APHR Letters to ASEAN Chair and Timor-Leste Renew Call for Proof of Life as AMM Week Begins in Manila

JAKARTA, 20 July 2026—ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has written to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his capacity as ASEAN Chair, and to President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, urging both leaders to press for the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Myanmar, as ASEAN Foreign Ministers gather in Manila this week for the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM).

The letter asked President Marcos to make independent access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s family, legal counsel, and medical professionals a non-negotiable condition of any further engagement with Myanmar’s junta, and urged President Ramos-Horta—whose government opened the region’s first universal-jurisdiction case against Min Aung Hlaing this year—to press the ASEAN bloc to act.

Today’s AMM-AICHR Interface Meeting, where ministers are expected to discuss regional human rights developments, underscores that this appeal lands squarely within this week’s agenda.

APHR notes the Special Envoy’s 19 July statement responding to criticism from the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, which reaffirmed the Five-Point Consensus as ASEAN’s primary reference on Myanmar. APHR stresses that a restated commitment is not a substitute for the verifiable outcomes the Five-Point Consensus is meant to produce—among them, proof that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is alive and safe.

As foreign ministers convene this week, APHR urges the ASEAN Chair to treat proof of life for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a concrete, near-term test of whether re-engagement with Naypyidaw is producing results—not a matter deferred once again to the next summit.

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Elsa Jade | [email protected]
Myanmar & Crisis Response Coordinator