ASEAN Set to Adopt Environmental Rights Declaration in October 2025: Civil Society Pushes for Stronger Commitments Published: 22 August 2025 Article After years of deliberation, ASEAN is set to adopt the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment (ADER) at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025. Marking the region’s first dedicated framework on environmental rights within ASEAN’s human rights system, ADER is the result of over two years of collaboration between AICHR and ASOEN and with inputs from region-wide CSOs. By Fransiskus Tarmedi
Regional Human Rights Ecosystem: Next Agenda for ASEAN After 15 Years of AICHR Published: 23 October 2024 Article Since its establishment in 2009 as part of the ASEAN Regionalism Framework, the AICHR has played a crucial role in advancing human rights in the region. Despite facing criticism, it has withstood significant challenges in the region, including silence of the ASEAN member states on pressing issues such as the Philippines’ “war on drugs” in 2017 and the ongoing crisis in Myanmar and the overall human rights ecosystem in the region. By Yuyun Wahyuningrum
The ASEAN Human Rights Dialogue: Three Things to Watch Out For Published: 5 September 2024 Article The ASEAN Human Rights Dialogue offers opportunities for Member States to be more transparent and frank in their discussions of human rights – as the key avenue for making stronger progress through normalizing talk of human rights and addressing issues. By Umavathni Vathanaganthan and Edmund Bon
The Future of Forced Migrants in ASEAN Published: 8 June 2017 This article seeks to discuss how ASEAN could ensure their regional integration efforts would be truly “inclusive” and that will guarantee better future for forced migrant population in the region. In doing so, this article discusses what the ASEAN and its member states committed in the past. By Andika Ab. Wahab
Press Release: AICHR Judicial Colloquium on The Sharing of Good Practices Regarding International Human Rights Law, 13 -15 March 2017 Published: 17 March 2017 The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights (AICHR) organized the first-ever AICHR Judicial Colloquium on the Sharing of Good Practices regarding International Human Rights Law from 13 to 15 March 2017 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
Region’s human rights watchdogs lack bite Published: 25 September 2016 Are Southeast Asia’s national human rights institutions protecting anyone? A report by James Gomez and Robin Ramcharan gives a bleak assessment. By James Gomez and Robin Ramcharan
