Rights groups accuse AICHR of lacking transparency

Human rights groups have expressed concerns over the drafting process of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) led by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), accusing it of lacking transparency and ignoring activists’ voices.

Yuyun Wahyuningrum of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), an umbrella organization for dozens of Indonesia’s human rights NGOs, said that the AICHR had refused activists’ requests to share the latest draft of the AHRD.

“Their lack of transparency leads us to be suspicious, what points are actually in the draft? They should have involved civil society and discussed the draft with human rights groups,” Yuyun said in a discussion with The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

“It is a pity that they have blocked access to information relating to the draft of the AHRD which is so important and which will affect millions of people in the Southeast Asia region,” she added.

According to Yuyun, the AICHR has finalized the AHRD draft and was set to deliver it at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 8.

After ASEAN foreign ministers give their endorsements to the AHRD draft, Southeast Asian state leaders are expected to sign the AHRD at the ASEAN Summit on November in Phnom Penh.

Yuyun said that she had heard that there were tensions in the drafting process after state representatives in the AICHR focused more on protecting their own states’ interests.

“Some countries may have seen the AHRD as threatening. Vietnam, for example, may think that the declaration could work in the interests of the West and threaten communism which it adopts,” Yuyun said.

She said she had also heard that the point about forced disappearance was ruled out in the final draft. “Malaysia has its Internal Security Acts [ISA] which provide legal basis to authorities to arrest those considered a danger to national security without trials. Singapore, as well as Brunei Darussalam, also have their own forms of ISAs,” Yuyun said, alleging that those countries might have been against the inclusion of forced disappearance in the AHRD.

Another point that activists have been afraid would not be included in the declaration is protection of migrant workers. “Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei also have great interests in this issue,” she added.

Dipetik dari - The Jakarta Post