Mar 4, 2024 | DFF, Reports
Report, March 2024
Between November 13-16, 2023, APHR and PEF organized a fact-finding mission with a delegation led by Members of Parliament to the border towns of Northern Thailand – Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang – to assess how the current human rights situation is impacting ethnic communities from the Karen and Karenni States. The mission sought to engage with internally displaced people and refugees about their challenges and hear their calls for policy and protection reforms.
During the four-day fact-finding mission, parliamentarians from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand spoke with local organizations, displaced communities and first responders to hear about their situation and challenges as well as to consult with community-based organizations to listen to what solutions must be immediately advocated for.
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Mar 2, 2024 | DFF, Open Letters
To Members of the United Nations Security Council
CC:
UN Human Rights Council Members
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
1 March 2024
Re: Security Council must act now as Myanmar military junta’s forced conscription endangers peace, stability, and human security in Myanmar and the region
Your Excellencies,
We, 397 civil society organizations, call on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take immediate action to ensure peace and stability in the region following the Myanmar military junta’s illegal enforcement of the conscription law. In particular, we call on Japan, as the President of the UNSC in March 2024, to convene an emergency meeting to put forward a binding resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to impose targeted economic sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against the junta, and refer the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or create an ad hoc tribunal. In addition, the UNSC must provide substantial support to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as declared in Resolution 2669, and assist Myanmar’s neighboring countries to promptly guarantee legal protection for people fleeing the junta’s forced conscription and mass atrocity crimes.
On 10 February 2024, the military junta announced the enforcement of the People’s Military Service Law, which the past military regime passed in 2010. Men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 will be at risk of forced conscription, and the age further extends to 45 and 35, respectively, for those with expert professions. Up to 14 million people across Myanmar are deemed eligible for this forced conscription, which requires serving up to five years during a state of emergency as is currently in place by the junta’s illegal declaration. Individuals face prison sentences of up to five years, hefty fines, or both, for failing to report for duty. The junta also reserves its arbitrary power to recall those who have already finished their military service.
The junta’s forced conscription efforts exacerbate the already unprecedented violence caused by its countrywide terror campaign. As it rapidly loses ground to democratic resistance forces, the junta has resorted to forced conscription as psychological warfare to terrorize the population into submission, force people to kill each other against their conscience, and inflame inter-ethnic and inter-religious tension. This ruthless measure underlines the junta’s calculated move to escalate atrocities, exploiting new conscripts as expendable human shields, porters, and frontline fighters—evident in the Myanmar military’s sordid history, particularly its forced recruitment of children in violation of international law. The forced conscription thus explicitly goes against the UNSC’s demand for an immediate end to all forms of violence in Resolution 2669.
This scheme to forcibly recruit 60,000 men in the first round will compound the severe instability and human insecurity that the junta has already unleashed on Southeast Asia. Young men have been kidnapped or otherwise compelled to join military service, according to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Hundreds of Rohingya in internment camps in Rakhine State are being arrested and recruited into service, or persuaded to enlist in exchange for freedom of movement. Other reports indicate people in Bago Region and Yangon City are being forced to serve, leaving them no other choice but to bribe junta personnel or face outright extortion to evade conscription. Individuals in disenfranchised and impoverished sectors, such as garment workers, lack such options as the junta’s workforce data collection is underway.
Meanwhile, the junta’s Labor Ministry curtails a route to flee the country by suspending recruitment drives of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association. These realities will only lead to a massive influx of refugees and trafficking survivors into neighboring countries with track records of non-compliance with their international obligations, ensuring insufficient aid, no legal protection, and risk of refoulement.
For over three years since the military’s illegal coup attempt, the people of Myanmar nationwide have categorically and unequivocally rejected the Myanmar military’s futile attempts to seize power. The military junta has absolutely no legal authority to enforce any law in Myanmar. In fact, this forced conscription law is nothing more than modern slavery or forced labor under both domestic and international law.
We are alarmed by the sequence of events which led to the junta’s forced conscription: shortly after the ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar’s visit to Naypyitaw in January, and the Thailand-initiated and ASEAN-endorsed humanitarian assistance center in early February. Rather than restoring regional peace and stability and ensuring human security in Southeast Asia, these actions taken by the ASEAN Special Envoy and Thailand have only served to lend false legitimacy to the junta, emboldening it to intensify its terror campaign through forced conscription.
ASEAN’s ineffective actions have enabled the junta to commit more atrocity crimes with total impunity, while only deepening the bloc’s complicity in these crimes. In addition, we are gravely concerned by Thailand’s approach to humanitarian assistance, as it involves the Myanmar Red Cross which is part of the Myanmar military’s security apparatus and cannot be trusted as a partner to provide humanitarian assistance to those subject to the junta’s heinous crimes.
Excellencies, the UNSC can no longer continue to recklessly defer to ASEAN and its harmful approach which have to date jeopardized peace and stability in Myanmar and the region. With human security and civilian protection as its guiding principles, the UNSC must coordinate countries in the region to provide legal protection for Myanmar people fleeing from the junta’s terror campaign, including forced conscription and atrocities.
As a criminal entity, the Myanmar military has also facilitated the expansion of criminally run zones in Myanmar—now hubs for transnational crimes, breeding illegal online scam centers and human trafficking from which it has profited. These organized crimes severely endanger peace and security in the region and beyond. In the face of these nefarious activities, Myanmar’s democratic resistance forces have pledged to join forces with China and Thailand to dismantle the criminal hubs. In this regard, the UNSC must provide political and practical support to these resistance forces to topple the criminal Myanmar military and combat this problem effectively.
As the military junta weaponizes its forced conscription law, it is of utmost urgency that the UNSC act decisively: fulfill its mandate and implement its own resolutions to protect the people of Myanmar and establish peace and stability in Myanmar and the region. Once again, we urgently call on the UNSC to adopt a binding resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter that enforces targeted economic sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against the junta, and refers the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or establishes an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. Regional peace and stability will remain elusive unless and until peace and stability is secured in Myanmar, and the Myanmar military, as an illegal and international criminal entity, is held accountable for its decades of mass atrocity crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Signed by 397civil society organizations, including 94 organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names because of the junta’s continued violence in Myanmar.
See the full list of signatories here.
Feb 22, 2024 | DFF, Statements
BANGKOK – ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) strongly condemns the decision by the Myanmar military to enforce a national conscription law that would mandate all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years in the armed forces.
“We are deeply concerned about the impact the Conscription Law will have on the young people of Myanmar. This is yet another disgraceful attempt by the military junta to rule through fear and sabotage,” APHR Board Member and former Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya said today.
The People’s Military Service Law was enacted in 2010 but never enforced or repealed under the National League for Democracy, despite calls to do so from civil society organizations. Nearly two decades later, the law is being implemented as the Myanmar junta’s bases and territory are rapidly being lost to the armed resistance forces. It is apparent that the junta is seeking to make up for the casualties it has lost at the cost of the future of Myanmar’s youth.
“This law seeks to undermine the youth-led struggle against the dictatorship and knowingly pits them against the opposition forces so many of them have supported. Its enactment also shows the utter cowardice of the Myanmar junta; they – quite literally – cannot fight their own battles,” Kasit said.
The announcement has caused widespread uncertainty for young people and their families who have no desire to serve under the military’s corrupt and violent dictatorship, which is deeply unpopular throughout the majority of the country. Myanmar’s young people have shown exceptional bravery in the wake of the military’s increasing violence and have done so to ensure their generation does not inherit another era of authoritarian rule. In a brutal and coordinated attempt to silence those efforts, the junta is forcing them to the frontlines.
“We urge ASEAN member states and the wider international community to help provide access, including visas and educational opportunities, to Myanmar youth who seek to flee to other countries ahead of the draft. We also call on the international community to recognize that this is a desperate attempt from a failing regime to cling to power and act decisively to support Myanmar’s pro-democracy forces and bring an end to the junta’s rule,” said Kasit.
Feb 21, 2024 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – The events surrounding the recently held elections in Indonesia are a cause of serious concern and pose a grave risk to the future of human rights and democracy in the country, Southeast Asian parliamentarians said today.
“We are deeply disturbed by the reports of widespread abuse of power, including interfering with the Constitutional Court as well as using social aid for political purposes, which have seriously undermined the integrity of the vote,” said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Co-Chair and former Malaysian MP Charles Santiago.
Between 12 and 14 February, APHR conducted a study visit to observe and learn from the Indonesian elections. During the visit, APHR’s delegation – which consisted of current and former parliamentarians from Malaysia, Timor-Leste, and Thailand – met with Indonesian election management bodies as well as representatives from several civil society organizations. Activists and academics expressed their concern over the independence of the General Election Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), the neutrality of state institutions, and the effectiveness of the sanctions for election violations, among other issues. In the interim report of its election observation mission, the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) highlighted similar findings.
“While we appreciate that the KPU and the Bawaslu have overseen a largely peaceful and smooth election day, elections and democracy are not just about a single day at the voting booth. We urge our fellow parliamentarians in Indonesia to consider legislation that would strengthen the KPU’s and Bawaslu’s independence as well as their enforcement powers, to ensure that future elections take place on a level playing field,” said APHR member and Malaysian MP Syed Ibrahim bin Syed Noh.
Local election observers have also reported that there have been several irregularities during the voting process, as well as in the KPU’s vote tabulation app Sirekap.
“We support Indonesian civil society’s efforts in documenting and reporting all the potential election violations and errors, and we urge all concerned agencies to respond to these reports in a comprehensive and timely manner in order to maintain the public’s confidence in the elections,” said Thailand MP Chutiphong Pipoppinyo.
While the official results will only be announced next month, initial results indicate that current Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto has won the presidential election. Prabowo, a former army general, has been implicated in several gross human rights violations, including the killing of civilians during Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste in the 1980s, as well as the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists towards the end of former president Soeharto’s regime in 1997-98. Prabowo’s running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, was only eligible to run after a controversial ruling by the Constitutional Court, which was then headed by Gibran’s uncle.
“The fact that the likely winner of the presidential election is an accused human rights violator who has never been tried does not bode well for the prospect of human rights protection and rule of law in Indonesia,” said APHR Member and former Timor-Leste MP Abel Da Silva. “We call on our fellow parliamentarians in Indonesia to act as a powerful counterbalance to ensure that the executive’s power does not go unchecked.”
“As the largest country in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is often looked to as an example, particularly in issues of human rights and democracy,” said APHR Member and Timor-Leste MP Lidia Norberta dos Santos Martins. “Because of that, we hope that whoever wins the election will commit to strengthening Indonesia’s democratic institutions and upholding the human rights of its people.”
Read this statement in Bahasa Indonesia.
Feb 1, 2024 | DFF, Open Letters
To Members of the United Nations Security Council
1 February 2024
Re: Urgent call for swift action against the military junta to end its war of terror and protect civilians in Myanmar
Your Excellencies,
As we mark the third anniversary of the Myanmar military junta’s coup attempt on 1 February 2021, we, 463 civil society organizations, express in the strongest terms our utmost disappointment in the ineffectiveness and inaction of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in response to the military junta’s war of terror against the people of Myanmar. We urgently call on the UNSC to act in accordance with its mandate for peace and security and take concrete actions against the Myanmar military junta. These actions must reflect the gravity of the mass atrocity crimes committed by the junta for which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the UNSC to, among other measures, refer the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
We find that the UNSC’s adoption of Resolution 2669, which passed its one-year mark in December 2023, not only came too little and far too late – after decades of atrocities by the Myanmar military – but also produced no concrete progress towards halting the military’s genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, which have only intensified since the adoption of the resolution.
Since its adoption, the military junta has launched at least 909 airstrikes,[1] killing more than 364 civilians including scores of children, and torched nearly 80,000 houses. Over the last year, it is undeniable that the military junta’s violence has become more targeted against civilian populations with blatant attacks on villages, towns, internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps, religious sites where IDPs were seeking refuge, schools, and hospitals. Since the coup attempt, the military junta has killed at least 4,450 people and arrested more than 25,900 people, with more than 19,900 individuals still detained, including President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Inhuman conditions, ill treatment, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and extrajudicial killings remain ubiquitous in junta-controlled prisons and detention centers.
Furthermore, the military junta has insisted on a pilot repatriation project for the Rohingya, despite the UNSC expressing concern that the situation in Myanmar poses challenges for a safe, voluntary, sustainable, and dignified return. Resolution 2669 does not recognize the Myanmar military as a government or a de facto authority to carry out such a repatriation project. A sustainable, safe, and dignified return of Rohingya is impossible while the illegitimate Myanmar military junta continues to conduct a nationwide campaign of terror, including in Rakhine State where many more Rohingya are being forced to flee overland and by sea – with 2023 being the deadliest year for Rohingya’s sea crossings since 2014.
Your Excellencies,
The UNSC has wrongly relied on ASEAN and its failed Five-Point Consensus (5PC), instead of upholding its responsibility to pursue meaningful and effective measures to address the military’s unprecedented violence targeting civilians. This approach has only proven harmful to Myanmar’s people – all the while civil society has repeatedly called out its total ineffectiveness. ASEAN’s futile 5PC has only served to allow the junta to buy time and continue its war of terror, and the world to evade taking concrete, meaningful action. Even though Myanmar’s crisis is an ongoing threat to regional peace and stability, ASEAN has shown time and again that it lacks the political will and institutional capacity to address the unfathomable devastation in Myanmar caused by the military junta. For the two and a half years since the adoption of the 5PC, this approach has failed to yield any meaningful results, and the people of Myanmar have paid the price. The time is long overdue for the UNSC and the wider international community to take the lead – no longer deferring to ASEAN – and act decisively to end the junta’s widespread, systematic violence and atrocity crimes.
Today, dire humanitarian needs are alarmingly increasing across the country, with more than 2.6 million people having been displaced – a number that is likely a gross underestimation given the military junta’s intensified attacks on civilians and constraints on access to IDP communities. Civil society has repeatedly called on international actors, including ASEAN, UN agencies, and international non-governmental organizations, to cease any attempts at partnership with the junta in the name of humanitarian aid. Partnering with the military junta only exacerbates the crisis at hand, including by allowing the junta to continue to block aid from reaching the populations under its attacks. While fueling the junta’s notorious weaponization of aid, partnering with the junta also undercuts the effective and efficient work of countless local frontline humanitarians, as well as civil society organizations, community-based organizations, and ethnic organizations providing life-saving assistance on the ground.
Excellencies, the UN’s and ASEAN’s continued push for dialogue involving the military junta fails to acknowledge the Myanmar military as the root cause of the crisis, thus empowering the junta to continue to commit atrocity crimes with complete impunity and prolonging its oppression of the people. Further, pursuing dialogue with the military junta, while enabling its ongoing war of terror against the people, only undermines the Myanmar people’s unprecedented sacrifices and efforts to build genuine federal democracy from the ground up.
On the third anniversary of the Myanmar military junta’s attempted coup, we are reminded once again of the absence of substantial, meaningful actions from the international community to stop the military’s genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – ongoing for decades against ethnic communities and being committed with greater intensity against Myanmar’s people today.
Thus, without delay, we call on the UNSC to live up to its mandate and fulfill its primary responsibility to protect the people of Myanmar by urgently adopting a new resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Such a resolution must require a referral of the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal; a comprehensive global arms embargo to block the military junta’s access to arms, ammunition, dual-use technology, and jet fuel; and targeted economic sanctions against the military junta, its affiliates, and its sources of revenue that fund its crimes.
There shall be no excuses to delay this action. With its track record of resolutions focused on the protection of civilians across the world, including Resolutions 1325 and 2147, among others, the UNSC certainly can and has taken concrete steps in accordance with its global mandate. It must now afford the same resolve and action to the people of Myanmar and their earnest pursuit of inclusive, sustainable peace.
Furthermore, we call on China and Russia – as permanent members of the UNSC who agreed to Resolution 2669 – to cease providing political, technical, and material support to the military junta for its relentless war of terror against the people and instead support the people’s efforts for a genuine federal democracy.
Myanmar’s future can only be defined by the will of the people, not the misguided initiatives of the international community. The people of Myanmar have bravely and courageously proven their aspirations and determination to end the military’s decades-long violence and to achieve long-lasting peace in Myanmar where people of diverse backgrounds can co-exist with equal rights and dignity in a truly inclusive federal democracy. It is time for the international community, particularly the UNSC, to align itself with the will of the people of Myanmar through swift, meaningful action. We reiterate our demand for a new UNSC resolution on Myanmar under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Signed by 463 civil society organizations, including 84 organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names because of the junta’s continued violence in Myanmar.
See the full list of signatories here.
Dec 13, 2023 | DFF, Open Letters
To:
The European Union Parliament
The United States Congress
The Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of United Kingdom
The Parliament of New Zealand
The Parliament of Japan
Your Honors,
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are writing to express our grave concerns about the state of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. Cambodia is continuing on its descent into authoritarianism following another electoral charade in the 2023 General Election. We urge the international community to take action before this decline is further cemented in the upcoming 2024 Senate Election.
The drastically deteriorating human rights situation in Cambodia has been well-documented by experts and civil society organizations, notably since former Prime Minister Hun Sen used the country’s courts to dissolve the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in 2017. This occurred shortly after the CNRP demonstrated itself to be a real threat for Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in successive nationwide elections.
Following a systematic undermining and repression of political opponents, including by disqualifying the main opposition Candlelight Party, the 2023 General Election resulted in a landslide victory for the CPP, securing 120 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly. Shortly after the election, Hun Sen resigned and his son and former chief of the Cambodian army Hun Manet took over as Prime Minister.
Since then, Hun Manet has attempted to portray himself as a new start for Cambodia. However, Hun Sen’s continued dominance within the CPP and the continued attacks against political opposition clearly demonstrate that this is not the case.
After Hun Manet’s appointment, a dissident and his wife were brutally assaulted in broad daylight a month into Hun Manet’s term. This attack shares similarities with assaults reported earlier in 2023 against members of the opposition Candlelight Party where a group of men in black clothes and helmets on motorcycles assaulted opposition members with metal rods.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders continue to be prosecuted and convicted on trumped-up and politically-motivated charges. In October, Thach Setha, a vice president of the CLP, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for incitement to commit a felony and incitement to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or nationality. The charge was based on remarks posted on social media that he made in January about then-Prime Minister Hun Sen’s relationship with neighboring Vietnam. This sentence came three months after Thach Setha was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for allegedly passing fraudulent checks.
In the same month, the now-banned CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy, Mu Sochua, Eng Chhai Eang, Ho Vann, and 6 activists, were sentenced to prison terms in a case connected to social media comments made in 2021. The opposition leaders called for suspension of debt repayment during the COVID-19, while human rights activists called out high-ranking officials buying citizenship in Cyprus. Phnom Penh Municipal Court also issued an arrest warrant for the four opposition leaders, all of whom live outside of Cambodia. All 12 defendants were convicted of incitement and conspiracy to commit treason.
Hun Sen himself retains his title as the leader of the CCP, and has said he will become head of the Senate and of the Supreme Council of the King. He has further publicly expressed that he would “continue to wield influence behind the scenes” and may “retake the prime ministership” in the event of instability or in-fighting.
It is evident that the upcoming Senate Election is at risk of being another electoral charade without stronger demands and actions from the international community. The current electoral landscape has effectively blocked the Candlelight Party participation, and the threat of its complete disbandment continues to loom. We have received reports that local Candlelight Party councilors have been the target of intimidation and judicial harassment from CPP commune chiefs, with many being imprisoned on flimsy grounds, resulting in intense pressure to defect to the ruling party. This situation raises serious concerns about the freedom and fairness of the upcoming Senate election slated for February 2024.
While we applaud the attention and efforts to sanction the Cambodian regime, notably through the enactment of the Cambodia Democracy and Human Rights Act by the United States of America, we urge parliamentarians to take action to advocate for any undue restrictions or requirements on political parties that prevent them from exercising their democratic right to fully participate in the upcoming 2024 Senate elections, including in the case of the Candlelight party, and continue to deny the legitimacy of the noncompetitive 2023 General Elections. Through legislative action, we implore you to strongly call out the Cambodian government to end all forms of political persecution and immediately and unconditionally release political prisoners. It is imperative for parliamentarians of democratic countries to champion the restoration of a diverse and inclusive political landscape and to demand for an impartial investigation into violations of human rights and electoral irregularities. We also urge you to issue clear, unequivocal, and vocal statements about the ongoing election-related human rights violations.
Cambodia, as a member of the United Nations and a party to various international agreements and treaties, has an obligation to uphold democratic values and ensure free and fair elections. Without the international community’s unwavering attention and resolute action, the people of Cambodia are at risk of falling further into the hands of an authoritarian regime.
Your Honors, together, parliamentarians across the globe can join the global community in sending a clear message to the Cambodian government that its actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We are confident in your dedication to democratic values and trust that you will demonstrate this by extending your support to the people of Cambodia.
Yours Sincerely,
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Asian Forum for Human Rights Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Civic Participation
Human Rights Watch
Click here to download the open letter.
