Nov 1, 2022 | CCHR, Statements
BANGKOK – The rights of indigenous peoples and local communities must be put at the center when discussing urgently needed solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, lawmakers, civil society members, and experts said in the first ever conference on the role of parliamentarians in addressing climate change in Southeast Asia, organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“Climate change is not something that can be postponed; in fact action needs to be taken yesterday. Parliamentarians have a big role to play in order to avoid a climate catastrophe, which will disproportionately affect poor and marginalized communities.” said Charles Santiago, APHR Chairperson and former Malaysian MP.
The two-day conference, held in Bangkok on 29-30 October 2022, gathered former and current parliamentarians from the region as well as regional and international experts, civil society organizations, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders who have been active and engaged on climate change issues.
Participants shared their experiences and knowledge and discussed possible alternative approaches on what lawmakers can do to push further action on climate change from their respective governments, particularly how to ensure that such actions include meaningful involvement from indigenous peoples and local communities, who are often the most affected by the impacts of climate change.
“Climate-induced disasters don’t just result in economic damage, communities are displaced from their lands, indigenous communities lose their culture too,” said Patricia Wattimena, from the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). Wattimena added that proposed solutions to climate change, such as large hydroelectric dams, too often ignore indigenous communities’ voices and result in their displacement.
“Parliamentarians should come to the local communities, listen to the impact of climate change, and the impact of climate solutions, and listen to what they need,” said Wanun Permpibul, Climate Watch Thailand.
Participants also noted that funding for the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, which has been generally lacking in the region, has failed to reach local communities. Funding for adaptation efforts have been particularly insufficient, especially as Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world, with 56.3 million people living on the coastlines.
“Current climate change finance is not inclusive and less than 10 percent of it reaches the local level. Scaling up adaptation finance is especially important because even if we reach zero emissions today, we still need to deal with historical emissions,” said Dr. Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn, advisor to Thailand’s Fiscal Policy Research Institute.
She added that adaptation finance was needed not just to address climate induced-disasters such as flooding, but also slow-onset events sea level rises, changing rainfall patterns, and biodiversity loss, which can be devastating to indigenous peoples and local communities.
Mercy Barends, APHR Board Member and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, said that influential leaders who champion climate change efforts must be protected, particularly as environmental and indigenous activists across the region have often faced criminalization in the past few years. “All levels of society have to work together in order to achieve a just and equitable energy transition that can help us avoid a climate catastrophe,” said Mercy.
Oct 17, 2022 | FoRB, Statements
JAKARTA — Parliamentarians should uphold freedom of religion or belief and work in preventing religion from being turned into a political weapon in the midst of increasing conservatism and discrimination against minorities worldwide, a group of twelve sitting and former lawmakers from Southeast Asia said at a conference held in Jakarta.
“Religion is too often weaponized as a political tool, especially in election years. It is important for parliamentarians to connect and discuss strategies on how to combat such tactics, particularly with upcoming elections in Malaysia, Indonesia, as well as Timor-Leste,” said Timor-Leste MP Antonio Benevides.
In recent years, religion has often been used in the region to attack political enemies. One example discussed during the conference was the 2019 presidential elections in Indonesia, when supporters of President Joko Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto traded accusations about the rival candidate’s lack of commitment to Islam.
In Myanmar, the military and its proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), have often accused the National League for Democracy (NLD) of endangering Buddhism and being infiltrated by Muslims plotting to take over the country. Now, the junta that ousted the NLD government in an illegal coup d’état in February last year is attempting to use Buddhism to legitimize its rule.
“The world is not okay right now and we need to work together to help make it better by ensuring that everyone enjoys basic rights including freedom of religion and faith, particularly minorities,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) board member and former member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.
This and other issues were discussed by lawmakers hailing from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines, who were attending the annual Southeast Asia Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (SEAPFoRB) conference in Jakarta on 16-17 October 2022.
The SEAPFoRB conference was hosted by APHR, together with the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB), and is part of an initiative to strengthen parliamentarians’ action to promote and protect the right to freedom of religion or belief in Southeast Asia.
On the second day of the conference, eight MPs visited the Indonesian House of Representatives to have a roundtable discussion with Indonesian MPs – including Luluk Nur Hamidah, Sylviana Murni, and Bobby Rizaldi – on the freedom of religion or belief situation in Indonesia.
“Indonesia celebrates all the six religions as well as the many indigenous beliefs that are practiced here, but given the huge diversity here we face a large challenge in continuing to develop respect for plurality in order to maintain the ‘Unity in Diversity’ that is our national motto. We also realize that protecting religious freedom is something that requires a global response,” said Luluk.
The conference concluded with a number of key conclusions and recommendations, including the need to provide counter-narratives toward intolerant messaging on social media and increasing engagement with other key stakeholders such as religious organizations and civil society.
“Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right that is incredibly important to protect. MPs have a huge role to play in ensuring that protection.,” said Philippine MP Arlene Brosas.
Click here to read the statement in Indonesian.
Sep 25, 2022 | DFF, Statements
NEW YORK – A delegation of parliamentarians from Southeast Asia and Europe urged officials at the United Nations, U.S. State Department, and U.S. Congress to support the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar in its struggle against the brutal military junta established by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing after the illegal coup on 1 February 2021.
The delegation traveled to New York and Washington, D.C., and presented to a variety of stakeholders the preliminary findings and recommendations of the International Parliamentary Inquiry (IPI) into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar, organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
The delegation included Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament and Chairperson of the IPI; Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and Chairperson of APHR; and APHR Board Members Mercy Chriesty Barends, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, U Shwe Maung, former Myanmar Member of Parliament, and Tom Villarin, former Congressman from the Philippines.
“We have impressed upon the stakeholders we have met the necessity for governments committed to supporting democracy in Myanmar to acknowledge the National Unity Government (NUG) as the legitimate authority in the country, increase and coordinate pressure on the junta, launch initiatives of capacity building for the NUG and other pro-democracy forces, and scale up humanitarian aid channeled it through civil society organizations,” said Charles Santiago.
The APHR-IPI delegation held meetings with the Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, as well as officials from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). In New York, the delegation also took part in a meeting hosted by the Malaysian Foreign Minister, Dato Sri Saifuddin Abdullah, with several members of the NUG.
In Washington, the delegation met with members of Congress, including Representative Ilhan Omar, also a member of the IPI, as well as officials from the State Department.
“The United States has an important role to play in exerting pressure on the junta and supporting the pro-democracy forces. We called for the imposition of sanctions on the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), one of the main sources of funding for the Myanmar military, as the European Union has already done. We believe that those governments and international institutions that claim to support democracy in Myanmar should cut the flow of funds to the junta and do so in a coordinated and consistent manner,” said Heidi Hautala.
As the Myanmar military continues to engage in acts which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said may amount to “crimes against humanity and war crimes.” It is throwing the country into chaos, and the international community’s response has fallen woefully short, despite repeated expressions of concern.
In order to analyze this failure and offer solutions to the impasse, APHR decided to launch the IPI in June. The IPI has held a total of six public hearings, as well as two special and three confidential hearings, with experts, diplomats, politicians, and activists from Myanmar and other countries. IPI committee members also conducted a fact-finding mission to the Thai-Myanmar border, where they met with over dozen civil society organizations and other stakeholders. The IPI will release a report with its full findings and recommendations in early November.
Sep 23, 2022 | DFF, Statements
Letter to the UN Secretary-General
H.E. Mr. António Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations Secretariat
42nd Street,
New York, NY 10017
23 September 2022
Re: UN agencies, funds, programmes and other entities engagement with the military junta
UN entities must stop legitimizing the Myanmar military junta and instead present letters of appointment, sign letters of agreement and MoUs with the legitimate government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government, and ethnic revolutionary organizations
Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned 638 civil society organizations (CSOs), condemn in the strongest terms the recent public signing of new agreements and presenting of letters of appointment to the illegitimate Myanmar military junta by UN agencies, funds, programmes and other entities working inside Myanmar. We urge you to intervene for a principled, coordinated UN response to the crisis in Myanmar. We call on you and all UN entities to immediately cease all forms of cooperation and engagement that lends legitimacy to the illegal murderous junta. Instead, letters of appointment and agreements must be presented to the legitimate government of Myanmar, the National Unity Government (NUG), and ethnic revolutionary organizations (EROs).
On 10 December 2021, 256 Myanmar CSOs urged UN entities to not engage with the junta in any way that lends them legitimacy. Despite these consistent calls from the people of Myanmar and CSOs, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) all signed new agreements with and presented credentials to the junta in August and September 2022. The public ceremonies, which were arranged with photographs, were used as propaganda by the military junta in its ongoing attempts to assert their legitimacy. The people of Myanmar have categorically rejected its attempts to seize power since its illegal attempted coup on 1 February 2021.
For nearly a year and a half, the people of Myanmar have sacrificed their lives and livelihoods to defend democracy and their rights by engaging in political defiance and armed resistance – as a last resort. Their aim is to prevent the illegal military junta from taking over the country, as it is attempting to do through inflicting immense suffering on the people.
The recent public actions by UN entities are direct interventions that clearly side with the military junta, undercutting the ongoing collective resistance efforts and sacrifices by the Myanmar people to end the Myanmar military’s tyranny and establish a federal democracy. This breaches the principles of democracy, human rights and humanitarian principles of impartiality, neutrality, independence and “do no harm” outlined in the UNs’ Joint Operating Standards and frame work of engagement, for which UN entities must comply with and hold themselves accountable.
Furthermore, in December 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to endorse the recommendations of the UN Credential Committee that had rejected the credentials of the military junta and allowed the incumbent Ambassador, U Kyaw Moe Tun, who represents the National Unity Government (NUG) and thus represents Myanmar, to maintain his position at the UN General Assembly. UN entities, and agencies, funds and programmes in Myanmar should be guided by this decision and should be engaging publicly with the NUG and not the military junta.
The Myanmar junta has neither the political legitimacy nor territorial control over Myanmar. According to a recent analysis by an independent group of experts and former UN mandate holders on Myanmar – Special Advisory Council for Myanmar – the NUG and resistance organizations have effective control over 52% of the territory of Myanmar, while the junta is being actively contested in a further 23% of the territory. This means that the junta can only claim to have stable control over 17% of the territory.
Moreover, UN mandate holders have repeatedly raised concern on the weaponization of humanitarian aid by the junta, actively destroying and restricting aid to the people. These realities question the UN’s effectiveness in reaching the population in need by signing agreements to work with the very perpetrators who are causing the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. This is also demonstrative of the importance of signing agreements with the NUG and EROs, and the urgent need to work directly with local actors in the provision of humanitarian aid, including from along the borders of Myanmar.
Within 598 days of the attempted coup, the Myanmar military has killed at least 2,311 people, including 192 children in cold blood. More than 15,400 people have been arbitrarily arrested, with at least 12,462 people still detained, with many routinely facing torture. The actual numbers of deaths and arrests are likely far higher. The Myanmar military continues to commit gross human rights violations and atrocity crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity by torching houses, burning villages, looting properties, massacring people, committing rape and gang rape, shooting on sight, indiscriminate shelling and launching airstrikes in towns and villages. The crimes committed by the military in the past 19 months, in addition to those crimes committed against Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in the past, are collected by the UN, including by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar.
The signing of the MoUs and agreements with the junta, coupled with the inconsistent, ineffectual and non-principled approach to addressing the crisis in Myanmar by the UN, conveys the wrong message to the junta and to the world that it recognizes the body that terrorizes the people of Myanmar and is responsible for gross international crimes. This not only emboldens the junta to commit further atrocity crimes with total impunity, but it indicates that the UN, in practice, does not respect the will of the people of Myanmar as adopted in resolutions and statements, including by the UN General Assembly, UN Human Rights Council and in a statement issued by the president of the UN Security Council. The continuing issues in the UN’s approach in Myanmar, followings its “systemic and structural failures” in providing a unified approach in addressing the Rohingya genocide in 2017, highlighted in the 2019 Rosenthal Report, is glaring.
The people of Myanmar have been loud and clear that they want their legitimate government, the NUG and their Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun to be their representative at the UN. The will of Myanmar people in choosing their own government and thus their own representative at the UN and as well as in their struggle for federal democracy and human rights in their country must be fully recognized and respected by the UN and its member states.
Your Excellency, as the people and civil society of Myanmar, the region and throughout the world, we strongly urge all UN agencies, funds, programmes and other entities to stop legitimizing the illegal murderous junta and call on you for your leadership in a coordinated response to the crisis in Myanmar. We call on UN agencies, funds, programmes and other entities to work with the legitimate government of Myanmar, the NUG, EROs, CSOs and community-based organizations.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 638 organizations, including 239 groups who have chosen not to disclose their names.
Click here for the full list of signatories.
Sep 22, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Southeast Asian parliamentarians have condemned the recent trial of dozens of members of the political opposition in Cambodia as a sham, and called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to take strong action to halt Prime Minister Hun Sen’s relentless assault on human rights and democracy.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) also called for all charges against the political opposition in the country to be dropped, and for all those currently detained to be released unconditionally.
Last week, Cambodia’s government started its latest mass trial targeting mainly members of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), with 37 defendants summoned to a Phnom Penh court for the hearing. According to media reports, only three defendants were physically present, with the rest either in hiding or in exile.
“No-one should be fooled by Hun Sen’s latest charade that the courts in Cambodia stand for anything other than a weapon in his unrelenting campaign to snuff out the country’s political opposition. Instead of using the courts to silence critical voices, Hun Sen should drop all charges against the political opposition and create a space for genuine opposition parties to run in a general election next year that is free and fair,” said Kasit Piromya, former Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs and APHR Board Member.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit treason and could face prison sentences of between five and 10 years. The allegations are related to a failed attempt by former CNRP Vice-President and current APHR Board Member, Mu Sochua, to return to Cambodia from self-exile in January 2021 to face charges in a separate politically-motivated trial. Mu Sochua, who has already been sentenced to 36 years, is among the figures summoned for the latest round of charges. She has made it clear she plans to return to Cambodia to face the charges against her, but has been prevented from entering the country.
Among those also facing charges is Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American human rights defender who is currently being detained in Preah Vihear Prison, in northern Cambodia. In a recent report, the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch Initiative and the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights described the trial against her as “a travesty of justice” and gave the trial’s procedure an “F” grade, meaning a trial “entailed a gross violation of international standards that affected the outcome and/or resulted in significant harm.”
The report also detailed “due process violations” committed against Theary, including her right to be informed of the charges against her, her right to counsel and adequate facilities to prepare a defense, her presumption of innocence, her right to be tried before and independent and impartial tribunal, and her post-conviction right to counsel.
The situation related to human rights and democracy has drastically deteriorated in Cambodia in recent years, notably since Hun Sen used the country’s courts to dissolve the CNRP in 2017, shortly after it had run his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) close in successive nationwide elections.
As a result of the dissolution, the CPP now holds all 125 seats in the National Assembly, which it has used to push through increasingly repressive laws, as well as proposed changes to the constitution that would pave the way for Hun Sen to transfer power to his son.
“Hun Sen is clearly of the view that he can continue abusing his power with absolute impunity, and the international community, including ASEAN, should send a clear message that such actions will not be tolerated – at the very least they must not legitimise any elections that take place under the current conditions. The deeper Hun Sen entrenches his rule, the harder it will be to return the country to democracy. International actors must take action now, and do everything in their power – including targeted sanctions, diplomatic maneuvering and support for civil society – to get the country back on the democratic path,” said Piromya.
Sep 19, 2022 | DFF, Statements
NEW YORK – The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Dato Sri Saifuddin Abdullah, parliamentarians from Europe and Asia, and members of the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar have urged the global community to take stronger action to tackle the crisis triggered in Myanmar by last year’s illegal coup d’état.
Minister Abdullah hosted a meeting focused on Myanmar today at the Malaysian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which is taking place this week.
“There should be an inclusive and fair consultation with all stakeholders in Myanmar, including the NUG and NUCC. Then there should be a framework with a clear endgame, which includes a return to democracy in Myanmar,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah is the only ASEAN minister who has publicly met with members of the NUG, the legitimate government in Myanmar, which represents the democratic aspirations of the country’s people. The meeting was attended by the NUG Minister for Human Rights, U Aung Myo Min; the NUG Minister of Communications, Information and Technology, as well as its spokesperson, U Htin Linn Aung; the permanent representative of Myanmar to the UN, Kyaw Moe Tun; as well as representatives of other Myanmar pro-democracy organizations.
“The Myanmar people deserve to have their true representatives at the table where regional decisions are being made,” said Htin Linn Aung.
The meeting was attended by Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament and Chair of the International Parliamentary Inquiry (IPI) into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar; Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and Chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR); Mercy Chriesty Barends, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives and APHR Board Member; U Shwe Maung, former Myanmar Member of Parliament, and APHR Board Member; and Tom Villarin, former congressman from the Philippines, and APHR Board Member.
Since the coup d’état on 1 February 2021, Myanmar has been plunged into a deep crisis, as the military junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing engages in an all-out war against its population in order to cement its power. A massive civil disobedience movement has demonstrated that the vast majority of the country’s population does not wish to live under military rule and has valiantly resisted the power grab. Meanwhile, international attention has largely shifted to crises elsewhere.
“Nineteen months after the coup, the international allies of the junta have shown a commitment to supporting Min Aung Hlaing which surpasses that of those countries claiming to support the pro-democracy movement. Simply put, the latter are not doing enough to help the Myanmar people, as countries like Russia or China actively support the military, engage the junta and give it the recognition it so keenly craves. It is high time for those governments that claim to support democracy in Myanmar to act forcefully,” said Charles Santiago.
In order to assess the global response to the crisis in Myanmar and offer recommendations on what international actors should do to support democracy and human rights in the country, APHR launched the International Parliamentary Inquiry on Myanmar in June. Chaired by Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament, the IPI Committee is formed by eight parliamentarians from seven countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
The IPI has held a total of six public oral hearings, as well as two special and three confidential oral hearings, with experts, diplomats, politicians, and activists from Myanmar and other countries. IPI committee members also conducted a fact-finding mission to the Thai-Myanmar border in August, where they met with over a dozen civil society organizations and other stakeholders. On the occasion of the UN General Assembly, the IPI has sent a delegation to New York and Washington, in order to present its preliminary findings. The IPI final report will be released in November.
The IPI members are presenting a position paper to a variety a stakeholders in New York and Washington, in which they assert that the coup has failed in the face of widespread popular opposition. Myanmar has been plunged into a civil war between the military and the pro-democracy movement, which is bound to be long and protracted.
“As the conflict in Myanmar remains undecided, and the coup is triggering a humanitarian crisis of an enormous scale, what international actors do, or fail to do, may tip the scale in favor of military dictatorship or democracy. We urge the global community to scale up humanitarian aid, to increase the pressure on the junta through improved coordination on sanctions and diplomatic isolation. We further urge international actors to fully acknowledge the NUG as what it is, the legitimate government of Myanmar, and support it accordingly with funding, capacity building initiatives, and diplomatic recognition,” said Heidi Hautala.
