Third, the Asean Charter 2007 referred explicitly to human rights, democracy, the rule of law and good governance, as key principles of Asean and called for establishment of an Asean human rights body. In 2007, Asean adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Migrant Workers, followed by the Asean Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) in 2012. First, the region as a whole agrees to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights 1993 and the international human rights treaties to which Asean countries are parties. One of the outcomes of the 21st Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, was the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration by the ten member states. Second, all 10 countries have participated in the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and have opened the door to a wide array of recommendations from other states on the needed human rights improvements, even in regard to areas where they are not parties to the core human rights treaties.

Source: Bangkok Post July 17, 2016 22:18 UTC