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Human rights division proposed for ASEAN Secretariat
Foreign Minister Retno L
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oreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi proposed on Wednesday the establishment of a human rights division at the ASEAN Secretariat as one of several measures that she said could strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights in the region.
'Human rights promotion and protection are among the main issues ASEAN member countries must fight for,' the minister said as quoted by Antara on Wednesday while attending the ASEAN ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Retno said Indonesia also supported the strengthening of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to foster human rights protection among ASEAN member countries.
In the ministerial meeting, Retno asserted that the ASEAN community must deliver greater benefits to its people by, among others things, strengthening its human rights protection.
She went on to say that migrant worker protection was a critical issue in efforts to push forward human rights and it could have a direct impact on a large part of the ASEAN community.
Therefore, she went on, the Indonesian government must continue to push ASEAN member countries in order to immediately complete the necessary legal steps to strengthen the protection of the rights of migrant workers.
Retno said the Indonesian government proposed that the ASEAN ministerial meeting issue a joint statement by ASEAN foreign ministers on the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers. The joint statement was aimed at giving a political push-along to the completion of legal provisions for the protection of migrant workers in ASEAN. (ebf)(+++)
