GENEVA (16 November 2012) – The largest body of independent experts in the United Nations Human Rights system today called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to ensure that international human rights standards are maintained when they come to consider the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration this Sunday, 18 November.
“It is imperative that, as a minimum, ASEAN’s landmark human rights instrument maintains international standards to complement the work of the UN human rights system,” said Michel Forst, who currently chairs the Coordination Committee set up by the independent experts designated by the UN Human Rights Council to address specific country situations and thematic issues in all parts of the world.
In an open letter* to ASEAN member States, the group of international experts stressed the need to reaffirm in their Declaration the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms regardless of their particular political, economic and cultural systems – one of the key principles of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by 171 States in 1993 to forge a new vision for global action for human rights into the next century.
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