PHNOM PENH DFA Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro, representing Secretary for Affairs Enrique A. Manalo, urged the ASEAN Foreign Ministers to immediately nominate their representatives to the Panel of Experts to review the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Terms of Reference (TOR) during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) Interface with AICHR in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 02 August 2022.
“AICHR must go beyond not just the promotion, but also the protection of human rights for all. This is a reality that the Panel of Experts to Review the AICHR TOR must look into in order to make AICHR more effective in the work it carries out,” said Undersecretary Lazaro during the Meeting.
Philippine Representative to the AICHR and Deputy Assistant Secretary Aileen Mendiola-Rau echoed the same call, saying that a review of the TOR is due in order to make the AICHR fit for purpose and effectively implement its mandate to promote and protect human rights, and address related issues confronting the region.
It can be recalled that during the 52nd AMM in July 2019, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers tasked the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) Leaders to convene the panel of experts to discuss the review of the AICHR TOR. To date, only Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines have nominated their representatives to the Panel of Experts.
Ambassador Rosario Manalo, who was the Special Envoy of the President to the ASEAN High-Level Panel on Drafting the AICHR TOR in 2008, is the current Representative of the Philippines to the Panel of Experts. She also served as the Philippine Representative to the AICHR for two consecutive terms, from 2010 to 2016.
Source: Republic of Philippines Department Of Foreign Affairs