1. The year 2021 marks the start of a new decade for ACWC, recently commemorating its 10th year of establishment in 2020. Ten (10) years ago, the ACWC was inaugurated on 7 April 2010 during the 16th ASEAN Summit in Ha Noi, Vietnam. Its establishment represented an important milestone in efforts to incorporate and institutionalise human rights into ASEAN’s agenda, particularly with respect to its approach to promoting and protecting therights of women and children as well as concrete action to introduce human rights language and principles in regional declarations and sectoral programmes.

2. The ACWC is a crucial ASEAN regional human rights mechanism because it is specifically mandated to “promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and children in ASEAN” that is based on the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It reaffirmed the necessity of closer regional cooperation among ASEAN Member States (AMS) in promoting and protecting the rights of women and children, especially the disadvantaged and those living in vulnerable situations. It has also made way for the strengthening of the ability of AMS to fulfill their obligations under CEDAW, CRC, and other international human rights treaties.