(Jakarta, 5 August 2008) ASEAN human rights organisations are gathering today for a comprehensive and strategic consultation on how to ensure independent and effective regional human rights mechanism will be put up by the High Level Panel established by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The three-day "Second Regional Consultation on ASEAN and Human Rights" is being held from 5-7 August 2008 at the Aryaduta Hotel in the Indonesia's capital bringing more than sixty participants across ASEAN and beyond. This is the largest gathering of human rights defenders to discuss on the ASEAN human rights mechanism(s) after the High Level Panel (HLP) on the Establishment of the ASEAN human rights body (AHRB) was announced last month in Singapore.

The HLP is expected to submit its first draft of the terms of reference of the AHRB to the ASEAN leaders during the 14^th ASEAN Summit in December 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand.

"This meeting will bring in key actors to discuss plans toward the establishment of the AHRB and other human rights mechanism(s) that ASEAN has obliged to set up including the Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children and the Instrument on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers", said Rafendi Djamin, convenor of the Civil Society Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (Task Force), a network of sixteen national and regional organisations in ASEAN, which is the organiser of the three-day meeting.

While ASEAN came up with the plan to set up the AHRB as stated in the ASEAN Charter, the inter-governmental body also has planned to set up two other human rights mechanisms on women and children and migrant workers. The latter human rights mechanisms are supposed to be set up by the year 2010 as stipulated in the Vientiane Action Programme.

The consultation is also bringing representatives from the Indonesian Government, the ASEAN Secretariat, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, and National Human Rights Institutions in ASEAN.

"The consultation will also discuss how the proposed regional human rights mechanism would be able to address critical issues confronting ASEAN such as internal conflicts, free trade agreements, and the ongoing crisis in Burma", stressed Yap Swee Seng, the Acting Executive Director of FORUM-ASIA, a regional human rights organisation with 42 members in 15 countries.

The consultation will come up with the output which will be submitted at national and regional level to the HLP meetings and plans on how to engage strategically with ASEAN governments, ASEAN Secretariat, and HLP members.