ASEAN COMMISSION ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN

By Jamaluddin Muhammad

HANOI, April 6 (Bernama) -- Acknowledging that 50 per cent of Asean's
population of 550 million people consists of women and children, the grouping
will take a major initiative to protect their rights and conditions with the
setting up of a commission Wednesday.

The establishment of the Asean Commission on the Protection of Rights of
Women and Children at the ongoing Asean Summit, here, aimed to further improve
their livelihood, said Vietnam Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social
Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam.

He said the commission would be launched during the ministerial-level Asean
Socio-Cultural Council meeting at the National Convention Centre, here.

"The commission will draw concrete programmes in assisting Asean women and
children," he said.

The setting up of the commission is in line with the vision of forming an
Asean Community by 2015 based on three pillars including Asean Socio-Cultural
Community.


The 10-member grouping wants to form the Asean Community based on its own
mould and strives to create a caring society, focusing on social development,
education and human resources development and public health under the Asean
Socio-Cultural Community pillar.

The other two pillars are Asean Economic Community and Asean Political-
Security Community.

The establishment of the commission is one of the three major initiatives at
this summit apart from two statements on climate change and sustained economic
recovery and development.

Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) formed during
last year's Asean Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, was also part of the initiative
towards building the Asean Community by 2015.

-- BERNAMA