In her opening remarks, Ambassador Rosario G. Manalo, the Philippine Representative to AICHR, highlighted that the Philippines is one of the countries in ASEAN that undertakes consultations with civil society. She stressed that the DFA and AICHR-Philippines have been actively engaging experts and academic institutions in moving forward various Philippine advocacies on human rights promotion and protection. She stated that while ASEAN’s pace may be slow and incremental, it is moving at a forward direction. Ambassador Manalo shared that AICHR is the first ASEAN body to have adopted guidelines on relating with civil society organizations, highlighting that this is a concrete step toward institutionalizing engagement with stakeholders and realizing a truly people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN.

In his closing remarks, Hon. Luis T. Cruz, Assistant Secretary and Director General of the ASEAN-Philippines National Secretariat, underscored the Philippines’ strong advocacy for greater stakeholder engagement, recalling that the Philippines championed the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) as the third pillar of ASEAN. It has similarly exerted leadership in championing the inclusion of Article 14 in the ASEAN Charter on the establishment of a human rights body, which became what is now the AICHR. He stated that the Philippines will be championing in the next five years the development of concrete mechanisms for human rights protection in the ASEAN region. END