Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) will carry out the good ideas contained in its charter although the document has yet to be ratified by all of its member countries, the regional organization`s chief says.

"All the good ideas in the ASEAN Charter will be implemented at full speed even though it has yet to be ratified by all member countries," ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said here Monday.

He said such good ideas in the charter as formation of a Human Rights Council, efforts toward ASEAN`s integration by 2015 and improving the welfare of all people in ASEAN would begin to be implemented although a few other ideas such as the use of ASEAN passports would possibly have to be postponed until a more appropriate time.

Pitsuwan said all ASEAN member countries had declared their preparedness to ratify the charter by 2008 so that they could celebrate it at their summit in Bangkok in December 2008.

But this was what was hoped for or the goal and not a must, he added.

The ASEAN foreign ministers at an informal meeting in Singapore last week had expressed their governments` ability to pass through all the procedures existing in their respective countries to ratify the ASEAN Charter.

"I respect all those procedures as part of democracy," he said.

He said up till February 2008, four ASEAN member countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Brunei, had ratified the charter.

After ratification by all of ASEAN`s 10 member countries, the charter would serve as the association`s constitution or basic rules of conduct binding on all of them

The charter defines the strategic targets of the development of the ASEAN community and contains concrete stipulations on ASEAN`s objectives, principles, position and frame of development.

It says ASEAN will preserve and promote regional peace, security and stability, endeavor economic integration, maintain the principle of non-interference in each others` internal affairs, respect for each member country`s independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, national uniqueness and settle disputes in peaceful ways.

The ASEAN charter was meant to transform ASEAN into a regional organization with a more clear-cut organizational mechanism and structure.(*) END

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