Dialogue between ASEAN Foreign Ministers, AICHR held virtually
An annual dialogue between ASEAN Foreign Ministers and representatives of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) took place virtually on August 2 within the framework of the 54th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM-54).
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| Delegates at the dialogue. |
At the event, a representative of Brunei, the Chair of AICHR in 2021, informed participants of the commission’s operations in a one year time from July 2020 to July 2021.
The report underlined efforts made by the AICHR in responding to the adverse impacts of COVID-19 via the implementation of the Five Year Work Plan 2021-2025 and activities in the 2021 Priority Programmes.
In the year, the AICHR has stepped up cooperation in the areas of right to health, human rights in economic activities, humanitarian aid, environment and climate change, rights of the vulnerable groups like migrant workers, women and children in the context of COVID-19.
AICHR adopted eight initiatives and activities in the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF), under the scope of the commission, including the Priority Programme for 2022.
Ambassador Nguyen Thai Yen Huong, Viet Nam’s Representative at the AICHR, emphasised that the AICHRshould focus on meeting urgent, essential and fundamental demands of people like vaccine access, food security and clean water, along with education and employment, among others.
The ministers spoke highly of the AICHR’s efforts to ensure the efficiency and progress of tasks in the “new normal” and adjust activities to address new issues in human rights as the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks develops more complicatedly in the region.
They also called on the commission to bolster collaboration with ASEAN agencies and partners to integrate human rights in the implementation of the ACRF and other initiatives of ASEAN.
The AICHR was also urged to foster the effectiveness of tasks that promote and protect human rights in the region and focus on fields improving the quality of life and fundamental rights of people, especially those in the vulnerable and hardest-hit groups, thereby contributing to the building of a people-oriented, people-centred ASEAN Community.
(Source: VNA)
