MARUAH Singapore

From 25 April to 1 May 2009

COMMUNICATIONS from 22 to 28 April 2009

• 14 communications (10 Urgent Appeals and 4 Allegation Letters) sent to 12 countries
• 11 joint communications
• Of 14 individual cases, 4 concerned women

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Please see below for a press release from the Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo on the ASEAN Human Rights Body.

ASEAN People Deserves Full Human Rights—Romulo

April 8, 2009 by DFA-PISU

PR-169-09, 08 April 2009—Foreign Secretary Alberto G. Romulo called on the member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to hasten the creation of an effective and credible ASEAN human rights body to fully protect and promote individual and collective freedoms in the region.
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WORKING GROUP FOR AN ASEAN HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISM

A SUBMISSION ON THE OCCASION OF THE DIALOGUE WITH THE HIGH LEVEL PANEL ON AN ASEAN HUMAN RIGHTS BODY
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20 March 2009

1. The Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (Working Group) reiterates its request for the draft of the terms of reference (TOR) of an ASEAN human rights body to be made public in order to facilitate a more meaningful dialogue among the relevant stakeholders of a rules-based ASEAN. This is also in line with the purpose of ASEAN to promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged to “participate in, and benefit from, the process of ASEAN integration and community-building.” Surely, a more open dialogue and discussion of the draft of the TOR will also contribute “to strengthening democracy, enhancing good governance and the rule of law, and to promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, with due regard to the rights and responsibilities of the Member States of ASEAN.”
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See below for the written reply by Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo to Mr Siew Kum Hong’s parliamentary question on Singapore’s position on the ASEAN Human Rights Body.

ORDER PAPER NO 73 OF 2009
QUESTION FOR ORAL ANSWER
(for the Sitting on 23 March 2009)

ASEAN HUMAN RIGHTS BODY
(Singapore’s Position)

*25. Mr Siew Kum Hong:
To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs (a) what is Singapore’s position on the draft terms of reference for the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Body; and (b) what is the progress of the work of the High Level Panel.

Mr George Yong-Boon Yeo:
I thank Mr Siew Kum Hong for his interest in the ASEAN human rights body. This is an important subject. Let me emphasise that Singapore is firmly committed to the establishment of an ASEAN human rights body.
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You may apply to join here.

The Singapore Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (MARUAH) is pleased to invite you to a public consultation on the draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Body (AHRB).

This dialogue aims to highlight the latest developments, and to elicit comments from you, so that they can be considered for the second consultation with the High Level Panel meeting with civil society groups to be held at Kuala Lumpur in 20 March 2009.

We have a rare opportunity to influence this process, so please do come and tell us what you think of the proposed AHRB and the TOR process.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Date: 11 March 2009
Time: 4pm
Venue:
Asia-Europe Foundation (www.asef.org)
31 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Singapore 119595

Programme
4:00 – 4:05 Welcome
4:05 – 4:20 “The Road to an AHRB” by Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, former ASEAN Secretary-General
4:20 – 4:35 “Human Rights in ASEAN” by Ambassador Rodolfo C. Severino, Head, ASEAN Studies Centre, Institute of South East Asian Studies (ISEAS)
4:35 – 5:00 “The AHRB’s Terms of Reference” by Ms Braema Mathi, Singapore Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism (MARUAH)
5:00 – 6:30 Open Discussion, moderated by Dr Cherian George

**To register, please email maruahsg@gmail.com with your name and contact details**

The Power of a Declaration
Making human rights real.
Amartya Sen, The New Republic Published: Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Nineteen forty-eight may have begun as an unsettling year, with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in January, but it ended on a positive note, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December. There was a reasoned vision of lasting importance underlying the declaration; it was momentous in its time, and it remains important today. Invoking human rights has become a major way of challenging inequities and oppression in the contemporary world, and in this development the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the fledgling United Nations sixty years ago, swayed not least by the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, has played an indisputably significant and astonishingly constructive role.
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MARUAH has, together with over 90 organisations, endorsed a statement on the treatment of Rohingya and Bangladeshi ‘Boat People’. Read the rest of this entry »