Your Excellencies, Foreign Ministers. 

I recently took up my second AICHR mandate at this critical time for human rights globally, as my Minister highlighted in his intervention. It is also a pivotal time for the work of AICHR as we approach 2025, which will end this work plan cycle and be the designated year to achieve our shared Community Vision. 

While I am impressed by the advances AICHR has made over the past 15 years, evident in numerous regional engagements, new human rights strategies, and countless promotional activities, significant internal challenges remain. I highlight three observations of concern.

First, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) 2012, drafted by AICHR and intended as a living document, remains underdeveloped 12 years later. We are still far from elaborating on the AHRD to set implementable human rights standards. For example, what does the inherent right to life under Article 11 truly entail? Human rights in the AHRD can only be realised if implementers understand them fully. AICHR Representatives, as ASEAN’s human rights experts, are best placed to provide this crucial guidance.

Second, the human rights principles, that ASEAN upholds and member states vow to protect, are under threat. We witness ongoing, severe, and persistent conflicts spilling over into the region, yet AICHR is unable to act effectively to protect those in need. A toothless AICHR cannot ensure accountability. We must continue efforts to enhance AICHR’s institutional strength by exploring new modalities that are both inclusive and aligned with ASEAN centrality to address regional human rights crises.

Third, to protect everyone’s rights and leave no one behind, we must ensure that all voices are heard. Groups in vulnerable situations, such as indigenous peoples, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers, cannot be sidelined. Significantly, they should not be marginalised because their messages are uncomfortable or they do not fit into a particular narrative to us.

In summary, AICHR can only become a force for change in ASEAN by meeting these internal challenges. I invite a rethink of how we can resolve these issues collectively.

AICHR must overcome its inhibitions and avoid self-imposed constraints. It should choose expansion over restriction, and progression over regression. Those who wish to advance human rights more rapidly should not be hamstrung.

I firmly believe that through ASEAN, we can redefine our world for the better. It is our shared responsibility to make AICHR a force for change.

Thank you.

This statement was delivered at the 14th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Interface with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Representatives in Vientiane, Laos on 24 July 2024. The press release on the interface can be accessed here, archived here. The statement by Dato’ Seri Utama Haji Mohamad bin Haji Hasan, Foreign Minister of Malaysia, can be accessed here; see also his Facebook page here, archived here.