The year of 2023 will be an important year for Indonesia. The handing over of a hammer from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the closing ceremony of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits on 13 November 2022 symbolized Indonesia is honored to be the Chair of ASEAN this year.

In parallel with that, civil society organizations or CSOs from Cambodia also handed over the holding of ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People Forum (ACSC/APF) 2023 to the representatives of Indonesian CSOs. The ACSC/APF is a forum where civil societies from Southeast Asia countries could share, discuss and make recommendations about situations of human rights and democracy in the region. 

Talking about human rights in the region, actually ASEAN itself has its integral part in ASEAN organizational structure and an overarching institution with overall responsibility for the promotion and protection of human rights in ASEAN, called ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR).

In this episode, through a conversation with Indonesia Representative to AICHR H.E Yuyun Wahyuningrum, we tried to find out what is the importance of Indonesian chairship of ASEAN, how AICHR will use this chairship to give positive impact to situation of human rights and democracy in the region, as well as what is to be done by the civil societies to support the works.

If you eager to know the answers, please listen to the full episodes, only on VOICESEA Podcast!

This episode is sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.