Apr 25, 2024 | DFF, Reports
MANILA — In many countries in Southeast Asia – most notably in Myanmar but also elsewhere – parliamentarians and ex-parliamentarians continue to be subject to multiple forms of human rights violations, according to the latest annual Parliamentarians At Risk report from ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), launched today in Manila, the Philippines.
“Parliamentarians’ ability to safely conduct their mandate and to speak and act on behalf of their constituents, are important ways for power to be checked and democracy to be strengthened. Today, our collective voice will send a clear message that an attack against one parliamentarian is an attack against the democratic institution of parliament itself,” said APHR Chair and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Mercy Barends. “We stand in solidarity with them, ensuring that the voices of those who are silenced are not forgotten, and calling for an end to the violations of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
In 2023, parliamentarians in Southeast Asia continued to face threats and harassment. Myanmar remains the worst country when it comes to jailing members of parliament (MPs), with all 74 of those detained in the region being held there.
A total of 73 of the lawmakers from the National League for Democracy (NLD), and only one was from another party, the Mon Unity Party, a fact that demonstrates the political nature of the arrests, since it is MPs from the NLD – which resoundingly won the 2020 election – that are overwhelmingly targeted. Many of the ousted parliamentarians are continuing their work in hiding, either inside Myanmar or abroad, because if found by the military they are at risk of detention, torture, and even death. Some have seen their family members harassed and their properties seized by the military.
But Myanmar is not the only place where harassment against lawmakers takes place, and governments in many Southeast Asian countries have continued to use judicial harassment in particular against opposition lawmakers. In the Philippines, for example, while APHR Member and former senator Leila de Lima was finally released on bail after almost seven years of unjust detention in November 2023, she is still awaiting trial for the last remaining drug case against her.
“My case is just one among the many cases our region continues to see. It is a reflection of how Southeast Asia, a region of so much potential, is witnessing a worrying trend of authoritarianism where opposition figures are silenced, dissenting voices are stifled, and ultimately fundamental freedoms are quashed,” said de Lima. “This is done through a spectrum of tactics, such as the continuing use of draconian laws to curb free speech, to time and jail, intimidation, and violence.”
Opposition MPs also continue to face harassment in the Philippines, in particular through the dangerous use of “red-tagging”, in which political activists, journalists, and others are accused of being communists. Those who are “red-tagged” are often physically attacked.
Two countries – Thailand and Cambodia – held elections in 2023, but in neither of those countries were citizens freely allowed to vote for the political leadership they wanted, either due to physical and judicial intimidation against MPs, or through non-democratic state apparatus preventing the will of the people from being fulfilled.
Consistent with recent elections in Cambodia, the 2023 vote was another farce that only served to bolster the grip on power held by Hun Sen – the autocratic strongman who has ruled since 1985 – and his allies. Only three parties participated in the election, and the country’s largest opposition party, the Candlelight Party, was barred from participating on dubious administrative grounds weeks before the election took place. In the weeks leading up to the election, the Hun Sen regime also launched relentless attacks against human rights defenders and opposition parties.
Meanwhile in Thailand, the Move Forward Party was prevented from forming a government by unelected senators, despite winning the highest number of votes in the May 2023 elections. As well as being prevented from becoming prime minister, a campaign of judicial harassment has also been pursued against then-party leader Pita Limjaroenrat, and the Move Forward Party, part of a pattern that has been used against progressive politicians in recent years – most notably members of Future Forward, Move Forward’s predecessor.
In Malaysia, while the new government campaigned on a platform of reform, judicial harassment continues, including through draconian laws such as the Sedition Act, which APHR has repeatedly called to be repealed. The act – which has previously been used against opposition parliamentarians – can carry a punishment of three to seven years in prison for vaguely worded offenses, including acting with “seditious tendency” against the government.
“Parliaments – and by extension parliamentarians – play a crucial role in providing oversight of the government in a functioning democracy. It is therefore of the utmost importance that lawmakers can conduct their mandate without fear of reprisals from the government,” said APHR Board Member and Malaysian member of parliament Wong Chen. “In view of the continued risks faced by parliamentarians in the region, APHR continues to call on all stakeholders and international partners to step up collective efforts in protecting parliamentarians at risk in the region.”
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Mar 19, 2024 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – ASEAN’s continued and increasing engagement with the Myanmar military junta risks legitimizing the illegal regime and betraying the efforts of pro-democracy forces, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said today.
“Despite the abundant and irrefutable evidence that the junta has perpetrated grave human rights violations against its own citizens, ASEAN continues to collaborate and engage with them,” APHR Co-Chair and former Malaysian member of parliament Charles Santiago said today. “This is a slap in the face for the Myanmar people and their valiant resistance in the face of the junta’s brutal oppression.”
The ASEAN chairmanship, currently held by Laos, has evidently sought to bring Myanmar back to meetings despite an agreement that barred top-level generals from participating. An official from Myanmar most recently attended the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat held in Luang Prabang, Laos, where representatives called for a “Myanmar-owned and led solution.”
APHR is also concerned by recent remarks from Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin about Thailand’s involvement in the Myanmar crisis. In an interview with Time Magazine, he said that “ASEAN has agreed that Thailand will take the lead” on peace talks with Myanmar. Thailand has a history of trying to bring Myanmar back into the ASEAN fold, despite the junta showing no interest in adhering to the Five Point Consensus or ending its ongoing hostilities against the civilian population.
“There is no clear mandate within ASEAN that makes it acceptable for Thailand to lead on Myanmar, given that it is neither the current Chair nor part of the ASEAN troika. The Thai Prime Minister’s comments undermine the credibility of the bloc and ASEAN centrality,” said Santiago.
Most recently, a junta-affiliated media outlet has praised ASEAN for “seeing the light”. The Myanmar military junta has led a brutal campaign of violence against civilians with impunity since its attempted coup, with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimating that at least 8,000 civilians have been killed since February 2021. According to the local organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the junta has also arbitrarily arrested 26,244 people, with 20,112 of them still currently in detention. As such, any praise from the junta should be seen as a dire warning sign that ASEAN is going in the wrong direction.
“As countries that claim to uphold democracy and human rights, Indonesia and Malaysia must use their position within the ASEAN troika to end any and all engagement with the junta and take action to hold them accountable for their crimes,” said Santiago. “Anything less will only diminish their credibility and relevance – as well as ASEAN’s – on the global stage.”
Nov 14, 2023 | CCHR, Statements
KUALA LUMPUR – More cases of dangerous haze pollution have been observed in the last few weeks, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Today, civil society organizations in the region are calling on member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to protect and uphold citizens’ rights to clean air from the recurring haze by enacting a Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) as a concrete first step.
In time for the Asia-Pacific Climate Week (APCW 2023) held from 13-17 November in Johor, Malaysia, Greenpeace Southeast Asia (GPSEA) and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) reminded governments of their commitments to implement the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP). Past pronouncements to stop the haze first began with the 2002 ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution but since then, very little progress has been made. With the combined reality of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole and El Niño, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia governments have started warning their citizens to prepare for possible transboundary haze. But warnings are not enough, especially with an ongoing climate emergency. Current climate temperatures are increasing the intensity and frequency of forest and land fires resulting in more cases of haze that has disrupted people’s lives, even causing a massive public health crisis in the regions.
Mercy Barends, Chairperson, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said:
“The right to clean air is a basic human right that should be protected. The haze that has plagued Sumatra, Kalimantan, Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur, and other Southeast Asian areas in the past few months is a clear demonstration of the need for regional cooperation to combat pollution. Parliamentarians across Southeast Asia should advocate for the passing of a domestic Transboundary Haze Act in their respective countries and show their commitment to ensuring that everyone in the region can breathe easily.”
Heng Kiah Chun, Regional Campaign Strategist for Greenpeace Southeast Asia said:
“Southeast Asians have had to deal with toxic haze for decades now due to ASEAN’s lack of political will to stop the haze even in their own backyard. It has impacted entire generations who have been forced to live with seasonal haze, some have suffered from health issues because their basic rights to clean air were not met. ASEAN pronouncements are useless if people continue to suffer and are forced to bear toxic air pollution. It’s time for ASEAN to act, put their citizens’ health and well-being first and put an end to Transboundary Haze.”
Both groups lauded the Establishment Agreement of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACC THPC) and look forward to the full operationalization of the Centre which aims to facilitate faster and effective implementation of all aspects of the AATHP to address transboundary haze pollution in the ASEAN region and to endorse revisions to the Standard Operating Procedures for Monitoring, Evaluation and Joint Emergency Response (SOP MAJER).
They also noted that diplomatic cooperation among ASEAN governments can coexist with action-oriented laws to ensure accountability and strengthen governments’ strategies in dealing with the long-term haze issues. For Malaysia, ASEAN regional diplomatic cooperation should not be an excuse used to delay enforceable laws such as a THPA, which was tabled in Malaysia in 2019 but scrapped in August 2020 despite many Malaysian-owned companies being linked to forest fires in Indonesia.
In particular, Greenpeace Southeast Asia and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights demand ASEAN states to:
1. Develop a regional legal framework to hold corporate entities accountable for forest fires due to peatland drainage, and commodity-driven deforestation and agricultural residue burning
2. Mandate all plantation companies with concession areas in flammable landscapes including peatland or forestland to publicly disclose and publish concession maps to be shared across all ASEAN member states to improve transparency in their supply chains.
3. Regulate traceability requirements at every step of the supply chain of agribusiness and food industry to identify the origin of commodities and mitigate risks of deforestation, crop residue burning and transboundary haze at the source.
4. Agree on a standardised air quality indicator to be used in all ASEAN member states to monitor and track air pollution based on a common methodology and act accordingly.
Sep 6, 2023 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – The Review and Decision on the Implementation of the Five Point Consensus agreed to by ASEAN leaders at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta falls short of the steps necessary to resolve the Myanmar crisis and restore democracy in the country, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said today.
“When President Jokowi opened the ASEAN Summit retreat session, he said that ASEAN needed more ‘tactical and extraordinary’ efforts to implement the Five Point Consensus,” said APHR Chair and member of Indonesian House of Representatives Mercy Barends. “Unfortunately, the ‘review and decision’ document does not reflect that need for extraordinary and urgent measures.”
The document states that ASEAN will continue to use the Five Point Consensus as the ‘main reference point’ to address the crisis in Myanmar and once again urged the Myanmar junta to ‘de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks against civilians.’ The document also notes that ASEAN leaders have agreed that Myanmar will not chair ASEAN in 2026.
“We appreciate that ASEAN leaders have condemned the violence perpetrated by the junta; however, words of condemnation are not enough to stop these acts from happening. And while ASEAN reaffirmed its commitment to assisting Myanmar in finding a peaceful solution – it does not indicate how or what steps will be taken,” said Barends. “ASEAN has also failed to acknowledge and recognize the efforts and leadership of the pro-democracy movement in their various capacities.”
Since the illegal coup in February 2021, at least 4,000 civilians have been killed, while nearly two million others have been forced to flee their homes. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) estimates that the junta has arrested over 24,000 political prisoners since the coup, over 19,800 of which remain in detention.
“It has been almost three years since the coup, during which millions of people have had their lives irrevocably shattered by the junta’s atrocities. And yet ASEAN seems content to continue to act as if the Myanmar crisis was some bureaucratic mix-up that can be periodically ‘reviewed’ and not an ongoing armed conflict where lives are on the line every day,” said Barends.
The Myanmar junta’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement rejecting the ‘review and decision’ claiming that it was ‘not objective’ and ‘one-sided.”
“If there was not already enough proof, the Myanmar junta’s response to ASEAN’s review and decision further shows that the junta is a bad-faith actor that has no interest in pursuing the peaceful, democratic, and inclusive resolution that the people of Myanmar deserve. ASEAN leaders must open their eyes to this reality and stop acting as if the junta can be counted on to uphold and protect human rights, ” said Barends. “ASEAN must take a much harder line and detail enforcement mechanisms that will genuinely hold the junta to account, otherwise it is merely prolonging the status quo.”
“We urge ASEAN to take strong and meaningful actions – including openly recognizing and supporting pro-democracy forces, and creating concrete accountability mechanisms for the junta – so that it is remembered as an organization that helped ease that suffering, rather than one that compounded it,” said Barends.
Aug 7, 2023 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia call on fellow lawmakers attending the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly in Jakarta to advocate for strong, concrete actions rooted in human rights principles to ensure a proactive and coordinated response to the worsening Myanmar crisis.
“The AIPA General Assembly is an important forum in which lawmakers from across the region can come together and work together on key issues, including the ongoing crisis in Myanmar,” ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights Board Member and Malaysian member of parliament Wong Chen said today. “Representatives joining the assembly can play a key role in pushing their governments to ensure that the suffering and loss of life that occurs daily in Myanmar is not allowed to go on with impunity.”
The AIPA General Assembly is taking place between 5-11 August in Jakarta, Indonesia, with the theme “Responsive Parliaments for a Stable and Prosperous ASEAN.” The first plenary session will be held on 7 August, while committee meetings will be held on 8 August, with the final plenary session on 9 August.
“AIPA representatives must recognize that the Myanmar junta cannot be relied on, as shown by its continued disregard for the Five-Point Consensus. Therefore, they should urge their respective governments to engage with the National Unity Government, ethnic revolution organizations and civil society groups,” said Wong Chen.
In July, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stated that he and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed that Southeast Asian countries should be able to engage bilaterally with the Myanmar junta. Before that, Thailand had initiated Track 1.5 meetings with junta representatives, which were also attended by Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
“We reiterate our concerns that an increasing number of ASEAN leaders have indicated their openness to engaging with the junta. This would be a terrible mistake; such ‘engagement’ would only be used as military propaganda and will help the junta paint the pro-democracy movement as an obstacle to peace, when in fact, establishing an inclusive and human rights-respecting democracy, is the only way to ensure lasting solutions in Myanmar,” said Wong Chen. “We, therefore, urge lawmakers to call on their governments to continue to work towards holding the junta accountable for its widespread and systematic crimes against its own people.”
“We also once again call on Indonesian lawmakers to urge Indonesia, as chair of ASEAN, to initiate a thorough and inclusive review of the Five Point Consensus while there is still time remaining in its chairmanship. The Consensus has so far failed to help resolve the Myanmar crisis. Time is running out for Indonesia to make a real impact on the fate of Myanmar and leave a lasting legacy for its chairmanship.”
