ASEAN People's Center Launching

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Southeast Asian’s civil society step up the engagement with ASEAN by establishing the ASEAN People’s Center in Jakarta (Jakarta, 15 January 2009), A coalition of civil society organizations in the Southeast Asian region today calls on the ASEAN to give its full cooperation to the civil society center in Jakarta as a show of its commitment to enhance the participation of the peoples in its decision making and make ASEAN a truly “People-oriented ASEAN”.

A physical office to step up the engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and to assert people’s participation in its policy was launched by the broad coalition of civil society organizations in the region, the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN.

The launch of this first ever civil society office in the history to tighten the engagement with the ten member states in the ASEAN, was officiated by the co-convenor of the SAPA Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights, Rafendi Djamin together with the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Soeung Rachavy.

The establishment of a physical office in Jakarta for civil society organizations in the Southeast Asian region to engage with ASEAN is the latest substantive initiative of the civil society coalition to push for the realization of a people-oriented ASEAN, Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN said today.

SAPA Working Group on ASEAN is a loose network of about 80 civil society organizations in Southeast Asia who have been actively engaging ASEAN to influence its public policy and make the regional bloc accountable to the peoples in the region by putting the interest of the people first. It also strives to enhance the participation of the peoples in the decision making process of the ASEAN.

The office which is called the ASEAN Peoples’ Center is located in Jiwasraya Building, Lobby Floor, Jl. RP. Soeroso No. 41, Gondangdia, Central Jakarta, aims to be an information center for both civil society in the region and ASEAN secretariat on the three ASEAN pillars, to monitor the drafting of the ASEAN multi-lateral instruments such as the ASEANDeclaration on the Rights of Migrants and the term of reference of the ASEAN human rights body.

“It is timely to have the office now, especially in view of the rapid development of the drafting process of the term of reference of the ASEAN human rights body and the possibilities of utilizing the ASEAN human rights body for civil society’s work in the long run”, said Yap Swee Seng, the co-convenor of SAPA Working group on ASEAN.

With the entry into force of the ASEAN Charter on 15 December 2008, ASEAN will hereafter operate under a new legal framework and establish a number of new organs to enhance its community-building process. The Article 1.13 of ASEAN Charter mentions “To promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged to participate in, and benefit from, the process of ASEAN integration and community building”.

“Civil society organizations have a very important role to contribute to the promotion of new brand of people-oriented ASEAN, especially in its process of community building”, said Consuelo Katrina Lopa, Co-convenor of SAPA Working Group on ASEAN.

The ASEAN Charter has been fully ratified in all the ten ASEAN Member States, which Singapore was the first to submit its instrument of ratification to the Secretary-General of ASEAN on 7 January 2008 and Thailand was the last, on 15 November 2008. The ASEAN Charter has become a legally binding agreement among the ten member states and has been registered to the Secretariat of the United Nations.

For more information, please contact:
Rafendi Djamin, Convenor of Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy TaskForce on ASEAN and Human Rights, at rafendi@hrwg. org, or +62 81311442159

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