Dec 3, 2020 | RM, Statements, Tools for MPs, Uncategorized
JAKARTA – Ahead of the 37th ASEAN Summit this week, current and former parliamentarians have submitted an open letter to ASEAN urging it to play a positive role in resolving the ongoing crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Dozens of current and former lawmakers from across Southeast Asia have urged the policy-making body to ensure that its actions create positive and sustainable change that contribute to ending the cycle of violence and displacement in Rakhine.
“While we welcome ASEAN playing a proactive role in the Rakhine crisis, there is so much more it can do to help bring it towards a resolution,” said Mercy Barends, an Indonesian MP and Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). “Importantly, it must recognize that this is more than a humanitarian issue, and address it from all aspects, whether they are human rights, political, humanitarian, social or economic.”
“It is time for ASEAN to articulate a coordinated and long-term strategy that addresses the root causes of this crisis. Failure to do so will risk causing further harm and suffering for the Rohingya, and all other communities in Rakhine,” Barends said.
Three years since a brutal Myanmar military crackdown forced more than 740,000 Rohingya to flee to refugee camps in Bangladesh, Myanmar’s government has not taken any meaningful steps to address the root causes of the crisis, APHR said. Refugees are still making perilous journeys by sea, while inside Myanmar approximately 600,000 Rohingya are still facing discriminatory restrictions imposed by the government, deprived of their rights to citizenship, freedom of movement, and access to essential services. In addition, an intensifying armed conflict between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military threatens the safety of thousands of civilians from all communities, the MPs added.
In their open letter, the lawmakers make a number of recommendations to ASEAN in how it can play a proactive and positive role in resolving the crisis, including by promoting transparency in its decisions, and ensuring meaningful consultation with the Rohingya and refugee communities, as well as with civil society actors. The MPs also called on ASEAN to strengthen the capacity of its institutions to respond to “man-made disasters” such as the one in Rakhine State.
“Until now, ASEAN has allowed the Myanmar government to dictate the terms of its engagement on the Rakhine issue, but this week’s ASEAN Summit presents the perfect opportunity to change course, and use its political leverage with the Myanmar government to push for measures that bring meaningful change on the ground in Rakhine State,” said Barends. “We urge ASEAN to develop a strategy that listens to the people most impacted by this crisis, and most importantly, one that abides by the principle of ‘Do No Harm’”.
Dec 3, 2020 | RM, Statements
Click here for a Rohingya audio translation of the report’s Executive Summary
Click here for a Thai translation of the report’s Executive Summary
Click here for a Bahasa Indonesian translation of the report’s Executive Summary
Click here for a Vietnamese translation of the report’s Executive Summary
JAKARTA – Weeks ahead of the 37th ASEAN Summit, which is due to take place in mid-November, Southeast Asian lawmakers have today urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to step up its response to the ongoing crisis in Rakhine State, and ensure it actually helps end the cycle of violence and displacement. The calls come as Myanmar continues to demonstrate no desire to solve the protracted issues, or restore the rights of the Rohingya, said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“The plight of the Rohingya is not only a stain on our region, but on all of humanity,” said Charles Santiago, a Malaysian Member of Parliament (MP) and APHR’s Chair. “Myanmar’s claims that this is an internal issue could not be further from the truth. Everyone who calls Southeast Asia home is impacted by this crisis, whether it is those saving refugee boats due to our governments’ inaction, or the shame we all feel on our collective conscience.”
“ASEAN has both the potential and obligation to find lasting solutions for Rakhine State and the region as a whole, but to do that it has to first and foremost recognize it as a human rights crisis that was created by the Myanmar government, and to actively include the Rohingya community in its decisions,” Santiago said.
In a new report, ASEAN’s Rakhine Crisis: Assessing the regional response to atrocities in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, APHR examined the 10-member bloc’s response to the crisis, from the outbreak of violence in August 2017 to the present day. It found that while ASEAN’s actions have marked a significant departure from the bloc’s usual insistence on non-interference, they have mostly been ineffective, if not at times deeply problematic.
The reasons for this include a chronic lack of leadership, at the Secretariat level as well as among Member States, which has prevented ASEAN from articulating a clear vision and strategy that would effectively help end the cycle of violence and displacement in Rakhine.
“ASEAN’s lack of cohesive and strategic leadership, and its reliance on consensus-based decisions, has allowed the Myanmar authorities to take total control of the narrative, which issues the bloc can focus on, and who they can engage with. Such a scenario has led to the exclusion of the Rohingya from crucial discussions about their own future.”
ASEAN’s reluctance to acknowledge the underlying human rights aspects of the crisis, resulting in it focussing on issues regarded as “less controversial”, such as repatriation of refugees and humanitarian response, instead of addressing more sensitive issues that include the restoration of citizenship rights, restrictions on movement, and the ongoing conflict between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Army, have entirely compromised the effectiveness of its actions.
“How can we talk about Rohingya refugees returning to Rakhine State, when that area remains an active war zone?” said Santiago. “ASEAN’s reluctance to adopt a holistic approach to Rakhine State, that addresses all aspects of the crisis, risks making the regional group at best counter-productive and at worst actively contributing to human rights abuses.”
The bloc’s lack of transparency, reluctance to engage with actors other than the Myanmar government, and the weaknesses inherent in its own institutions have further undermined its response.
Despite the issues raised, ASEAN has managed to keep Myanmar at the table, maintaining access, and arguably gaining influence, with the country’s leaders. APHR said that the bloc has therefore the potential to play an important and positive role in resolving the crisis, and identifies a number of ways it can do so, including by adopting a holistic strategy guided by the principles of “do no harm” and non-discrimination; ensuring meaningful consultation with and participation of Rohingya in Myanmar, and the refugee camps in Bangladesh, in all decisions concerning their future; and encouraging Myanmar authorities to establish a follow-up mechanism to ensure the full implementation of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State’s recommendations.
“We currently have a million refugees stranded in Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands more stuck in apartheid conditions in Rakhine, and let us not forget an active war zone,” Santiago said. “This simply cannot continue. ASEAN has an obligation to protect the people in the region, and that begins with playing an important role in resolving this situation. Failure to do so will not only harm the bloc’s credibility and legitimacy, but will also cause further harm and suffering to the Rohingya, and others who call Rakhine State, and indeed the ASEAN region, their home.”
Dec 3, 2020 | Reports, RM
Report, October 2020
A new report by APHR assesses the response of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
The report found that while ASEAN’s actions have marked a significant departure from the bloc’s usual insistence on non-interference, they have mostly been ineffective, if not deeply problematic, for reasons that include a chronic lack of leadership as well as a reluctance to acknowledge its underlying human rights dimensions.
DOWNLOAD IN ENGLISH | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ROHINGYA AUDIO) | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (VIETNAMESE) | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (THAI) | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (BAHASA INDONESIA) |
Dec 3, 2020 | Reports, RM
Fact-Finding Mission Report Findings, January 2018
In the aftermath of a brutal Myanmar military crackdown, which drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, an APHR delegation traveled to Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar in January 2018 to examine the current situation and how ASEAN can work to support a resolution. Speaking to refugees, as well as other stakeholders, APHR gathered information on human rights violations that Rohingya experienced in Myanmar, as well as rights concerns affecting Rohingya in Bangladesh.
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Dec 3, 2020 | Reports, RM
Report, October 2015
Political exclusion is exacerbating the already intense sense of desperation among Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, and driving a regional crisis that ASEAN leaders are ill prepared to confront. Unless serious steps are taken to address the situation of deprivation and despair in Rakhine State, many Rohingya will have no other option but to flee in search of asylum elsewhere. The report examines in detail the factors driving Rohingya to flee, and explores steps that can be taken by the Myanmar government and other ASEAN governments to help mitigate those factors.
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