AAT was basically created at the initiative of 10 persons who participated to the development of the Statutes.
AAT is legally registered in France with the main official board of directors and fully responds to the requirements of the French 1901 Law on Associations.
AAT responds to all requirements in all countries were AAT is implemented to now: Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, principally.
AAT is legally registered in the USA as a non-US and nonprofit international organization.
AAT is legally registered in Thailand as a Thai foundation with a comity to control and monitor actions of the organization and to allow the use of funds of AAT Thailand.
AAT is registered at and signed the Chart of the NATO organization.
AAT is sufficiently recognized to be selected by the US government, the Japanese government and the UK government as a fully legal beneficiary.

AAT modus operandi:

AAT integrates all employees or volunteers of AAT as cooperator partners in all decisions. Only employees and the board of directors together can request the change of a key employee such as the international director, his assistant or a project director. Demand of departure of an employee will be subject to anonymous voting. The motives must be clearly stated and justified (as for any employee or member of the board of directors).

Article 1
The international director is not able to directly recruit staffs for countries. This is the work of employees present at the time, under the responsibility of the national project coordinator.

Annex: In Vietnam, Governmental partners are involved in the recruitment of project officers at 50%.

Article 2
30% of AAT VN employees were chosen because they did not have any qualification or knowledge, with the expectation of an interesting approach. The challenge of AAT is to develop them to become qualified professionals.

Article 3
The entire projects developed are developed at the initiative of local grass root employees and/or beneficiaries. This is the “Bottom-up approach”, an efficient method commonly adopted in Japan for decision-making.

Article 4
The international management and the Board of directors are not allowed to develop their own projects or actions. If the management or the boards of directors want to develop a project, the project must be submitted to grass root staff for study and approbation.

Article 5
The role of the country director and international director is to support staff initiatives and to find the appropriate financial support.
A vote of the employees can be requested. Any decision from employees must be supported by the director.

Rights, responsibilities and limits

The international director has the mission to validate and to support the application of decisions made by AAT. In case of a legal problem, he is the physically responsible person in the name of the entire AAT organization.
The international director as well as other key positions must be in charge of the harmony of employees and actions, must support staffs to take responsibilities and to represent AAT at high level, such as ministries, ASEAN or in international official cooperationships, and must ensure that everything at AAT fully responds to the respect of laws, human rights and the objectives of the organization and of the country where AAT is acting.
AAT employees know that in case of a problem or a disagreement with an employee at any level of the organization, they can bring a complaint and request project directors, any employees or volunteers and/or the board of director to open a dialogue in the name of AAT employees.
A final decision must be approved by the majority of AAT’s team (the Board of directors does not have direct rights). Hiring and dismissal cannot be applied only by the board of directors or country directors without the approbation of employees.  Thanks to the democratic and equalitarian system deployed, all employees of every level or volunteers receive the same degree of protection in case of abusive hierarchical authority (in this case, the superior bears the risk to be dismissed by employees)