Jun 16, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia said the most recent bout of political convictions imposed by the authorities in Cambodia on dozens of members and supporters of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) should raise alarm within ASEAN and , called for all the charges against them to be dropped and for the immediate and unconditional release of those currently detained.
On 14 June 2022, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted more than 50 former members and supporters of the CNRP, which was arbitrarily dissolved in 2017, on bogus charges of treason. A prominent Cambodian-American lawyer, Theary Seng, was sentenced to six years in prison and immediately arrested after the trial. Others received sentences ranging from five to eight years imprisonment. Of those convicted, 27 are in exile and were tried in absentia. One of them is Mu Sochua, former CNRP Vice-President and Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“This is just another episode of a years-long relentless assault by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime against political opponents and democracy itself. Using a judiciary that lost any semblance of independence a long time ago, Hun Sen and his government are de facto turning Cambodia into a one-party state in which nobody is safe except those who obediently accept his increasingly dictatorial rule,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament in Malaysia and APHR Chairman.
The verdict is part of a series of mass trials that started in November 2020 targeting 138 CNRP members for their support to the attempted return to Cambodia of the exiled leader of the party, Sam Rainsy, in 2019. The government charged them, among other charges, with conspiracy to commit treason alleging that they were planning to overthrow the government through a revolution. The trials have been far from fair, as shows the fact that former CNRP members who defected to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) have their sentences suspended or charges against them dropped.
The sentences come after the recent Commune and Sangkat Elections, held on 5 June 2022, in an environment of harassment and intimidation against the opposition. Those were the conditions that set the stage for the landslide victory of Hun Sen and his CPP that resulted in the polls.
“Both ASEAN and the international community at large should do all they can to support democracy in Cambodia and stop Hun Sen from weaponizing the law and the state apparatus for his own interests. The longer Hun Sen is allowed to continue abusing his powers with impunity, the more difficult it will be to restore democracy in the country. Letting a dictator run free has not only consequences on the people of Cambodia but the region as a whole. His reckless and unilateral handling of the Myanmar crisis as the current Chair of ASEAN is just one example of it,” said Santiago.
Jun 15, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Despite pledges to oppose the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Myanmar and hold the country’s abusive military to account, international actors have failed to take the necessary steps to force the junta to negotiate a political solution, failed to address the mounting humanitarian needs, and failed to bring about the necessary diplomatic coordination to prevent Myanmar from becoming a failed state, a newly established international parliamentary inquiry said today.
The International Parliamentary Inquiry into the Global Response to the Crisis in Myanmar (IPI), chaired by Heidi Hautala, Vice-President of the European Parliament, brings together members of parliaments from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas to investigate the international response to the crisis triggered by the coup d’état in Myanmar and where it is failing. The members of the committee form a truly international panel that has come together because of their common concern to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.
“The response to the devastating crisis unfolding in Myanmar is going nowhere fast,” said Hautala. “As parliamentarians, we know that governments and international institutions can, and must, do more to end the current impasse. These hearings aim to shed light on where the response is falling short, and to provide information on the next steps that can be taken to put effective pressure on the Myanmar junta.”
The IPI is an initiative of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). It will follow the format of tried-and-tested parliamentary inquiries conducted at a national level. In addition to requesting information from individual governments and international organizations, the IPI will accept both written and oral submissions of testimony and evidence from a variety of stakeholders.
“We are concerned that international institutions have not lived up to their own promises, and we are appalled that the situation in Myanmar is worsening the longer the international inertia continues,” said Charles Santiago, Chair of APHR. “We, as parliamentarians from all over the world united by a common purpose, will approach this inquiry unhindered by the type of geopolitical considerations that have resulted in the current deadlock.”
The violence, death, and suffering being caused as a result of the Myanmar coup continues to escalate and intensify in the absence of adequate international efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Myanmar people. In January, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, stated that the international response had been “ineffectual and lacks a sense of urgency commensurate to the magnitude of the crisis.”
“The Burmese people have clearly and courageously demonstrated their aspiration for democracy”, stated Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who will be participating from the United States. “They do not want a military government. The United States must stand unequivocally with those advocating for a Burmese democracy rooted in human rights and equality. We must also support the human rights of religious and political minorities, including Rohingya who have already suffered so much, and indeed all those facing oppression.”
The Committee is to gather evidence by sending requests for information to key agencies/institutions, opening a call for written submissions, and conducting public hearings in June and July.
The Committee welcomes evidence on the following points:
- How can international actors improve their response to the crisis in Myanmar?
- How can, and how should, governments engage and support the democratic opposition, civil society, and ethnic organizations?
- What has the UN contributed to resolve this crisis so far? What else can be done given the impasse at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC)?
- What has ASEAN contributed so far in resolving this crisis? What else can be done?
- What alternative mechanisms or actions could be considered to influence the situation in Myanmar?
- How can international actors, including governments, support justice for victims and provide redress for the junta’s crimes?
- To what extent is humanitarian aid reaching the people in need in Myanmar? What can be done to ensure effective delivery of aid?
- What protection is being given and what is lacking for Myanmar refugees?
- What may have triggered the coup? How did international actors contribute to the environment and situation in Myanmar that eventually resulted in the coup?
The Committee members of the IPI are:
- Mercy Barends (Indonesia)
- Taufik Basari (Indonesia)
- Amadou Camara (Gambia)
- Heidi Hautala (Chair) (European Parliament)
- Nqabayomzi Kwankwa (South Africa)
- Ilhan Ohmar (USA)
- Nitipon Piwmow (Thailand)
- Charles Santiago (Malaysia)
Click here to read our Media Advisory on the IPI.
For further information, contact Nicholas Bequelin at ipi@aseanmp.org
For updates follow us on social media with the hashtag #MPs4Myanmar and check our website www.aseanmp.org
Jun 6, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia are alarmed by the announcement by the Myanmar junta that it will carry out the death sentences handed down to four political prisoners, including prominent former member of Parliament, Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, and well-known pro-democracy activist, Kyaw Min Yu, better known as “Ko Jimmy”, both convicted on charges of terrorism.
These death sentences would be the first known judicial executions in the country since 1988, according to Amnesty International, which considers Myanmar as “Abolitionist in Practice”, as it retains the death penalty in law, but has not applied it for decades. Ever since the coup in February last year that ousted the democratically elected government, Myanmar has seen a drastic surge in the number of people sentenced to death with at least 86 people, including minors who were under 18 at the time.
“ASEAN and the international community must use every means at their disposal to prevent these executions from taking place. If they are carried out they will be nothing less than cold blooded political assassination. These executions would further contribute to prevent the already remote possibility of a sustainable political dialogue, as prescribed over one year ago in the Five-Point Consensus agreed by ASEAN member states and Min Aung Hlaing’s junta, which has not made any effort whatsoever in that direction,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament from Malaysia, and APHR Chairperson.
The Myanmar military has killed at least 1,887 protesters since the coup, but it is attempting to give a veneer of legality to the execution of the four men. Yet it is abundantly clear that, as in dozens of sentences handed by military tribunals, there was no respect for fair trial rights.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) unreservedly supports the recent United Nations Secretary General’s statement reminding Myanmar’s military that the death sentences are a blatant violation of the right to life, liberty and security of the person, as per Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also join him in emphasizing that the Declaration also enshrines the principles of equality before the law, the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, and all of the guarantees necessary for a person’s defense.
“This announcement should be viewed in the context of the increasingly brazen atrocities being committed by the Myanmar military in order to consolidate its power in the face of widespread popular resistance. The junta is killing, torturing and arbitrarily arresting Myanmar people with an impunity that owes a great deal to the failure of the international community to hold it accountable for its crimes,” said Santiago.
APHR calls on each and every member state of ASEAN, as well as its Dialogue Partners, to urgently demand an unconditional and immediate stay of execution and release of the four detainees by the self-declared State Administration Council. They must individually and collectively make a stand before it is too late, not only for these four, but for all those currently arbitrarily detained who should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Jun 3, 2022 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia express their condemnation of the campaign of harassment and intimidation to which the opposition in Cambodia has been subjected during the campaign for the Communal and Sangkat Elections that will be held in the country on Sunday, 5 June.
As Cambodians prepare to vote for their representatives at the local level in 1,652 communes throughout the country, candidates of the Candlelight Party, the main formation in the opposition and the only one positioned to challenge the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), have been harassed in recent months, often with the reported connivance of local officials or directly by them.
Most recently, on 31 May, the authorities arrested Ir Channa, a former Cambodian activist and naturalized Norwegian citizen, who returned from exile and reportedly joined political activities associated with the Candlelight Party, on spurious charges of conspiracy to commit treason. Meanwhile, the National Election Committee (NEC), controlled by the CPP, has removed more than 100 candidates from the party, leaving the ruling party with no serious competitors in the most important constituencies, including the capital, Phnom Penh.
“It is impossible to hold free and fair elections in an ongoing climate of persecution against the opposition. Even if 17 parties have been authorized to run, these polls cannot be regarded as an exercise in pluralism and democracy when the CPP led by Prime Minister Hun Sen is not allowing anyone who can challenge their power to campaign freely and safely,” said Maria Chin Abdullah, Member of Parliament in Malaysia and APHR Member.
The campaign of intimidation against the Candlelight Party includes the vandalization and removal of its signs in several provinces and judicial harassment on trumped-up charges against many of their candidates.
The current iteration of the Candlelight Party emerged from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was the main opposition party until it was arbitrarily dissolved in 2017. One year later, the CPP won all 125 seats in parliament at the national elections held in 2018, turning Cambodia into a virtual one-party state controlled by Hun Sen, in power since 1985.
“The intimidation of the opposition we are witnessing now is nothing new. It is part of a long pattern in which Hun Sen and his party have maintained and increased their control over Cambodia, closing the space for opposition and rights defenders to dissent without fear of reprisal. This does not bode well for the future of democracy in Cambodia. The outcome of this local election will pave the way for next year’s national elections and will determine who will control the country’s overall political power.” said Ms. Abdullah.
Apart from persecuting the political opposition, in recent years the Cambodian government has silenced the independent media, and increased its control over civil society.
The many authoritarian restrictions, including against the election monitoring work by independent civil society organizations, will likely result in a missed opportunity to have elections which honor the constitutional rights of the citizenry and the people’s power to choose their representatives in a free and fair environment.
Also of note is the regime’s passing last year of a Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the National Internet Gateway, through which all internet traffic would be routed through a single “gateway,” enabling the authorities to monitor any online activity. For now, the gateway plan appears to be put on hold, but this and other recent restrictive legislation has raised serious concerns among human rights organizations.
“Cambodia’s neighbors and the international community at large should maintain a critical eye on the country’s electoral developments and not be fooled into believing that the elections this Sunday will be a democratic exercise. They should put pressure on Hun Sen and his government to take Cambodia back into a democratic path, and see the polls as what they are: another attempt by the CPP to legitimize its increasingly dictatorial rule,” said Ms. Abdullah.
May 30, 2022 | CCHR, Statements
The Russian military invasion of Ukraine is soon passing its fourth month. During this time, we have witnessed appalling violations of humanitarian law, international law and the international order. This invasion has come with not only grave humanitarian consequences but also long-term environmental costs.
Since the start of the invasion, we have witnessed a range of reports on the attacks on civilian infrastructure, such as water, energy, industry and transport, some of them likely to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment. Many of these attacks appear to have lacked a definite military target, and may thus violate the laws of war. Academic researchers and civil society have highlighted the environmental destruction in Ukraine, as demonstrated in the joint statement to the UN Environmental Assembly and the open letter from Environmental Peacebuilding Association with co-signees. Criminal accountability for Russia’s actions is now being investigated by the Ukrainian Prosecutor, by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and multiple national prosecution offices under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
We, the members of Ecocide Alliance, an international parliamentary alliance for the recognition of ecocide, are dedicated to building peace through protecting ecosystems and biological diversity. We strongly maintain that environmental security is a precondition to ensuring national and international security.
However, pursuing individual criminal responsibility for environmental atrocities has been largely ignored and under-prosecuted at both the national and international level. For instance, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) has never prosecuted war crimes under Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute, which explicitly protects the natural environment. Nor has the OTP pursued crimes against humanity allegations in the context of mass environmental harm, relating to countries such as Cambodia or Brazil. This is, despite the fact that the OTP issued their Policy paper on case selection and prioritisation in 2016, undertaking to prioritise such cases.
Therefore, we call on the international community to: support local efforts to monitor environmental damage (e.g. Ecoaction, or other agencies); set up mechanisms to collect and share data, which could serve as evidence in potential cases concerning environmental crimes; and support organisations to analyse and build criminal cases based on such data, such as the Climate Counsel.
Ukraine is one of many countries where armed conflicts are destroying the natural environment in a severe and widespread manner. The horrific invasion of Ukraine serves as a pivotal moment when international and national institutions have the opportunity to address international crimes associated with environmental destruction.
The most effective way to enforce criminal accountability long-term, however, is to amend the Rome Statute to explicitly include ecocide as a fifth crime against peace – not limited only to war time. This would enable the ICC and national justice systems to address the most serious environmental crimes and to reduce one of the roots of conflicts, namely, the scarcity and inequitable distribution of natural resources following exploitative land-grabbing. Now, if ever, would be the time for the international community to finally draw a global moral red line concerning environmental atrocities, and put an end to impunity for ecocide.
Signatories:
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights and Ecocide Alliance, along with the following Members of Parliament:
Rodrigo AGOSTINHO, deputy at the Federal Assembly (Câmara Federal), Brazil
Alejandro AGUILERA, Deputy of the National Assembly, Venezuela
Alexandra ATTALIDES, Member of the House of Representatives, Cyprus
Natalie BENNETT, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom
Saskia BRICMONT, Member of the European Parliament (Belgium)
Samuel COGOLATI, Federal Deputy, Belgium
Eufemia CULLAMAT, Member of the House of Representatives, Philippines
Rosa D’AMATO, Member of the European Parliament (Italy)
Eleonora EVI, Member of the European Parliament (Italy)
Leah GAZAN, Member of Parliament, Canada
Simon HOLMSTRÖM, member of the Åland parliament, Finland
Andrés Ingi JÓNSSON, Member of Alþingi, Iceland
Rebecka LE MOINE, Member of Parliament, Sweden
Monica LENNON, Member of the Scottish Parliament, Scotland
Caroline LUCAS, Member of the Parliament, United Kingdom
Raphaël MAHAIM, Member of the Parliament of the canton of Vaud, Switzerland
Elizabeth MAY, Member of Parliament, Canada
Patrick McHEFFEY, Trustee, Patchogue, New York, USA
Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN, Member of the European Parliament (Finland)
Josep PUIG I BOIX, Member of the Catalan Parliament, Spain
Janet RICE, Senator, Australia
Caroline ROOSE, Member of the European Parliament (France)
Inés SABANÉS, Deputy, Spain
Lindsey SCHROMEN-WAWRIN, City Councilmember, Port Angeles, Washington State, USA
Marie TOUSSAINT, Member of the European Parliament (France)
Lammert VAN RAAN, Member of Parliament, Netherlands
Larissa WATERS, Senator, Australia
Susanne ZIMMER, Member of Parliament, Denmark
May 16, 2022 | Internet Freedoms, Statements
We, the following 32 human rights organizations, call on the Cambodian authorities to revoke the Sub-Decree on the Establishment of the National Internet Gateway (NIG). Since passage of the sub-decree on February 16, 2021, the government has yet to address the serious human rights concerns raised by civil society groups and tech companies. At the same time, the government has been wholly non-transparent regarding the infrastructure, implementation, financing, and cooperating companies, agencies, and organizations involved in supporting the NIG.
The NIG sub-decree paves the way for the establishment of a digital gateway to manage all internet traffic into and out of Cambodia. Provisions in the sub-decree allow government-appointed NIG operators to block or disconnect any online connections (article 6), retain traffic data for a year and provide other network information as requested by authorities (article 14), and issue overbroad penalties for non-compliant telecommunications operators (article 16).
The sub-decree states that the purpose of the NIG is to facilitate and manage internet connections to strengthen revenue collection, protect national security, and — in terms that are overbroad, ambiguous, and prone to misuse — to “preserve social order, culture, and national tradition” (article 1).
While the exact technical infrastructure and how it will be operated is still unknown, there is little doubt the NIG’s true purpose is to enable the Cambodian government to tighten the noose on what remains of internet freedom in the country.
In April 2021, three independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council expressed concerns that the sub-decree “poses risks to the fundamental freedoms of individuals, namely the freedoms of expression and opinion and the right to privacy and may expose individuals’ personal information without their consent, which would contravene international human rights instruments and Cambodian laws.” They reiterated this call to the government on February 1 2022, warning that the NIG “will have a serious negative impact on internet freedom, human rights defenders and civil society in the country, further shrinking the already-restrictive civic space in Cambodia.”
Cambodia is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 17 of the ICCPR protects the right of every individual against arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy. Article 19 of the ICCPR protects the right to freedom of expression. This right includes the “freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds.” Any measures the state takes that would interfere with these rights must be provided for by law, be non-discriminatory, and be strictly necessary and proportionate to protect the rights of others, national security, public order or public health or morals.
The government has repeatedly rejected all human rights concerns about the NIG. The government has also refused to explain how the NIG’s restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information are necessary to achieve any of the legitimate aims, and failed to address the lack of proportionality of the measures. Instead, the internet gateway is poised to restrict these rights in an overly broad manner, without any apparent limits. As UN experts, tech company representatives, and human rights advocates have pointed out, the sub-decree lacks procedural safeguards, independent oversight, and data and privacy protections.
There are grave concerns that the gateway will supercharge the government’s censorship capabilities, allowing it to scale up its website blocking. The gateway is also likely to have a chilling effect on online communications and generate self-censorship online among critical voices and independent media outlets who fear increased surveillance, harassment, and reprisals.
The sub-decree poses risks to data protection and data privacy, requiring government gateway operators to retain and share metadata. In the absence of a data protection law in Cambodia that would protect internet users from misuse of their data and provide certainty about where and how long data is retained, and who has access to it, the NIG will facilitate the authorities’ ability to identify users’ internet activities and habits, ultimately risking identifying the users themselves. Data retention without sufficient protection for data security will increase risks to data security from third-party interference, or hackers. Centralizing internet traffic and data under the NIG also creates a vulnerability for malicious acts, without guaranteeing service providers’ capacity to adequately address the resultant increase in data security needs.
In a press statement issued on February 15, 2022, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that it had conducted an “extensive study on infrastructure models from different countries around the world and found that most countries have internet gateways.” No information has been provided to back these sweeping assertions, such as which infrastructure models the authorities considered, what their benefits and disadvantages are, and whether the study was done with reference to Cambodia’s human rights obligations under various international human rights treaties.
In Cambodia, the government’s rushed adoption process of the sub-decree establishing the NIG was plagued by a lack of transparency. The authorities failed to hold any consultations, much less wide and inclusive ones, and did not invite inputs by experts, civil society groups, private actors, business groups, and other interested parties prior to the sub-decree’s adoption. The NIG appears designed to function as an authoritarian tool that will facilitate the government’s efforts to curtail free expression, association and privacy online as well as offline, and facilitate targeting of online expression by members of civil society, independent media, and the political opposition.
On February 15, 2022, the government revealed that implementation of the NIG, set to start the next day, would be delayed. No new date for the NIG implementation has been set. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications told the news outlet Nikkei Asia on February 15 that the delay was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, another ministry spokesperson told the news outlet VOD that technical difficulties in implementing the NIG was the cause of the delay, stating that “we have to prepare to install and order equipment in order to prepare and create the gateway. And we have to give licenses to any company that the government understands that has the ability to create the gateway.”
Cambodia’s internet gateway greatly risks restricting the free flow of information between Cambodia and the rest of the world while establishing a system that will cast a wide net of surveillance across the country. Foreign governments, technology and telecommunications companies, internet service providers, business groups, UN agencies and others concerned should come together to seek to halt this wholesale attempt at information control.
Signatories:
Access Now
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Association for Progressive Communication (APC)
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)
Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI)
Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR Centre)
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Civil Rights Defenders
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Digital Reach Asia
Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF)
ELSAM: Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
Freemuse
Foundation for Media Alternatives
FORUM-ASIA
Japan Computer Access Network (JCA-NET)
Human Rights Watch
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)
Manushya Foundation
Open Net Association
PEN America
Ranking Digital Rights
SAFENet – Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network
Thai Netizens Network
WITNESS
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
