ASEAN can no longer sidestep its rights obligations
In 2007, the 10 members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations celebrated the adoption of the Asean Charter that for the first time in the region’s history includes human rights as one of its principles and objectives. The charter seeks to implement a human rights agenda through a human rights body that was finally set up in 2009 with the title Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). The AICHR, according to its terms of reference (TOR), has a principal document that sets out its details and governs its work, and has a key purpose to “promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of the peoples of Asean”.
