Thursday, 15 November 2012
Phnom Penh, Cambodia — Today, 65 grassroots, national, regional, and international civil society groups are calling upon ASEAN Member States to postpone the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, which is not worthy of its name.
The organizations vow to reject the Declaration if it is adopted with its current text. Instead, they urge ASEAN Member States to send the draft back to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) with instruction to revise it so that it accords with international human rights law.
The Declaration as it stands now unquestionably fails to meet existing international human rights standards, let alone add value to them. It flies in the face of the international consensus on human rights principles that have been in place for more than six decades. Of utmost concern are specific provisions in the Declaration’s General Principles, which tear at the heart of long accepted human rights precepts. Under these provisions, the enjoyment of the rights provided in the Declaration is to be “balanced with the performance of duties” (GP 6), subjected to “national and regional contexts” and to considerations of “different cultural, religious and historical backgrounds” (GP 7). Moreover, all of the rights provided in the Declaration would be subject to restriction on a wide array of grounds including “national security” and “public morality” (GP 8).
