See also:
| Our mission | Our approach | The committee |
MARUAH (Singapore Working Committee for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism) is a group of individuals who have made a commitment to this process of facilitating for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism. We believe that such a process will be good for the region and for Singapore. We come from all backgrounds − professionals, students, homemakers, academics, activists, lawyers, doctors, writers − to give our best shot to make some difference on the ground and at policy-level. We coalesced into a group on September 14th and have been growing ever since − gaining clarity in our mission, in the tasks ahead and in our commitment.
MARUAH means Dignity in Malay, Singapore’s national language. We are keen to impress that Human Rights is all about maintaining, restoring and reclaiming one’s dignity at the individual, regional and international level. MARUAH also lends itself conveniently to let you know what work we do – Singapore Working Committee For an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism
This group, MARUAH, is the current Singapore focal point for the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, a regional group with its secretariat based in Manila. The regional Working Group has national representatives from all of the founding Member States of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The regional Working Group has been advocating the creation of an ASEAN human rights mechanism with the ASEAN Heads of State and the ASEAN Secretariat since the 1990s.
An immediate task facing MARUAH is to transition from being an interim committee to a fullfledged National Working Group in due course so as to formally establish a Singapore presence at regional discussions, while we continue to advocate locally. This interim group appreciates and acknowledges the work currently and previously done by others, and looks forward to dialogues with all groups as we continue with our mission.
