Right to science a major initiative to speed up dev’t
THE Philippines’ Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has introduced the Right to Science as its major initiative for 2023 to speed up development.
This, when AICHR Philippine Representative Deputy Assistant Secretary Aileen S. Mendiola-Rau participated in the 35th AICHR Meeting held from 21 to 22 June 2022 via videoconference.
The Meeting was attended by other AICHR Representatives and Alternate Representatives of ASEAN Member States.
Mendiola-Rau presented to AICHR the Priority Programmes and Activities of AICHR Philippines for 2023, which includes the conduct of the Southeast Asia Regional Information Workshop on the Right to Science.
“We believe that governments should provide an enabling environment for the right to the benefits of scientific progress in order to speed up our respective countries’ development,” said Mendiola-Rau in her intervention.
The proposed workshop will be the first activity of AICHR related to the Right to Science.
The right to the benefits of scientific progress was first recognized internationally in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948) and later as Article 15 in the legally binding International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966). This right is also enshrined in Article 32 of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.
She also held interfaces with the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN (CPR) and the Southeast Asia National Human Rights Institution Forum (SEANF) respectively, to discuss possible areas of cooperation between AICHR and other ASEAN bodies to further the promotion and protection of human rights in the region.
