Civil society groups launched their own version of the Rules of
Procedure (RoP) for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on 22 March 2010.
Please read below for documents relating to the proposal for a RoP that
is effective to deal with human rights violations.
Civil society groups launched their own version of the Rules of Procedure (RoP) for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on 22 March 2010. Please read below for documents relating to the proposal for a RoP that is effective to deal with human rights violations.

The Solidarity for Asian Peoples' Advocacies Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA TF-AHR) called on the AICHR to adopt a set of rules that will ensure its own independence and effectiveness in dealing with human rights protection and promotion in the region.

The RoP is expected to be discussed in the first official meeting of the AICHR from 28 March – 1 April 2010 at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. The RoP will define how the AICHR will carry out its duties and implement the mandates agreed by the member states of ASEAN as concluded in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of AICHR from July 2009.

"We have put in a request on March 9 to the Chair of AICHR to have a dialogue with civil society on the RoP during their first meeting in the end of March. However, we have yet to receive a reply confirmationing such a dialogue from the Chair. We hope the reply will come in soon this week," said Yap Swee Seng, the Co-Convenor of SAPA TF-AHR and also the Executive Director of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.

To read the rest of the statement, please click here. The rules of Procedures of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights submitted by SAPA Task Force on ASEAN Human Rights on 17 March 2010 and EXECUTIVE SUMMARY can be downloaded by clicking on the links.