Mizzima News

Hua Hin – In a blatant instance of obduracy of some of the Asean  members, representatives of Burmese and Cambodian civil societies on Saturday were barred from joining the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders.

Rights activists said, officials of Burma and Cambodia on Saturday objected to civil society representatives attending from their countries threatening they would abstain from the meeting if they attended the meet.

Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Alternative Asean Network on Burma said that she was disappointed that two civilian representatives were stopped from meeting the Asean leaders at the Media Centre of the 14th Asean Summit.

She argued that Asean should have allowed the participation of representatives of civil organizations if Asean desires to be a real regional community.

Besides Burma, Lao PDR and Brunei civil organization representatives were also barred from attending the meeting in order to avoid a confrontation with officials from their countries.

Soe Aung, member of the Burmese civilian organization - Network for Democracy and Development – said Asean’s proposed human rights body and the ASEAN Charter that it’s ‘Terms of Reference drafting Process’ still lacks participation of the civil society.

Meanwhile, Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Thailand to the United Nations Offices, Chairman of the High-Level Panel on an ASEAN Human Rights Body (HLP) informed the ASEAN Foreign Ministers of the progress of the HLP in drafting the terms of reference (TOR) for an ASEAN human rights body.

He said this work is still in progress and that a final decision on the TOR depended on the ASEAN Foreign Ministers.

“The establishment of an ASEAN human rights body (AHRB) would be based on three main principles,” Sihasak said.

Sihasak said the AHRB will realistically take into account the actual situation in ASEAN, establish a credible AHRB through consistency with internationally accepted human rights standards and norms, and make the AHRB an evolutionary process to be continually strengthened in the future.

The HLP Chairman said the body would comprise representatives from each of the 10 ASEAN member countries, and the need for sufficient funding. But the official name of the AHRB, however, remained undecided.

Sihasak emphasized that the establishment of the AHRB would be an important step and would lay-down the ground rule for further development on the promotion and protection of human rights in ASEAN.

On Saturday, ASEAN leaders had an informal meeting with ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly representatives, ASEAN youth representatives and ASEAN Civil Society representatives, which is part of the Asean’s goal to include public participation and public hearing.