Dear Friends,
We would like to seek your endorsement., without limiting the endorsements from the ASEAN countries only, so please widely disseminate the attached letter.
The Women's Caucus for an ASEAN Human Rights Body, seek your support and endorsement of the attached letter to the High Level Panel (HLP) tasked with drafting the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the ASEAN Human Rights Body (AHRB).
The TOR will be adopted at the next ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) to be held on 16 - 23 July 2009 in Thailand. However, the TOR as it stands does not include a strong protection mandate and focuses primarily on promotional aspects. In order for the AHRB to be effective and of any use in the region it is imperative that it includes a strong and effective protection mandate in the TOR which will determine the roles and functions of the Commissioners once the body is established.
The High Level Panel (HLP) will be meeting at the end of June 2009 to finalise the TOR. We seek your endorsement to the attached letter as an initiative to pressure the HLP to include our concerns and recommendations in the final TOR.
Please send your endorsements to iwraw-ap@iwraw-ap.org and iwraw_ap@yahoo.com by Thursday, 25 June 2009.
Please include your name and organization details.
In solidarity,
DANILO RAMOS
APC Secretary General