The Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC), which is the chair of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) this year, announced that it had “successfully” hosted the 34th AICHR meeting virtually from March 30-31.

The meeting was chaired by CHRC president and 2022 AICHR chairman Keo Remy, and attended by representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat for Human Rights and all 10 of the bloc’s member states.

The CHRC said in a March 31 press statement that the meeting discussed a range of documents related to past, current and future works aimed at improving human rights in ASEAN.

One of these was the AICHR Priority Plan of Action 2022 which “focuses on rights of the child, rights of persons with disabilities, business and human rights, prevention of torture, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, access to clean water and sanitation, climate change, human trafficking, access to health care and rights to nationality”, it said.

“The meeting also discussed the engagement with stakeholder and relations with external partners, with AICHR Cambodia and AICHR Indonesia agreeing to co-host the fourth dialogue between AICHR and the European Union on human rights policy.

“The meeting discussed the establishment of working groups, the launch of action plans and various strategic frameworks for the promotion and protection of certain areas of human rights.

“The 34th Meeting of AICHR ended smoothly and successfully and all members of the meeting expressed their appreciation to the Cambodia representative to the AICHR for leading the two-day meeting to good results.

“Representatives of all ASEAN member states in AICHR will work together to implement AICHR’s Priority Programme 2022 in the direction of promoting and protecting human rights in ASEAN region,” the statement added.