Press Release

Indonesian Foreign Minister Accepts the ASEAN Civil Society’s Recommendations for AHRD

[Jakarta, June 29, 2012] - Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa welcomes and accepts all input points [of the twelve paragraphs] of civil society organizations from nine ASEAN countries and commits to bring these recommendations to the discussion of the Foreign Ministers in the 45^th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 8, 2012.

"Our commitment is to bring these recommendations to the AMM. We will include these concerns in our talking points. These recommendations are very valuable and highly thoughtful," said Marty Natalegawa in Nusantara Building II Department of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, (29/6). These recommendations are the result of the "2nd regional workshop on the AICHR to the 45th AMM, 28-29 June 2012" organized by the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).

Marty congratulates civil society organizations, who managed to produce such comprehensive and succinct recommendation. He responded every single recommendation. Point 5 is to be the main debatable to the Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Point 5 reads, "We call for ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) to release the draft of the Declaration to get further inputs from wider public. There must be inclusive civil society consultations both at national and regional level, especially in countries where such consultations were not yet conducted, before the Declaration to be signed by Head of States/Governments in November 2012 during the 21^st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.”

Yuyun Wahyuningrum, Senior Adviser on ASEAN and Human rights at HRWG urges Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a member of AMM to encourage AICHR to open the draft of AHRD. "Definitely AHRD needs legitimacy and credibility, which can be obtained from popular supports. But how people would support the Declaration if they don't know about it. Therefore, we call AMM to make AHRD open to public in a good time”.

Yuyun adds, “In the next week’s AMM, the Foreign Ministers should decide when is the good time for sharing the draft. Releasing the draft after November (after the 21^st Summit) is not a good time for us. The good time for us is right after July.

While applauding Natalegawa’s commitment to hold a regional consultation on AHRD similar with the one that was organized in Kuala Lumpur on 22 June 2012 in Indonesia Yuyun insists that without opening the draft, the consultation would be meaningless.

Members of Civil society who came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are hoping that ASEAN will set the bar higher in human rights through the drafting of AHRD. This Declaration should be more progressive than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration.

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Ms. Wahyuningrum (Yuyun) I E-mail: wahyuningrum@gmail.com I Contact Numbers: (62) 815 1054 3290 Or (62) 857 1750 1947 I Skype: wahyuningrum/ Facebook & Twitter: Yuyun Wahyuningrum

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