Asean takes step to set up rights body

"It's a happy day for human rights," said Marzuki Darusman, co-chairman of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights working group which met with Asean officials.

"It will mean addressing the needs and the problems of women and children, the most vulnerable groups in society," said Darusman, an Indonesian parliamentarian and former chairman of that country's rights commission.

"We're going to be engaged in looking into the setting up of commissions for women and children," Darusman told reporters after the meeting.

Asked whether the women's and children's commission would lead to a full regional human rights body, he said: "That would be our hope."

The region's highest-profile victim of rights abuses is Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest despite repeated pleas by regional leaders for her release.

While Darusman's working group held its meeting Monday, other regional officials gathered here were trying to find a last-minute face-saving way for military-ruled Myanmar to give up Asean's 2006 chairmanship, diplomats said.

Darusman said the working group intends to hold more frequent meetings with Asean officials and to step-up co-ordination with local rights commissions in the region to help promote their work.

Darusman called the developments "somewhat of a breakthrough".