Jakarta, July 9 -- Foreign Minister Sugiono has stressed the importance of taking concrete steps to advance human rights in Southeast Asia, saying that political commitment alone is not enough.

"Our task now is to translate that commitment into tangible action," he said during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday.

According to a press statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Jakarta, Indonesia emphasized that human rights progress must go beyond mere declarations of political will at the meeting.

It also urged AICHR to become more responsive to urgent human rights issues and to ensure that its programs have a dir...