The meeting was held on 17 April 2013 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok, Thailand. The participants of the meeting were Director-General of the Department of ASEAN Affairs, H.E. Dr. Seree Nonthasoot (Thailand Representative to AICHR), representatives of Thai CSOs and representatives from relevant government agencies.
The purpose of the meeting was to inform participating CSOs about developments in ASEAN and to exchange views with CSOs on human rights and other relevant issues in ASEAN prior to the 22nd ASEAN Summit to be held on 24 – 25 April 2013 in Brunei Darussalam.
Thailand Representative to AICHR informed the meeting about the AICHR’s plans for 2013 and 2014. In 2013, there will be activities to raise awareness of human rights and disseminate the AHRD including a Workshop on Training of the Trainers. In 2014, there will be a project to consider the revision of the AICHR’s Terms of Reference (ToR), a Workshop on Regional Best Practices on the Protection and Promotion of Human rights. Finally, Thailand representative invited CSOs to discuss among themselves, so that they may have a clearly united position, and may make useful recommendations on issues that they would like Thailand to consider proposing to the AICHR.