The EU and ASEAN, as part of the result of a policy dialogue recently held in Brussels, have agreed to arrange a series of activities specially tailored to boost respect for human rights.

Several events, including dialogues, seminars and capacity building initiatives related to human rights, would be organized in the immediate future, the ASEAN Secretariat said in a statement.

Among the topics to be discussed are recent human rights developments in the EU and in ASEAN regions, the rights of migrants, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons, interaction with civil society, corporate social responsibility as well as economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development.

Both EU and ASEAN representative bodies said that the current meetings had been beneficial for their interests and say they intend to increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation in specific areas such as child protection, gender mainstreaming and corporate social responsibility, trafficking in persons and human rights, among others.

The joint initiatives are rooted in the 2014 EU-ASEAN ministerial meeting that was also held in Brussels. A series of meetings and group visits between the two bodies have been organized since the initial meeting.

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