SOUTH EAST ASIA: ASEAN to create commission on women and children

[25 October 2009] - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will create a special body next year to protect the rights of women and children in the region.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva revealed ASEAN's plans on Friday shortly after the inauguration of the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), which marked the first day of the three-day 15th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits underway in southern Thailand.

Under the terms of reference recently approved by the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development, each Member State will appoint one representative each on women's rights and children's rights by next year.

The work of the soon-to-be established commission will be in line with the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which all ASEAN States have ratified.

Further information

• ASEAN: Worrying attempts to control civil society (October 2009)
• ASEAN: Submission of Child Rights Groups on the Terms of Reference of the ASEAN Commission on Women and Children (September 2009)
• ASEAN: Child Rights NGO Statement on the ASEAN Human Rights Body (September 2009)
• More on child rights and ASEAN