KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman has lauded the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights’s (AICHR) efforts in promoting and protecting human rights in the region.
“I would like to congratulate the chairman, Leo Herrera-Lim for his able and visionary leadership.
“I applaud AICHR in its more active engagement with civil society organisations,” he said in a statement on the 50th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (50th AMM) and Related Meetings held in Manila, the Philippines.
He described the Asean Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) as "one of the most important documents of our time", and said further discussions within the AICHR relating to a more robust implementation of the AHRD is required.
“I would like to call on the AICHR to prioritise its work to achieve a common baseline on how the rights in the AHRD are to be defined and interpreted.
“In the upcoming phase to further develop Asean's human rights cooperation model through the AICHR, publishing an interpretative guide on the AHRD would be extremely useful for policymakers, government agencies and judicial authorities."
He added that the human right to peace is not merely the absence of conflict – armed or otherwise, while positive peace is linked to the elimination of all types of violence – whether direct, political, structural, economical or cultural in both public and private sectors.
“To achieve positive peace, it is crucial to increase economic, social and cultural justice for all within and across societies.
“In turn, the economic, social and cultural development of the Asean peoples, and the effective respect of all human rights, must be at the core of the AICHR’s mandate.
“Only if we embrace and act on these principles will Asean set at naught reasons for, and incitement and acts of, extremism and terrorism, thus sustaining a lasting peace."
Anifah also called on the AICHR as a collective to increase its capacity to better meet and manage the region’s human rights challenges.
“To constructively transform the human rights landscape, Asean looks to the AICHR to explore a new modality or procedure – that is both inclusive and in line with Asean’s centrality – to deal with regional human rights issues that will continue to arise.
“Common approaches to these issues must be sought and obtained. For greater impact, this is a task that the AICHR could integrate in its regular work,” he said.
In noting the contents of the AICHR’s Annual Report 2017, Anifah said Malaysia hopes that it will be disseminated for public consumption and information in the spirit of awareness-raising.
He added that Malaysia reiterates its support to explore the review of the AICHR’s Terms of Reference to update and improve the same.
“In closing, I would like to call on the AICHR to persistently strive in meeting its full potential to both promote and protect human rights – effectively – to the benefit of the Asean peoples,” he said.