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The 15th gathering of Southeast Asian human rights activists in the capital of the Philippines is very much influenced by the signing of the ASEAN Charter by the political leaders of the ASEAN member states in late 2007. This pathbreaking charter provides for the establishment of a common human rights body to protect the Southeast Asian peoples from violations of their rights on part of the governments. Unfortunately, the said establishment is only envisaged and not yet pushed forward by the member countries. A fact that traces back on fears to lose souvereignty throughout the process of integration towards a strong ASEAN with the European Union acting as a model. This year's AICOHR tries to elaborate on that problem and to discuss ways of creating and implementing the said human rights body into ASEAN.

For many years KAS and its Rule of Law Programme Asia have supported AICOHR and contributed to the organization and content-wise arrangement of the conference. Following last year's example, KAS will invite scholars and representatives from existing and well-functioning human rights bodies from other regions of the world, such as the Americas, Africa and Europe. In addition to that, Mr. Holger Haibach, member of the Federal German Parliament (Bundestag) and Vice-Chairman of its Committee on Human Rights will hold the keynote speech and act as an expert on human rights matters to the conference.