Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia urge ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to urgently rescue a boat carrying up to 200 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, which has been reportedly adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India for weeks.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the boat has been adrift in high seas since late November, and dozens of passengers have already died on the journey, while the surviving passengers have no access to food, water or medication. 

We urgently call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to fulfill their humanitarian obligations and launch search and rescue operations for the boat if it enters their waters, and to allow for the proper disembarkation of the refugees. It is disgraceful that a boat filled with men, women, and children in grave danger has been allowed to remain adrift. Neglecting the people on the boat is nothing short of an affront to humanity,” said Eva Sundari, Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and former Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

According to media reports and information from human rights organizations, two other boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been adrift ASEAN waters in the past weeks. One, carrying 154 refugees, was rescued by a Vietnamese oil service vessel on 8 December and handed over to the Myanmar navy. Another, carrying 104 refugees, was rescued by the Sri Lanka navy on 18 December, and disembarked at Kankesanturai Harbor.

The Rohingya have been suffering persecution in their country of origin, Myanmar, for decades. The overwhelming majority of them were rendered stateless in the early nineties by the authorities, and have suffered the most serious human rights violations since at least the late seventies. In 2016 and 2017 they were the target of brutal military operations, displacing over 730,000 to neighbouring Bangladesh and for which the Myanmar army has been accused of genocide.

In these desperate conditions, many of them put themselves at the hands of unscrupulous human smugglers to seek a better life in countries like Malaysia, in extremely dangerous journeys through the Andaman Sea.

In all likelihood, the delay in rescuing these boats has already caused untold suffering and loss of life. Any further delay is unconscionable. This neglect of Rohingya refugees stranded in the sea is nothing new, as it has been going on for years, and has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths that could have been easily been prevented if the countries in the region fulfilled the most elementary humanitarian principles,” said Charles Santiago, Chairperson of APHR, and former member of Parliament from Malaysia.

APHR urges ASEAN to devise a comprehensive and coordinated regional response to the issue of refugees stranded at sea, in order to act effectively, and according to humanitarian principles, in such situations, as saving lives at sea must be a collective effort.

But ASEAN should also address the root causes of the tragedy that has befell the Rohingya for so many years, including putting pressure on the Myanmar authorities to restore their citizenship, and receiving the refugees currently living in precarious camps in Bangladesh. ASEAN should also help to hold the perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya people accountable, especially now that the army that launched the genocidal military operations against them in 2016 and 2017 has thrown Myanmar into chaos since staging an illegal coup d’état on 1 February 2021.

ASEAN and the international community at large have stood idly for too long as the Rohingya tragedy unfolded over the years. Those countries who claim to defend human rights have a moral obligation to address the root causes of the human rights crisis afflicting the Rohingya, or these humanitarian tragedies will only repeat again and again. ASEAN member states, as well as their partners in the region and beyond, must ensure that Myanmar restore the rights of the Rohingya people, end all discriminatory practices and holds those responsible for crimes against humanity to account,” said Kasit Piromya, APHR Board Member and former Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Open letter on the situation of human rights and human rights defenders in Southeast Asia ahead of the inaugural ASEAN – EU Summit

Open letter on the situation of human rights and human rights defenders in Southeast Asia ahead of the inaugural ASEAN – EU Summit

Jakarta, Indonesia

12 December 2022

To H.E. Hassanal Bolkiah, Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam

To H.E. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia

To H.E. Joko Widodo, Prime Minister of Indonesia

To H.E. Phankham Viphavanh, Prime Minister of Lao PDR

To H.E. Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia

To H.E. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr, President of the Philippines

To H.E. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore

To H.E. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand

To H.E. Pham Minh Chinh, Prime Minister of Viet Nam

To H.E. Charles Michel, President of the European Council

cc

Ambassador of the European Union to ASEAN, H.E. Mr. Igor Driesmans

Re: The situation of human rights and human rights defenders in Southeast Asia ahead of the inaugural ASEAN – EU Summit

Your excellencies,

We, former and current parliamentarians from four member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Timor-Leste, and members of the European Parliament, have the honour to address you ahead of the first summit of leaders from our two regional organizations, ASEAN and the European Union, that will take place on 14 December in Brussels.

We are convinced that deepening cooperation is critical to addressing the many common issues that we are facing, from the climate emergency to the human and economic costs of crises such as those devastating Myanmar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen or Syria. While these crises present asymmetrical burdens in each region, there is a global responsibility to address them. We hope that the summit will also serve as a catalyst for both our regional organizations to take the urgent actions necessary to address troubling trends and worsening human rights crises.

Human rights defenders are at the core of free, fair and equal societies, and serve their communities often at great personal cost. The United Nations General Assembly recognised this key role when it adopted by consensus the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (A/RES/53/144) in 1998, 50 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The 1998 Declaration clearly states in its first article that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”. Individuals and communities across Southeast Asia have availed themselves of this right, courageously fighting for human rights in many ways and forms: journalists like Maria Ressa in the Philippines, and Pham Doan Trang in Vietnam; environmental and indigenous human rights defenders like Vannak Hun in Cambodia, Windel Bolinget in the Philippines, and Jonathan Mesulam in Papua New Guinea; women rights and LGBTQ+ rights defenders like Matcha Phorn-in in Thailand and Jolovan Wham in Singapore; and those defending democracy and claiming greater freedoms, like Roland Levy in West Papua, Indonesia.

Human rights defenders continue to suffer reprisals for their work, too often at the hands of the states that are meant to protect them. The Human Rights Memorial project documented the killings of 25 human rights defenders in Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand in 2021, and the real number is likely to be several times higher. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Lao PDR, and the situation for human rights defenders in many countries across the region has only worsened.

As detailed in Front Line Defenders’ Global Analysis 2021, human rights defenders in the region face a wide range of threats, including: judicial harassment; defamation and smear campaigns, most notably the infamous practice of red-tagging in the Philippines; the abuse of Covid-19 related laws, like Cambodia’s widely criticized Preventive Measures law; and the weaponization of legislation like Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions Law to silence defenders, especially anti-corruption activists.

Digital surveillance is a growing concern, using technology that is both domestically produced as well as imported from countries, such as China and Russia, that have weak human rights safeguards and due diligence. Thai human rights defenders and pro-democracy protesters have been targeted with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, as reported by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. However, no sophisticated software is required to target human rights defenders through technological means, as illustrated by the increasing practice of doxxing in Indonesia.

Some of the defenders most targeted are those working on labour rights, environmental rights, indigenous rights, women’s rights, journalists and those advocating for democracy and working on abuses of counter-terrorism legislation.

As parliamentarians, we remain particularly concerned about political violence and the targeting of elected representatives, including because of their human rights work. Former Senator Leila M. de Lima of the Philippines, imprisoned during the Duterte administration in 2017, remains the most high-profile case, but unfortunately it is not the only one. Former member of the Philippine House of Representatives and Board Member at ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), Walden Bello, is facing politically-motivated charges of cyber-libel brought by the current Vice-President, Sara Duterte. After the 2021 coup d’état in Myanmar, the number of parliamentarians imprisoned in the ASEAN region spiked from one to 91; while judicial harassment against parliamentarians continued in Thailand and the Philippines, and escalated substantially in Malaysia. This is documented in the APHR report Parliamentarians at Risk: Reprisals against opposition MPs in Southeast Asia in 2021.

The situation in Myanmar remains dire in general, and for human rights defenders in particular. The Penal Code, particularly sections related to high treason, defamation and statements causing public disorder, is being widely used by the military junta to suppress dissent and freedom of expression. A 2022 report by Amnesty International has documented the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by prison authorities against detainees, including human rights defenders, political dissidents, journalists and civilian protesters. The executions of Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former member of the National League for Democracy, prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw, represent an escalation in the junta’s human rights violations.

The coup in Myanmar has also put minorities such as the Rohingya at greater risk of persecution, including in their countries of refuge. The case of the killing of Rohingya human rights defender and community leader Mohib Ullah in Bangladesh is emblematic of the systematic silencing of marginalized communities. Rohingya journalists reporting on the various challenges faced by the community have suffered serious reprisals as a result of their work, as seen in the case of brothers Saiful and Aziz Arakani.

We, members of the European Parliament and ASEAN parliamentarians, therefore call on the authorities of ASEAN to:

  • Reiterate publicly, including in the ensuing declaration of the summit, the valuable role played by human rights defenders in society, the importance of protecting human rights defenders and of properly investigating offenses committed against them, including killings and enforced disappearances;
  • Refrain from making statements or declarations stigmatising the  work of Human Rights Defenders, including through practices like red-tagging and smear campaigns;
  • Improve, and develop when necessary, their national human rights policies, including specific policies addressing the protection of human rights defenders;
  • Ensure that National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are able to function independently and effectively, in accordance with the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles);
  • Stop using libel and defamation laws to silence government critics, activists, human rights defenders and parliamentarians in opposition;
  • Immediately release, and drop charges against, all human rights defenders arbitrarily imprisoned for their legitimate human rights work, including Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức, Pham Doan Trang and Nguyen Lan Thang in Viet Nam; Victor Yeimo in Indonesia; Houayheuang Xayabouly, Lodkham Thammavong, Soukane Chaithad and Somphone Phimmasone in Lao PDR;
  • Call on all parties to facilitate cross-border aid in Myanmar and neighbouring countries, by working in partnership with local humanitarian actors, ensuring the principle of non-refoulement and respecting international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Saskia Bricmont, Member of the European Parliament

Sarah Jane Elago, former MP from the Philippines

Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament

Botta Long, former MP from Cambodia.

Karsten Lucke, Member of the European Parliament

Hannah Neumann, Member of the European Parliament

Kunthida Rungruengkiat, MP from Thailand

Charles Santiago, former MP from Malaysia

Mu Sochua, former MP from Cambodia

Marianne Vind, Member of the European Parliament

Myanmar junta releases four foreigners and 6,000 others in a mass amnesty, but thousands of political prisoners remain in jail

Myanmar junta releases four foreigners and 6,000 others in a mass amnesty, but thousands of political prisoners remain in jail

JAKARTA – As the Myanmar military released four unjustly jailed foreigners in a mass amnesty this Thursday, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) wishes to congratulate their families. Yet this is no time to lower the guard with the military led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, as the prisoners should not have been jailed in the first place and thousands of Myanmar political prisoners remain in the country’s jails, APHR said.

As part of a mass amnesty in which 6,000 prisoners were freed, the junta released Sean Turnell, an Australian citizen and economic adviser to former State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi; Vicky Bowman, a former British envoy; U.S. citizen Kyaw Htay Oo; and Toru Kubota, a Japanese filmmaker. Another prisoner released is the former Chief Minister of Tanintharyi Region, U Myint Maung. Meanwhile, over 13,000 political prisoners remain in Myanmar’s jails, where conditions are notoriously abysmal and the use of torture is routine, often resulting in gruesome deaths.

“This is a game the Myanmar generals have been playing for a very long time. In the midst of continuous atrocities, from time to time they make an apparent gesture of goodwill, minor in comparison with the crimes they commit on a daily basis, in order to alleviate international pressure and gain legitimacy. No one should fall for this trick; the global community should not be fooled into thinking that Min Aung Hlaing and his henchmen have changed their ways,” said Kasit Piromya, former Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs and APHR Board Member.

Sean Turnell was arrested on 6 April 2021, five days after the coup, under the accusation of trying to flee the country with secret information. Vicky Bowman and her husband, Htein Lin, were arrested in August this year on immigration charges, and Toru Kobuta was detained in July when he was filming a demonstration against the military.

While they have been released, others have not been so lucky. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 73 detainees have died in police or military custody in police stations, military interrogation centers, and prisons since the coup last year. They include four political prisoners executed in July: Phyo Zeya Thaw, former lawmaker for the National League for Democracy (NLD); the prominent activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as ‘Ko Jimmy’; Aung Thura Zaw; and Hla Myo Aung. These were the first known judicial executions in Myanmar since 1988, according to Amnesty International.

Since the coup on 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military has committed all kinds of atrocities, which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said may amount to “crimes against humanity and war crimes,” in order to consolidate its power against widespread popular resistance. The self-styled State Administration Council (SAC) led by Min Aung Hlaing has killed at least 2,465 people, launched indiscriminate aerial attacks in ethnic areas, and razed hundreds of villages to the ground, throwing the country into chaos, and leading it to the brink of becoming a failed state.

Meanwhile, the international response to the crisis has been sorely insufficient, as argued in a report launched recently by the International Parliamentary Inquiry into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar, an initiative organized by APHR and whose Committee is formed by eight parliamentarians from seven different countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

“The international community has proven largely unable to respond effectively to the crisis. The junta’s international allies—most prominently Russia and China—have emerged as steadfast and uncritical supporters, supplying both weapons and legitimacy to an otherwise isolated regime. Foreign governments that profess support for democracy have not backed up their rhetoric with the same force of action,” said the report, titled ‘Time is not on our side’: The failed international response to the Myanmar coup.

The reasons for the mass amnesty, and the release of the three foreigners, remain unclear, but they come after an ASEAN Summit, in which its member states reaffirmed its commitment to the Five Point Consensus, an agreement signed in April 2021 to address the crisis in Myanmar that has been supported by the international community at large. The consensushas not produced any tangible results ever since, as APHR has repeatedly denounced.

“There is a legitimate concern that ASEAN member states are going to drink the kool-aid and treat the Myanmar junta with even kinder gloves after the release of these political prisoners. Against all reason, ASEAN is already sticking to an agreement that has proved an utter failure for over one and a half years, instead of doing the right thing to solve the crisis: put real pressure on the military, recognize the National Unity Government (NUG) as the legitimate authority in the country,” said Charles Santiago, former Malaysian Member of Parliament, APHR Chairperson, and one of the IPI Committee Members.

New report shows that national laws threaten religious diversity and freedoms in Southeast Asia

New report shows that national laws threaten religious diversity and freedoms in Southeast Asia

JAKARTA – Southeast Asian countries must do more to truly guarantee freedom of religion, protect minorities, and stop using “public order” and “harmony” as justifications for imposing unwarranted restrictions on this fundamental right, a new report from ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) found.

“This report shows that many laws that inhibit, restrict, and repress religious freedoms remain on the books and are implemented throughout Southeast Asia. This report is a reminder that, despite all achievements to maintain coexistence in a plural Southeast Asia, there are still many problems that remain to be solved and situations that should be improved,” said APHR member and Indonesian MP Taufik Basari.

The report, titled “Restricting Diversity: Mapping Legislation on Freedom of  Religion or Belief in Southeast Asia,” was launched on 7 November 2022 and provides an overview of the laws and regulations regarding the right to freedom of religion or belief in the region. One of the key findings in the report is that, while many of the constitutions of Southeast Asian countries formally guarantee the right to freedom of religion, in practice the laws related to religion contain ambiguities and restrictions that do not conform with international standards. 

National security and public order, for instance, have often been used to justify restricting the freedom of religious minorities, including Ahmadiyah, Shia, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others. Meanwhile, blasphemy laws are often used to criminalize certain religious groups that are critical to the state, government or the religious establishment of the majority, in flagrant violation of international human rights standards.

“I hope we can have more dialogues in the future and more innovative methods to promote and protect FoRB in the Southeast Asian countries. The law must serve as a tool in creating peace and balance for the community, so it should be formulated properly in order to bring justice in society.”” said APHR member and Timor-Leste MP Isabel Ximenes.

Parliamentarians can play a crucial role in working towards fully guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief in Southeast Asia by repealing and amending laws that violate such freedom, and pass new laws where necessary. 

“I think that, at the end of the day, we must have a firm commitment from parliamentarians or both sides, whether in government or in parliament, to have the same understanding about human rights. If you do not speak the language of human rights, then you are the problem,” said Dr. Ahmad Farouk Musa, Founder and Director of Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), Malaysia, and surgery professor at Monash University. 

Click here to read the report.

Rights of indigenous peoples and local communities must be the focus of climate change solutions

Rights of indigenous peoples and local communities must be the focus of climate change solutions

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.