ASEAN overcomes resistance, will set up regional human rights commission (9:16 p.m.)
MANILA — Southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed Monday to set up a regional human rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from military-ruled Myanmar.
A charter being drafted for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will include a provision mandating creation of the human rights body, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.
A diplomat involved in negotiations on the issue said lower-level officials finished a draft of the charter on Sunday with a reference that Myanmar did not accept the commission, leaving it to foreign ministers to resolve the issue at their annual meeting Monday.
“We have agreed that there will be a human rights body,” Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said after the ministers met for four hours to discuss the draft. “There was a consensus.”
A draft of the charter seen Monday by The Associated Press said that in line with its objective to protect and promote human rights, “ASEAN shall cooperate to establish an ASEAN human rights body/organ/commission.”
Yeo said details will be settled later but that the foreign ministers hoped to have everything worked out by the time that ASEAN leaders hold their annual summit in November, when they plan to approve the charter.
“I’m very optimistic,” Yeo said.
Asked about Myanmar’s resistance and reaction to the agreement, he said: “I think Myanmar takes a positive attitude toward all these developments.”
Details of the agreement were not immediately available. (AP)
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