Coalition Slams
Secrecy in Human Rights Declaration's Drafting
Jakarta Globe
| June 13, 2012
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.