AHRC's Santiago moderates Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue for Human Rights in Thailand

Ateneo Human Rights Center’s (AHRC) Executive Director, Atty. Ray Paolo Santiago served as the moderator during the Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue for Human Rights held on Thursday, 11 October in Bangkok, Thailand. The dialogue is an initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Atty. Santiago has always been actively involved in the promotion of human rights in the ASEAN region as the Secretary General of the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism.

Also in the said dialogue was AHRC Program Manager for the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, Atty. Maria Paula Villarin. Villarin shared during the dialogue the efforts of the Working Group through the years in promoting human rights in the ASEAN region.

“We have been engaging ASEAN since 1995 through the foreign ministries of the ASEAN Member States and have been conducting dialogue mechanisms whether it is only between and among the Working Group and the ASEAN Members States or a wider range or stakeholders,” Villarin said.

“We look forward to a more open engagement of the ASEAN Member States primarily through its foreign ministries and with the ASEAN human rights mechanisms so far, on sincerely and earnestly developing its human rights mechanisms that are working not only to give credibility to ASEAN regionalism, but more so to afford protection to the ASEAN peoples whose rights have been affected,” she added.