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The UNI-Asia Pacific Regional Organization (UNI Apro) and the ASEAN Service Employees Trade Union Council (UNI ASETUC) joined the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications (UP-CMC) and the School for Labor and Industrial Relations (UP-SOLAIR) and the National University of Singapore in organizing the 8th ASEAN Inter-University Conference on Social Development. The 8th AIUC was convened on 28-31 May 2008 at the Century Park Hotel in Manila, Philippines with the theme: “ASEAN as a Community: Solidarity in a Globalizing World”. The ASEAN Inter-University Conference on Social Development is the biggest bi-annual gathering of academics and social scientists in Southeast Asia. Over the years, IUC has helped advance the understanding of the human condition in all its dimensions in Southeast Asia. It is able to enlist the participation of leading scholars and researchers from different centers of learning all over the region, including those coming from outside the region. This year, the AIUC attracted the participation of about 250 scholars, trade union leaders, and leaders of grassroots and civil society organizations from 9 ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) as well as the United States, Australia, Denmark, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, China, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and even Trinidad and Tobago. The UNI ASETUC President, Bro Chaisith Suksombhoon and the UNI ASETUC Secretary General, Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal led a delegation composed of 45 union leaders from 7 ASEAN countries to the Conference. The 8th AIUC is a milestone in that, for the first time since it was convened in 1993, trade union organizations actively participated in the preparation and the holding of the Conference. Sergio Cao, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, said this development was brought about by the need to foster a social regional integration among ASEAN citizens. “The challenge now is to test the validity of scholars’ academic assumptions on the grassroots level, thereby contributing to regional integration," said Cao in his Opening Address. In his address to the Conference Plenary entitled “Voices of ASEAN Civil Society”, UNI Apro Regional Secretary Christopher Ng echoed this statement and underscored the very real need for ASEAN labour and ASEAN civil society to forge deeper bonds of solidarity and reach out to other forces and institutions in ASEAN in order to better confront the challenges of globalization and regional integration. “This Conference is one more step towards strengthening the voices of the ASEAN working people.” He welcomed the interaction between ASEAN academe and the ASEAN working people saying that such interaction will be mutually beneficial. “Forging closer bonds with the ASEAN academic community will enhance the capacity of trade unions and other civil society organizations to articulate its message and its vision of a people-centered ASEAN integration process. In turn, the ASEAN academic community’s interaction with ASEAN civil society will enable it to better develop and promote social issues of concern to the ASEAN community.”, he added. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan sent Dr. Bounpheng Philavong of the ASEAN Secretariat to convey his greetings to the Conference. No less than the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, Reynato Puno, delivered the Keynote Address to the AIUC. He emphasized the need for building an integrated Southeast Asian regional community focused on the enhancement of the highest interest of the peoples of ASEAN. He said, however, that regional integration demands that the ASEAN people should be consulted continuously “for it is only their informed consent that can glue us together as a regional community.” The Chief Justice emphasized that the most important integration guidepost is “asserting our humanity”. With this as guidepost, he slammed ASEAN for its impotence in dealing with Burma's military dictatorship's criminal neglect of the disaster victims of Cyclone Nargis as well as its ineffective response to the current rice crisis. The Chief Justice noted that regional integration efforts have not produced a vibrant social and economic regional community citing that some observers look at the ASEAN as a “top-down technocratic project designed by faceless officials with little contacts with the peoples of the region.” He said that the recently-adopted ASEAN Charter is a giant step in building a rules-based regional grouping. “However the charter failed to put in place institutions for consultation with the broadest sectors of the ASEAN society on various aspects of community building.”, he lamented. More importantly for trade unions, the Chief Justice criticized the Charter because it did not include the explicit recognition of core labor rights. Though the Charter did establish a human rights body, the details of how the body shall be set up are subject to further ASEAN deliberations. In conclusion, he said that the “collective task facing all of us in the region is how to dare the ASEAN governments, the ASEAN leaders and the ASEAN Secretariat to accelerate its promise of a community of caring and sharing societies.” Over four days, plenary panel discussions and parallel sessions on the following key themes were held: Art, Literature and Religion; History, Culture, Health and Political Practice; Human Rights; Identities; Media and New Media; People, Social Movement and Social Dialogue; SEA Economy; and Science and Technology. The Conference output was prodigious with 145 papers presented on 37 topics. At the conclusion of the Conference, participants urged further interaction between academe and ASEAN labor and civil society. The Conference resolution also recommended that the ASEAN’s “decision-making processes be made open, transparent, consultative and participative." As well, the participants encouraged the ASEAN to shift its focus from its narrow liberalization agenda to addressing social, labor, and special needs of member countries which lag behind in development. The participants unanimously agreed to convene the 9th ASEAN Inter University Conference to be held in 2010 in Aceh Indonesia.