AHRD reflects ASEAN’s ambiguity to its
commitment on human rights. The last
Article of AHRD and the Phnom Penh
Statement repetitively state the
commitment to compliance to the
international standards, yet it stated that
human rights must meet the countries’
domestic law.
• UN experts on Human Rights raised
concerns that it lacked of input from civil
society.
• The terms of ‘morality’, ‘public order’ and
‘national security’ stated in the AHRD
were risky that these terms could be used
as ‘a pretext by Governments to place
arbitrary, disproportionate and
unnecessary restrictions on human rights’.