Yesterday, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) held the “Consultation on the Realisation of the Right to Development to Enhance the ASEAN Community” at the ASEAN Secretariat. The right to development is guaranteed by Article 35 to 37 in the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD).
The two-day event was attended by more than 90 participants from AICHR, ASEAN sectoral bodies, civil society organisations, universities, national human rights institutions and the ASEAN Secretariat.
In his opening remarks, the Director-General for ASEAN Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Jose A. Tavares, underlined the importance of including the values and principles of the right to development in implementing activities related to the ASEAN community building.
Meanwhile, the Representative of Indonesia to the AICHR, Yuyun Wahyuningrum, emphasised that the right to development as stated in the AHRD focuses on human person as the central subject of the development in the region. Along this line, she encourages ASEAN Member States to adopt a meaningful people-oriented and gender responsive development programme in their poverty alleviation measures.
On his part, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, Saad Alfaragi, highlighted that the right to development consists of a holistic process which requires proper implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation. He also stressed the need of multi-stakeholder cooperation towards the implementation of right to development.
During the two-day consultation, participants discussed the impacts of globalization to the right to development in ASEAN, the link between SDGs and the right to development, addressing inequality through sharing of practices of the ASEAN member states, gender perspective of the right to development and the existing practices in the ASEAN Member States to respond to gaps, grievances and remedies on issues concerning the right to development.
The consultation was hosted by AICHR Indonesia in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia and National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM) with support from Heinrich-Bolls Stiftung, ICCO and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR).
