PROMINENT LAWYER TO REPRESENT MALAYSIA IN ASEAN HUMAN RIGHTS BODY

HUA HIN, Oct 23 (Bernama) -- Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam)
commissioner, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, has been appointed Malaysia's
representative to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
(Aichr).

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the prominent lawyer's appointment
was approved by Prime Minister Najib Razak after being proposed by
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Wisma Putra).

He said Muhammad Shafee was nominated as Malaysia needed a man of integrity
and who had the knowledge and passion for human rights.

"He (Muhammad Shafee) should be able to represent Malaysia well and defend
allegations unfairly labelled against us. We have a prominent lawyer as our
representative to show how serious we are, and of course it's not a political
motive," he told the media after arriving here to attend the 15th Asean Summit
and Related Summits.

Aichr, the first regional human rights body in the Asia-Pacific region and
aimed at promoting and protecting human rights in the grouping, will be
launched by the 10 Asean leaders, here, Friday.

The terms of reference for Aichr were approved during the 42nd Asean Foreign
Ministers Meeting in Phuket last July. Each representative will serve a
three-year term.

On the criticism by civil society groups that Aichr would be toothless as it
cannot interfere in member country's domestic affairs, Anifah said it was not a
perfect body.

"There must be a starting point to set human rights standards. You can't
just tell everybody has to conform to a certain kind of standard. Everybody has
different priorities in terms of human rights," he said.

Homayoun Alizadeh, regional representatives of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said there were much hope and
expectations surrounding the launching of Aichr, as it represented an important
commitment by the members to move beyond mere words and towards the
implementation of their human rights commitment on the ground.

"As Asean pursues its Asean Vision 2020, now moved forward to 2015, to
create a 'community of caring societies', Aichr will have to work hard to
establish itself as a credible regional mechanism and help close the gap between
human rights rhetoric and the reality on the ground," he said in a statement.

-- BERNAMA