19th ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission On Human Rights Meeting On Nov 27-29

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- The 19th Meeting of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) with the agendas to discuss the implementation of AICHR Priority Programmes 2015/16 will be held here for three days starting Friday. The Foreign Ministry in a statement here Thursday night, said the meeting would also discuss future direction of dialogue relations between the AICHR and the European Union (EU) on human rights; modality for the conduct of thematic human rights studies; and deliberation on acceptance of the civil society organisations' (CSOs) application for consultative status with AICHR. The meeting, which will be held at Le Méridien Hotel here will be the seventh and the last meeting of the AICHR under Malaysia's Chairmanship in 2015. Malaysian Representative to AICHR and Chair of AICHR 2015 Dr Muhammad Shafee Abdullah will be presiding over the meeting, which will also be attended by Representatives of AICHR and the Assistants from all ASEAN member states, as well as officials from the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, the statement said. Under Malaysia's chairmanship, the AICHR had successfully adopted two important documents, namely the AICHR Five-Year Work Plan (2016-2020) and AICHR Priority Programmes 2016. These documents serve to be the direction of the AICHR in its on-going efforts to promote and protect human rights in 2016 and years to come, the statement said. In 2015, the AICHR had also adopted the Guidelines on AICHR's Relations with CSOs, which is a manifestation of the AICHR to actualise an enabling environment for a constructive and meaningful engagement and interaction with CSOs in its common endeavour to strengthen cooperation in the promotion and protection of human rights in ASEAN. At the end of the meeting, Malaysia will be handing over the chairmanship of AICHR to Laos. -- BERNAMA