Introduction to the CIL Documents Database on ASEAN Documents

The CIL Documents Database on ASEAN documents has been designed as a user-friendly resource for researchers, policy-makers and other persons interested in ASEAN. It features a selection of the most important ASEAN documents, including those which highlight major milestones in ASEAN’s development. It is not a replacement for the comprehensive catalogue of ASEAN documents maintained by the ASEAN Secretariat for every area of ASEAN cooperation.

Classification of ASEAN Documents:

In classifying the ASEAN documents under major subject headings or categories, CIL has attempted to be consistent with the classification system of ASEAN’s activities under the ASEAN Charter.

ASEAN documents in the database are classified into the following subject headings:

  1. ASEAN Constituent Documents. Milestone official documents for ASEAN’s establishment. The development of key principles of ASEAN cooperation, vision for the ASEAN Community and major plans of action for the whole of ASEAN.
  2. ASEAN Economic Community. Key official documents of the ASEAN Economic Community, classified as follows:
    1. ASEAN Economic Community/ASEAN Economic Ministers
    2. ASEAN Economic Community/Energy
    3. ASEAN Economic Community/Finance
    4. ASEAN Economic Community/Food, Agriculture and Forestry
    5. ASEAN Economic Community/Investment
    6. ASEAN Economic Community/Initiative for ASEAN Integration
    7. ASEAN Economic Community/Mekong Basin Development Cooperation
    8. ASEAN Economic Community/Minerals
    9. ASEAN Economic Community/Science and Technology
    10. ASEAN Economic Community/Telecommunications and IT
    11. ASEAN Economic Community/Tourism
    12. ASEAN Economic Community/Transport
  3. ASEAN External Relations. Key official documents relating to ASEAN’s relationships with dialogue partners, regional forums and other external relations.
    1. ASEAN External Relations/Australia
    2. ASEAN External Relations/Canada
    3. ASEAN External Relations/China
    4. ASEAN External Relations/European Union
    5. ASEAN External Relations/India
    6. ASEAN External Relations/Japan
    7. ASEAN External Relations/Korea (ROK)
    8. ASEAN External Relations/New Zealand
    9. ASEAN External Relations/Russia
    10. ASEAN External Relations/United Nations
    11. ASEAN External Relations/USA
    12. ASEAN External Relations/ASEAN Regional Forum
    13. ASEAN External Relations/ASEAN+3 (APT)
    14. ASEAN External Relations/East Asia Summit
  4. ASEAN Political-Security Community. Key official documents of the ASEAN Political-Security Community, classified as follows:
    1. ASEAN Political-Security Community/ASEAN Foreign Ministers (formerly known as the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting)
    2. ASEAN Political-Security Community/Defence
    3. ASEAN Political-Security Community/Law
    4. ASEAN Political-Security Community/Transnational Crime
  5. ASEAN Secretariat. Official documents relating to the establishment and administration of the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Development Fund, and privileges and immunities in ASEAN.
  6. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Key official documents of the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, classified as follows:
    1. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Culture and Arts
    2. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Disaster Management
    3. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Drugs
    4. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Education
    5. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Environment
    6. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Haze
    7. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Health
    8. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Information
    9. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Labour
    10. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Rural Development
    11. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Social Welfare and Development
    12. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community/Youth
  7. ASEAN Summit. Documents signed, adopted or endorsed by the supreme body of ASEAN – the “ASEAN Leaders” or heads of state or government, including documents done by the Leaders with external partners. This category does not include documents signed at the ministerial level.

Searching for ASEAN Documents on the CIL Documents Database

Search Engine. The CIL Documents Database has a special search engine and is located in the box on the right side of your screen on the Documents Database main page and on the CIL home page. It enables you to search for documents by general categories, by sub-categories, by years, or by keywords. For example, to locate ASEAN documents on political/security matters adopted in 2005, select “ASEAN Documents” under category, “ASEAN Political-Security Community” under sub-category, and “2005” under year.

CIL Templates and CIL Text. When you click on the document title a template containing basic information on the Document will open. From the template you can either open the document or download it as either a PDF file or a WORD file. In addition, the CIL text of the document contains a Table of Contents. If you Ctrl+Click on any item in the table of contents, it will take you directly to the text of that paragraph or article in the document.

Key word search function. The keyword search function in the Documents Database searches the templates of documents in the CIL Documents Database. It does not search the text of the documents. For example, if you search for keyword “environment”, the search result will be a list all documents containing the word environment in the title of the document or in the template for the document, such as all documents adopted by the Environment Ministers. If you know the documents have been adopted by certain ministers, you can search under the title of the meeting (ASEAN Finance Ministers Meeting, ASEAN Transport Ministers Meeting, etc.) or venue of adoption (e.g. Cebu, Philippines, 12th ASEAN Summit). Where possible, commonly used short forms of the agreement names have also been listed so that you may search for them (e.g. Bali Concord, VAP, EDSM).

Economic Community Documents. When using the CIL Documents Database to search for documents under those sub-categories, we suggest that you select ASEAN Economic Documents, and then use the keyword index to search for key words that are used within the title of such economic documents, such as trade, customs, tariffs, energy, fisheries, finance, food, agriculture, electronic, etc.

Political-Security Documents. To search for documents under the general category of political security, you can skim the names of the documents under that category. Alternatively, you can search for documents using the key word function using words that are likely to be used in the titles of such documents (transnational crime, terrorism, defence, immigration etc).

Documents on External Relations. To find agreements or declarations between ASEAN and other States or entities, use the keyword search using the name of the State or entity (China, EU, USA, ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Plus Three etc).

Your Suggestions and Comments

If you believe there are other important ASEAN documents which should be included in our Documents Database, please advise us. When recommending a particular document, send us as much information as possible, including the name of the document, the date and place of adoption, who it was adopted by, and the URL of the document on the ASEAN Secretariat web page.

If you have comments or suggestions on how we might further classify a particular document under a subject heading that we make it easier to find, please send us your recommendation.

If you have other comments or suggestions for the ASEAN documents section of our Documents Database, please email us at cilcsw@nus.edu.sg.