six (176) representatives of several women groups, Cambodia Women Caucus (CWC) would like to submit you the Cambodia Women’s Statement which is the results of the Cambodia Women’s Forum (CWC) hold on 13th November 2012. And Also on behalf of the Southeast Asia Women Caucus we would like to submit you the statement of the ASEAN Women. Please kindly find submitting letter of the statement by Ms. Thida Khus, Focal Point for Cambodia Women Caucus (CWC) and Coordinating Committee Member of the Southeast Asia Women Caucus.

We strongly hope that you will consider the above and make us all proud.


Respectfully yours,

Cambodian Women Caucus is the civil society network that engages ASEAN to advance women’s human rights in Cambodian. We are extensive alliance of women organization in Cambodia, currently we have 31 partners, and we also the network of The Southeast Asia Women’s Caucus with over 55 partners in 11 countries. 

 Related Documents
 Formal Letter to AMM on submission the CWC and WC's Statement.pdf
 Cambodian Women Caucus Statement-Nov 2012 
 Women Caucus Statement-Nov 2012 

Public announcement on ACSC/APF 2012 Cambodia

Public Announcement

Phnom Penh, 12 November 2012

The Civil Society Committee of ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People Forum (ACSC/APF 2012) is deeply disturbed to announce the repeated actions by the Cambodian authorities to disturb the peaceful assembly of the people and civil society from the Cambodia and ASEAN region.

The ACSC/APF Committee is currently concerned as it planned activities have been forced to change twice already this week for the Second ACSC/APF on 14-16 November 2012.

The ACSC/APF Committee had booked two places in order to organize this event on the above date. However the planned and booked location was cancelled due to actions by Cambodian authorities. We are concerned the third time will be even more destructive and in violation of basic human right to assembly.

First, on the 10^th November 2012, a group of unidentified local authorities came to disturb the owner of the CEF, which is an independent church. Due to this action of intimidation, the church requested us to cancel the regional conference.

Second, on the 13^th November 2012, another group of unidentified local authorities came to talk with the owner of the new location (Modern Center 5). The owner immediately decided to cancel the contract with the ACSC/APF Committee once again. The owner claimed that he got instruction from the top authority.

These freedoms of assembly, association and expression are fully guaranteed by both the Cambodian Constitution and the Constitutions of other ASEAN member states as well as International Human Rights instruments.  We note that the initiative to organize ACSC/APF is in line with the aim of the ASEAN Charter, to promote “a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged to participate, and benefit from the process of ASEAN integration and community building” (Article 1.1.3).

We are now in an emergency Civil Society Committee to respond and guarantee public safety and security for the 500 participants from Cambodia and the ASEAN region, including international guests.

We regret this consistent pattern of abuse and intimidation at the hands of the authorities.  The Committee is still trying to approach the third location (which will be soon announced) tomorrow as we are still committed to organize. However, we are still worry that the government will intimidate our event again.  We reach out to global civil society and national NGOs to stand together in solidarity for the basic fundamental freedoms in Cambodia. The purpose of our conference is to bring the voices and concerns of the civil society and people of ASEAN to the ASEAN heads of state and world leaders during the 21^st ASEAN Summit. This goal can’t be reached if the authorities continue to escalate and prevent this civil society conference.

The Committee had done its due diligence to positively inform and involve the municipality and national government officials leading up to the conference. The Committee had submitted subsequent notification letters to both Phnom Penh Municipality and Ministry of Interior about this event. We had approached many senior government officials including the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the Council of Ministers. However, there was no positive response from them, neglecting the notification and invitation letters from the ACSC/APF Committee.

For more information, please contact with:

Mr. Sok Sam Oeun, National Steering Committee/ Executive Director of CDP

Tel: +855 12 901 199             Email:samoeunsok@googlemail.com

Ms. Yuyun Wahyuningrum, Steering Committee/Senior Advisor on ASEAN and Human Rights, HRWG, Indonesia,

Tel: +855 15 760 083,            E-mail:wahyuningrum@gmail.com

Mr. Kuol Panha, Drafting Committee/ Executive Director of COMFREL

Tel: +855 12 942 014             Email: kpanha@online.com.kh

Ms. Chalida Tajaroensuk, Steering Committee/ Director of People’s Empowerment Foundation, Thailand

Email: chalida.empowerment@gmail.com 

The Nations: Reform or Become Irrelevant

Originally :  The Nation

Date: August6, 2012 1:00 am,

Shared by: ASEANcats@googlegroups On Behalf Of Yuyun
Subject: [ASEANcats] Kavi Chongkittavorn: ASEAN At 45, Reform Or Become Irrelevant

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong

On Wednesday ASEAN will be 45 years old. Even at this juncture, the earlier words of warnings from a founding father still ring loud inside the ear drums. "If ASEAN does not hang together, they shall be hung separately," stated S. Rajaratnam, former Singapore foreign minister on the reason why the grouping must stick together at the earlier hours after the establishment of ASEAN in 1967.

At this juncture, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong is still communicating with his ASEAN colleagues to work out an alternative document that would contain the decisions of the failed joint communiqué. Somehow, mutual trust has been lost among them which urgent needs to be restored. Up until the weekend, they have only agreed on a list of key action oriented outcomes. The problem is, the list, which is till need a consensus still does not contain the controversial South China Sea dispute. Within diplomatic circuits in ASEAN, in the past weeks stories of how Hor Nam Hong snubbed the joint efforts by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegala and Singaporean Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam at the last minute to save the draft were wide-spread.

Some ASEAN countries are very concerned that the South China Sea is overshadowing all other issues in ASEAN. If this disagreement continues it could spoil the upcoming series of summits scheduled in the third week of November as well as other future plans. Followed Indonesian President Bamban Susilo Yudhoyono and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's personal appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has recently written to him the other day with a strong message that ASEAN must not let the South China Sea dispute affect the building of ASEAN Community. Shamefully absence from all these endeavors is Thailand, the current coordinating country of ASEAN-China relations. However, Hun Sen responded unwittingly by referring to the letter dated 26 July dispatched by Hor Nam Hongto his colleagues about the chair's effort to come up with an internal document that detailed the decisions made in the July meeting that failed to mention the dispute.

In case ASEAN is unable to come up with a new document in the next 48 hours, it could represent the darkest chapter of its history. Most importantly, it will reflect badly on the chair as Cambodia earlier pushed to highlight the grouping success in the past 45 years under its chair. The Phnom Penh Declaration was issued to that effect, which is now proved hallow.

There have been some informal discussions among officials and academics about the need to come up with the rule of procedure to guide a rotating chair in the future. At the moment, there are no clear rules concerning the ASEAN chair and its relations with other ASEAN organs and how the ASEAN Secretary General and its staff can be of assistance. The ASEAN foreign ministers took things for granted that they would be able to form a consensus on any issue, albeit disagreements, as in the past four decades. But the Phnom Penh incident changed all that.

More importantly, there must be a review of the position of Secretary General and the Secretariat for the benefit of coordination and cross-sectoral cooperation. Indeed, the disagreements among the ASEAN members over the maritime's dispute have rendered urgency to the various recommendations submitted last year by Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan. In his special report concerning challenges facing the ASEAN and its secretariat to the Indonesia, which chaired ASEAN last year, he urged the ASEAN leaders to spell out clearly various roles and duties of each ASEAN organ and how they relate to each other.

After the ASEAN Charter came into effect in 2008, new organs were created to help the member countries to adhere to numerous ASEAN agreements and commitments. These were the ASEAN Coordinating Council, ASEAN Political-Security Council, ASEAN Economic Community Council, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Council, the Committee of Permanent Representatives, et al. At the same time, the position of Secretary General of ASEAN has been conferred as the Chief Administrative Officer of ASEAN with a ministerial rank. Surin was the first the ASEAN head with a ministerial rank before serving in the secretariat. That helps explain why Surin's successor, Le Luong Minh from Vietnam is a vice foreign minister.

Soon the ASEAN leaders will have to decide whether the ASEAN Charter needed to be reviewed in order to improve the efficiency of decision making within the organization. Followed the charter's coming into forces, member countries adopted a list of supplementary agreements, which continues until today. As long as these negotiations are not complete, the flow of operations at various levels within ASEAN will not be smooth. The lack of clarity on the roles and relationships among the various organs within ASEAN has caused serious structural problems in running day-to-day activities.

Here are some important questions that the ASEAN leaders must be addressed. Is the Secretary General of ASEAN the only ASEAN representative with ministerial rank? Given his/her wider access to summits and ministerial meetings including G20 and other global for a, is the Secretary General distinctive from other foreign ministers or sectorial ministers in ASEAN? If so, what short of value do the ASEAN governments attach to the unique perspective of ASEAN articulated by the Secretary General?

It is an open secret that Dr. Surin has tried consistently to raise these pertinent issues in the past two years to pave the way for a more efficient secretariat in the future. Indonesia and Thailand have been supportive of his endeavors. Deep down, other more conservative members want continued ambiguities to reign because whenever there are controversies, the ASEAN leaders or ministers will have the final say. Even though ASEAN is more integrated than before, there is no plan to allow the ASEAN chief to speak on their behalf. As such, new and existing programs and activities could come to a halt if their decisions are not put into official records such as the case in Phnom Penh.

As a rule based organization, ASEAN needs to review the charter and undertake further bold reform efforts. Brunei, the ASEAN chair next year, must seize the initiative now. Surin's recommendations should also be given a full support as he knows firsthand about the organization's potentials and pitfalls from the five-year experience. Without these reforms, ASEAN will be plagued with growing national interests depleting the common ASEAN interests which will further weakening ASEAN as a whole.

Press Release Strike out “public morality” from the AHRD draft, SEA women urge AICHR Erturk, CEDAW experts ask AICHR to integrate women's human rights

MEDIA RELEASE
16 July 2012, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact details:
Cambodia: Thida Khus, thida_khus@silaka.org, +85512838464
Indonesia: Rena Herdiyani, rena_herdiyani@yahoo.com, +628129820147
Thailand/ Secretariat: Nina Somera, nina@apwld.org, +66811621073 (for interviews with resource persons)

Strike out “public morality” from the AHRD draft, SEA women urge AICHR
Erturk, CEDAW experts ask AICHR to integrate women's human rights  

A coalition of women’s organizations and networks in Southeast Asia asks for the deletion of “public morality” in the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD).

“Morality is very subjective, that it has often been used to curtail even the basic human rights of women and girls. On many occasions, morality is defined based on the dominant political and religious groups as well as dominant cultures that are harmful to women and girls,” Rena Herdiyani, a member of the Southeast Asia Women’s Caucus on ASEAN and Kalyanamitra in Indonesia. 

Based on the consultation that ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) with selected civil society organizations, it appears that “public morality” is still being considered as a limitation of human rights. Although the term is mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), “public morality” has never been defined in international human rights standards.

In its recent submission to AICHR, the Women’s Caucus explained, “‘Morality’ can also render certain gender identities transgressive, especially for sexual minorities. It can also deflect attention from seeing sexual violence, for example as a crime against person, rather than honor.” The submission is available in http://womenscaucusonasean.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/addendum-final.pdf

“The AHRD must go beyond the UDHR and add value to existing international human rights standards. ASEAN must set the bar higher for the AHRD, drawing from its own experience of human rights violations,” Thida Khus of Silaka, a women’s network in Cambodia pointed out.

Internationally known feminist human rights and legal experts such as United Nations former Special Rapporteur Yakin Erturk, one of the first drafters of CEDAW Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani (Philippines), past and present CEDAW Committee members Sjamsiah Ahmad (Indonesia), hanthi Dairiam (Malaysia), Saisuree Chutikul (Thailand), Anama Tan (Singapore), Heisoo Chin (South Korea) and Milena Pires (Timor Leste) earlier asked AICHR to take into account the gains made by women’s movements.

In a statement, they said, “The AHRD must not shy away from the important gains and struggles of women’s movements around discrimination, the rights to bodily integrity, sexual and reproductive health and rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, rights in marriage and family life and freedom of movement and citizenship, especially in a region that is marked by migration, whose dangerous consequences and difficult circumstances have been borne by women and girls.” The statement which is also getting the support of more than 300 individuals and organizations can be found here: http://www.change.org/petitions/asean-intergovernmental-commission-on-human-rights-aichr-women-s-human-rights-are-asean-women-s-human-rights
“As an ASEAN woman, I cannot stand apathetic without supporting the plight of fellow [ASEAN] women,” said Ofelia Sy from Philippines, one of the 379 signatories. Meanwhile, Sachumi Mayoe, Thailand asserted, “We are women, we are sex workers and we are part of the ASEAN community. We want to participate in the development of ASEAN women's human rights for all women of ASEAN.”

The tightly-guarded AHRD draft is now with the ASEAN foreign ministers for review. Despite calls for the public release of the draft and a series of public consultations, AICHR expects the draft to be approved by November 2012 in time for the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

Joint Statement from CSO on the AHRD Process

MEDIA RELEASE

“Cambodian Civil Society’s View towards the Drafting Process of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” Phnom Penh, July 06, 2012

Contact details:
SILAKA: Thida Khus, thida_khus@silaka.org, +85512838464

We, the Cambodian Civil Society Organizations, who have closely monitored the development of the drafting process of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD), urge the ASEAN members to develop an AHRD that meets international human rights stands. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), under the ASEAN Charter and its Terms of Reference (ToR), is mandated to draft an AHRD that is then to be reviewed by ASEAN Foreign Ministers and to be adopted by ASEAN Heads of States and Governments, scheduled on the 21st Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

We welcomed the opportunity to have been consulted by Cambodia’s AICHR Representative on the 3rd of July 2012. However, we were at a loss due to the fact that the current draft version of the AHRD was not made publicly available for a meaningful dialogue. Numerous national NGOs were not present due to the complicated registration procedure and given the short notice, which unfortunately left their comments unnoticed. In the mean time, at least four other countries in ASEAN have not yet conducted any consultations with their constituencies, while five countries had publicly provided consultations. It is unfortunate that in the absence of the draft AHRD, which will be the first and most important human rights document in the Southeast Asian Region once adopted, only the NGOs attending the consultation meeting were able to give their inputs on what we would like to have in the draft document.

The CSOs believe that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, interrelated and of equal importance. Thus, we would like to convey our aspirations of the Cambodia’s CSOs for AICHR and ASEAN leaders to (a) adopt whole articles in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), (b) add value to the existing human rights standards, and (c) address the current issues in human rights in order to safeguard the economic, political and security impact of the rights of ASEAN people. With that in mind we strongly support the declaration and assurance of AICHR chair that the final declaration should not fall below the internationally accepted UDHR, the Vienna Convention and Programme of Actions and other International human rights instruments. We also insist that, to guarantee the rights of the ASEAN people, the member states of ASEAN must have the obligations and duty to promote, to protect and to fulfil hum rights, free from any form of violation by Official State Agencies and or any third party. We uphold the view that is is important to open more space for vibrant civil society engagement and cooperation, and should therefore be included into the AHRD.

Cambodia, as the chair of ASEAN this year, has ratified many international human rights treaties as clearly indicated in its 1993 Constitution. Its commitment to promoting and respecting human rights through the signing and ratification of these international human rights treaties is very much appreciated. Therefore, the prominent role as the Chair of ASEAN for Cambodia is very significant to bring together common voices of the ASEAN people and to persuade the other member states to adopt an AHRD that is internationally acceptable for our ASEAN region.

The Cambodian Government and Cambodia’s AICHR Representative should:

• Not accept any AHRD that falls below the UDHR and other International Human Rights Standards or treaties;

• Ensure that the process of drafting AHRD before its adoption is more inclusive and transparent with the participation of all relevant stakeholders;

• Make sure that this Declaration follows and adopts the key principles and articles in the UDHR;

• Encourage other state members to conduct meaningful consultations at their national level with their constituencies, in particular by those AICHR representatives that have not yet done so;

• Continue wide-range and inclusive consultations, at both national and regional levels, in order to discuss the latest drafts of the AHRD. AICHR, particularly the Cambodia’s AICHR Representative acting as Chair, should seriously consider submissions from CSOs, national human rights institutes and other stakeholders, and provide them with feedback;

• Translate drafts of the AHRD into national languages and other local languages of the ASEAN countries in order to encourage broader public engagement in the region;

To ASEAN leaders:

• In the upcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting, ASEAN Foreign Ministers should not finalize the draft AHRD to AICHR for enabling more consultations as openly as possible, with the latest draft version of AHRD to be openly disclosed at least 2 months before the ASEAN 21st Summit ;

• The ASEAN Heads of States and of Governments should make sure that the AHRD is made in accordance with the UDHR standards, the Convention on the Elimination of all Form of Discrimination to Women, CEDAW, and the Convention of the Rights of the Child, Labor rights standards and includes more value-added, which will be a human rights document that promotes and protects the rights of the 600 million ASEAN people as proclaimed in the ASEAN Charter.

This Press Release is endorsed by Cambodian Civil Society Organizations:

1. Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP)

2. Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC)

3. Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)

4. Cambodian Labor Confederation (CLC)

5. Cambodian Volunteers for Society (CVS)

6. Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL)

7. Committee to Promote Women Participation in Politics (CPWP)?

8. Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM-Cambodia)

9. Khmer Youth Association (KYA)

10. Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC)

11. People Center for Development and Peace (PDP-Center)

12. SILAKA

13. Star Kampuchea

14. Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)