KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — Malaysia is leading efforts to develop a practical peacebuilding framework for Asean that would serve as a reference to solve ongoing regional conflicts and threats to regional stability.
Malaysia Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) Edmund Bon Tai said the efforts are being carried out through the six-part AICHR Regional Training Programme on Human Rights, with co-proponents Thailand and Indonesia, throughout the year.
“At the Commission, we are undertaking this initiative to discuss and deliberate on how we can find practical ways and means to support conflict prevention. Equally important, we are exploring how to respond effectively when conflict does occur,” he told reporters here today.
Yesterday, AICHR launched Thematic Study on the Right to Peace, which provides important policy recommendations to support Asean initiatives to respect human rights and implement practices to secure regional peace and security in line with the Asean Community Vision 2045.
Elaborating on the six parts of the regional workshop, Thai Representative to AICHR Bhanubhatra Jittiang called on Asean to revisit and strengthen its existing frameworks for conflict resolution and peacebuilding, describing it as a crucial moment for the region.
“We have plenty of them (framework) in Asean that address specifically conflict and also to build peace but this is a time for us (Asean members) to open up all those different mechanisms and to think about what we can do more with it.
“That’s a journey that makes Asean evolve and we are evolving towards the Asean Community Vision 2045. As we’re walking in these journeys for the next 20 years, how these regional mechanisms, regional architecture are going to be relevant to us in building peace. This is something we’ve got to revisit,” he said.
AICHR is actively working on several initiatives related to human rights, including the development of a new Five-Year Work Plan 2026-2030 and the proposed Asean Declaration on Promoting the Right to Development and Peace, which focuses on strengthening human rights protection and promoting inclusive and sustainable development across Southeast Asia.
— Bernama
