ASEAN strives to strengthen the role of international law

ASEAN will take the initiative to participate in dialogues with the United Nations (UN) and other organisations of good will such as the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) to improve the role of international law in key areas.

Vietnamese chargé d\'affaires at the UN, Ambassador Bui The Giang, emphasised this at an AALCO’s meeting on November 2.

Giang affirmed the role of ASEAN in promoting peace, goodwill,  and cooperation among ASEAN countries, between ASEAN and the UN and the bloc’s partners.

While reviewing ASEAN legal issues in recent times, the Ambassador said the ASEAN Charter, which was valid from December, 2008 was a milestone in the development of ASEAN. The 14-principle Charter gives the bloc a legal framework to become an international organisation.

According to the Charter, ASEAN will become a community based on three pilars: political-security, economic, and social-cultural communities, he said.

Regarding social affairs, Giang said in order to promote the protection of human rights, in accordance with each member nation’s law and international law, ASEAN has set up an ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009 and an ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of theRights of Women and Children (ACWC) in April 2010.

Ambassador Giang said ASEAN has also created an important framework for cooperation in building and implementing law by signing an ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters in 2004 and an ASEAN Convention on Counter Terrorism (ACCT) in 2007. He said the bloc is now designing an ASEAN Extradition Treaty and an ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons.

Previously, he said, ASEAN adopted a Declaration on Transnational Crime in 1997 and a Plan of Action to Combat Transnational Crime in 1999. The bloc, together with six other Asian nations approved a Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia.

Regarding counter-terrorism, he said ASEAN has signed a Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism.

ASEAN Foreign Ministers also proposed an ASEAN vision on “ASEAN Drug free 2015” and signed an ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and children.