AICHR convenes workshop to enhance regional human rights treaty compliance
VIENTIANE, 7 March 2025 – The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) convened the AICHR Workshop to share best practices on the implementation of Treaties to which all ASEAN Member States (AMS) are Parties on 6-7 March in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
The workshop brought together over participants, with representatives from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare across AMS, Timor-Leste, ASEAN Secretariat, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for South-East Asia, Australian Embassy to the Lao PDR, National Human Rights committees, Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian National Children’s Commission, People with Disabilities Australia, Lao Human Rights Focal Points and civil society organisations.
This workshop is one of the activities under the AICHR’s Five-Year Work Plan 2021-2025 aimed at strengthening the implementation of international human rights treaty obligations by AMS. It provided a platform for government officials, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), civil society organisations (CSOs), and external partners to exchange experiences, lessons learned, and best practices on implementing human rights treaties to which all AMS are parties.
The workshop sought to 1) to identify practical, internal legal procedures among AMS on how the legal drafting process may be undertaken to ensure the implementation of human rights treaty obligation at the national level, where applicable; 2) to share best practices on drafting and presenting the national report before the treaty bodies; 3) to exchange lessons learnt on considering the Concluding Observations of treaty bodies; 4) to share best practices among AMS regarding their translation of human rights treaty obligations to domestic legislation; and 5) to encourage ASEAN’s relevant sectoral bodies, especially ASEAN Law Ministers’ Meeting (ALAWMM)/ASEAN Senior Law Officials Meeting (ASLOM), to undertake cross sectoral cooperation that contributes to the implementation and realisation of human rights for the peoples of ASEAN in line with the ASEAN Charter and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD).
During the two-day workshop, participants shared experiences and best practices related to the implementation of treaties to which AMS are parties, particularly treaty ratification, translating treaties into domestic legislation, sharing experiences of reporting to UN Committee under treaty bodies, translating Concluding Observation into Plan of Action, implementation treaty obligations, including national systems to track and follow up progress as well as NHRIs and CSOs’ contributions to monitoring the implementation of treaties.
Yong Chanthalangsy, Representative of the Lao PDR to the AICHR, Chair of the workshop, expressed gratitude to all participants for their active contributions as well as the partners, including the Australian Embassy to the Lao PDR and the Australian Human Rights Commission for their support in making the event a success.
