H.E. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Viet Nam 16 Le Hong Phong Street, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
25 June 2020
Your Excellency,
Re: Leaders must address COVID-19 human rights concerns at 36th ASEAN Summit
As a regional network of parliamentarians from Southeast Asia committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, we write to you on the occasion of this week’s 36th ASEAN Summit, to urge you to ensure that ASEAN’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath places human rights at its centre.
While our region should be commended for being reasonably successful in containing the spread of the virus, the pandemic exposed major weaknesses and inequalities in our governance systems. The region failed to protect those in the most vulnerable situations, in particular its migrant workers and refugees. It has also seen a surge in restrictions on freedom of expression and in hateful rhetoric against marginalised groups.
However, the gathering of the region’s leaders under your chairmanship this week presents an opportunity to demonstrate that ASEAN can learn and grow from these challenging times, by ensuring that from this point on, our region’s policies are inclusive of all and promote a more just, sustainable and equal society.
This should begin by ensuring that the region collectively moves towards greater environmental sustainability and social justice. Post-COVID 19 economic recovery plans are a unique occasion for our economies to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels and coal, and towards renewable energy projects that reduce contributions to climate change.
Post-COVID19 economic stimulus investments should also reach small and medium-sized enterprises, and be used to prioritise the creation of sustainable and decent employment. We urge you as leaders to see that these are necessary steps to not only avoid future shocks and crises, but also to be better prepared to absorb their impact and guarantee the long-term economic prosperity of the region.
Greater regional cooperation and assistance will also be necessary to ensure that everyone in ASEAN has access to basic services and social protection measures, including those working in the informal sector and migrant workers. Having strong social protections programs and ensuring basic services to all will help mitigate the impact of the economic crisis and help our region recover faster.
The pandemic has deepened already existing inequalities, with women and girls being disproportionately affected. Economically they are more at risk of falling into poverty and facing food insecurity, and have also faced restricted access to sexual and reproductive health services, as well as a rise in sexual and gender-based violence. For ASEAN’s post-COVID-19 economic and social policies to be effective they must take into consideration this differentiated impact, be gender responsive and ensure women’s equal participation in all policies and decision making.
Regional peace will also be crucial to guaranteeing a just and sustainable recovery from the crisis. In that regard, we are extremely concerned by the rise in xenophobic and hateful rhetoric. Our region is sadly well-placed to know how hateful comments on social media can translate into violence, deaths, and deep divides among societies.
We therefore urge you and all ASEAN leaders to immediately publicly acknowledge the risk that hate speech represents and to speak out against discrimination of all kinds. Your intervention, as our region’s leaders, could play an important preventative role to ensure unity and peace.
Finally, we would like to exhort you to use your leadership to organise urgent collective search and rescue operations for boats carrying Rohingya refugees and to organise for their proper disembarkation. We cannot overstate the shame that falls upon us collectively when our governments choose to push people back to die at sea.
Ultimately, addressing this situation will require that ASEAN fully uses its political leverage to ensure that Myanmar addresses the root causes of the human rights crisis in Rakhine State, ends all attacks on civilians and restores the rights of the Rohingya.
In the spirit of a “Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN,” we hope that Vietnam will use its leadership to ensure that ASEAN’s “new normal” is one of a truly people-centered ASEAN – that is inclusive, sustainable, and that benefits all.
Yours sincerely,
Charles Santiago Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights Member of Parliament, Malaysia
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His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah H.E Prime Minister Hun Sen H.E President Joko Widodo H.E Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith H.E Tan Sri Muhyiddin Haji Mohd Yassin H.E State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi H.E President Rodrigo Roa Duterte H.E Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong H.E Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from across Southeast Asia today called on their leaders to not overlook the most pressing challenges facing the region when they gather in Thailand for the ASEAN Summit this week.
The 35th ASEAN Summit will be held from November 2–4 in Bangkok, but regional lawmakers are concerned that ASEAN leaders will once again fail to discuss the rise in authoritarianism and lack of commitment by states in protecting human rights. Of particular concern remain ongoing human rights violations and persecution of the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar, the demolition of democracy and assault on dissent in Cambodia, the lack of accountability for the thousands of extra-judicial killing victims in the Philippines, as well as the continued suppression of civil and political rights and military interference in politics in Thailand, said ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“The list of issues that could and should be discussed at this summit is just too long, and too serious, to reel off in sufficient detail, but we all know the likelihood of any of them being addressed over the coming days is minimal. APHR and civil society organizations have repeatedly called on ASEAN to step up, but it has always failed to do so. Regardless of the well-meaning intentions that some of the region’s leaders may have, ASEAN does not provide even an inch of space for meaningful dialogue on human rights abuses against its own citizens,” said Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and APHR Chair.
Among the many concerns that require urgent regional attention, APHR has consistently highlighted ASEAN’s failure to respond sufficiently to allegations of genocide being committed in one of its member states and ensure full accountability for the crimes.
“The suffering of the Rohingya has no end in sight,” said Eva Sundari, former Indonesian MP and APHR Board Member. “ASEAN needs to live up to its responsibility and use its position to press Myanmar to address the root causes of the crisis, including restoring the rights of the Rohingya. Any discussion of repatriation is futile unless we listen to the Rohingya’s demands and Myanmar can guarantee their safety and dignity.”
Meanwhile, authoritarian governments are closing democratic space and targeting activists and opposition members for their peaceful criticism against ruling government policies.
APHR has documented the growing trend of judicial harassment and persecution of the opposition in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. This year, more than 50 activists and opposition members from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) have been arrested, placed in pre-trial detention and forced to admit their “crime” for peacefully expressing their right to freedom of expression, creating an atmosphere of fear among the general public. In Thailand, the authorities must immediately lift restrictions on fundamental freedoms and end their attempts to silence the opposition and civil society. APHR also issued a report exposing the crackdown on political opponents of the Philippine government.
Parliamentarians warned ASEAN that by failing to live up to its stated principles of democracy and hold member-states to their commitments to human rights, the grouping could become fractured. They also stressed the important role played by the international community in pushing for greater respect for human rights in the region. ASEAN leaders will meet with key dialogue partners at the East Asia Summit, as well as in separate summits with China, Japan, the US, India, and the United Nations.
“Supporting authoritarian regimes that are suppressing the rights and freedoms of their people will not lead us to the long-term peace and prosperity which ASEAN hopes to achieve. We must also not forget that Laos, Brunei, and Vietnam are no closer to opening up than they were a decade ago,” said Kasit Piromya, former Thai MP and APHR Board Member.
“As the Chair of ASEAN this year, Thailand should lead by example in finally speaking up, and international leaders attending the Summit must urge ASEAN and its member states to put human rights at the forefront.”
JAKARTA – Southeast Asian leaders must put human rights – including the crises in Cambodia and Myanmar – at the top of the agenda as they gather for the ASEAN Summit in Singapore next week (scheduled for 13-15 November), ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said today.
Regional heads of state are meeting at a time when human rights are backsliding alarmingly across Southeast Asia as authoritarian governments are strengthening their grips on power. This will also be the first ASEAN Summit held since the general election in Cambodia on 29 July which effectively turned the country into a one-party state.
“Human rights are under threat throughout Southeast Asia. ASEAN’s destructive non-interference principle means that the bloc has been both unwilling and unable to take a stand against violations. This lack of action must end – human rights should take centre stage in Singapore next week,” said Charles Santiago, APHR Board Chair and a member of the Malaysian parliament.
“ASEAN leaders cannot let the Cambodian government simply get away with dismantling democracy. They must push Prime Minister Hun Sen to end his crackdown on dissent and hold new, genuinely free and fair elections.”
Hun Sen’s – who will be attending the Summit – ruling Cambodian People’s Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly in July after a vote that was largely dismissed as fraudulent. In the year leading up to the polls, the CPP increased repressive tactics against opponents, including by dismantling what little remained of independent media, and harassing and jailing rights activists.
In November 2017, Cambodia’s highly politicizedSupreme Court disbanded the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) – the country’s only viable opposition force – and stripped CNRP MPs, including APHR Members, of their seats. In September, CNRP leader Kem Sokha was also detained on politically-motivated “treason charges.” Although he has since been released into house arrest, the charges against him remain.
Since the election, Hun Sen has offered piecemeal concession in the form of limited releases of political prisoners, but the repressive laws they were jailed under remain in place.
Regional MPs also stressed that the ASEAN Summit must include the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar on its agenda. In September, the UN-appointed Independent Fact-Finding Mission accused the Myanmar military of wide-ranging abuses in Rakhine, Kachin,and Shan States, and called for Myanmar top military officials to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
APHR has previously urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
The ASEAN gathering will take place as Myanmar prepares to receive the first group of returning Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. The two governments have announced that 2,260 Rohingya who fled the security forces’ campaign of violence in 2017 will be repatriated to Myanmar in mid-November.
This is despite the fact that the refugees themselves have not been formally consulted on whether or not they wish to return and despite clear UN warnings that their safety cannot be guaranteed in Rakhine State.
“ASEAN leaders must do all they can to pressure Myanmar to end the abhorrent treatment of Rohingya – they cannot stand idly by while a possible genocide is unfolding in one of their member states,” said Charles Santiago.
“The rushed plan to push refugees back to Rakhine State against their will must also end immediately. Myanmar continues to impose debilitating restriction on Rohingya and the risk of renewed violence by the security forces remains. Rohingya women, men, and children have experienced horrific violations, and should not be forced back to a country where there is a very real chance they will face further atrocities.”
JAKARTA – Southeast Asian leaders meeting in Singapore this week must address pressing regional human rights concerns, including by taking steps to reform and strengthen ASEAN’s human rights mechanisms. That was the call from ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) today in a letter to heads of state in advance of the 32ndASEAN Summit.
“As regional integration proceeds, it is imperative for ASEAN to ensure that a focus on human rights is included in all pillars and sectors of the organization. ASEAN must also strengthen the protection mandates of its human rights bodies, if it seeks to be seen as a credible and outward-looking regional bloc,” the letter reads.
The letter comes on the heels of a series of setbacks for democracy and human rights in Southeast Asia in the past 12 months. APHR has previously highlighted concerning situations in a number of countries, including a brutal military campaign in Myanmar against the minority Rohingya, an unprecedented assault on independent civil society and the opposition in Cambodia, and attacks on press freedom from governments across the region.
“In the last year, we have seen an especially alarming regression of democracy and human rights protections region-wide. It is deeply worrying that ASEAN has largely stood by silently as the problems have mounted, and that mechanisms such as the AICHR and ACWC still lack the mandate or capacity to properly address them,” said APHR Chairperson Charles Santiago.
Singapore, as Chair of the bloc for 2018, has prioritized efforts to address emerging security challenges and promote economic integration through innovation, which are expected to be key themes for discussion at the upcoming Summit on 26-28 April. While supportive of these priorities, APHR emphasized in its letter the importance of addressing these challenges holistically.
Parliamentarians stressed the need to tackle a broad set of emerging security concerns, including those that emanate from a lack of accountability and adherence to the rule of law within states, highlighting, in particular, the plight of the Rohingya.
“In recent weeks, Malaysia and Indonesia have seen the arrival of boats carrying Rohingya fleeing longstanding persecution in Myanmar; this is clearly a regional concern. ASEAN can help put an end to this crisis, but it must address rights abuses in tandem with the multitude of other security challenges concerning member states,” said Indonesian MP Eva Kusuma Sundari, an APHR Board member.
In the context of economic integration, MPs highlighted concerns about the rights of local communities, including indigenous communities, as well as the need for better safeguards for migrant workers, calling on ASEAN leaders to ensure that the ASEAN Community is able to become a truly people-centered one.
“As ASEAN’s integration effort accelerates, we must push harder for economic development that is inclusive and sustainable. It’s time for ASEAN to send a strong message that economic growth at the expense of the welfare of the people, is unacceptable and cannot be considered progress at all,” Charles Santiago argued.
MPs also urged their leaders to return to and strengthen core elements of the ASEAN Charter, adopted during Singapore’s previous Chairmanship in 2007.
“This is an opportune time for Singapore to continue what it started and take the lead towards achieving the human rights aspirations laid out in the Charter,” Eva Sundari concluded.
“The ASEAN Charter mandates that member states respect and promote democracy, good governance, sustainable development, and human rights, honorable promises that ring hollow unless proper mechanisms are put in place, including the identification and implementation of strategic indicators.”
We, the undersigned international and regional organizations, write to you on the occasion of the 32ndASEAN Summit to urge your immediate attention to the severe deterioration in the state of human rights and democracy in Cambodia in recent months. Recent actions by Cambodia’s government to dissolve the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), effectively transformed the country into a one-party state. The arrest of Kem Sokha, the leader of the CNRP on spurious charges, the banning of over 100 opposition leaders from political activities, the arrests of political and human rights activists, restraints on freedom of expression and assembly, and the crackdown on independent news media and civil society have isolated the country and put its further democratic development in serious doubt. In addition, the ruling Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) has systematically replaced local and national lawmakers affiliated with the opposition with those loyal to the ruling CPP.
These and previous actions by the Cambodian government are in disharmony with ASEAN’s core principal to“promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law,”and should be seen as nothing less than a clear violation of the spirit and letter of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement, which ended the nation’s 12 year civil war. That agreement – signed by 19 governments, including nine current ASEAN member states, required Cambodia to respect human rights as enshrined in principal international human rights instruments, and called for Cambodia to follow “a system of liberal democracy on the basis of pluralism.” The accords also mandated “periodic and genuine elections…with a requirement that electoral procedures provide a full and fair opportunity to organize and participate in the electoral process.”
We appeal therefore, in particular to the Indonesian Government, to request for the reconvening of such a conference or one similar in nature that will outline concrete collective actions to reverse course in Cambodia, ahead of the elections in July.
The national election scheduled for July 29, 2018 has no chance of legitimacy if present circumstances persist, and far-reaching remedial steps would be required for this election to be deemed genuine, participatory and inclusive. The rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and political participation, among others, are being systematically violated through amendments to the Law on Political Parties and the Criminal Code,in contravention of the Cambodian constitution and Cambodia’s international human rights obligations, including under the ASEAN Charter and Human Rights Declaration, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Paris Agreements.
In light of the alarming and rapidly deteriorating situation for human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Cambodia, we urge you to fulfill your obligations as laid out in the 1967 Bangkok Declaration to “promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region,” by working through all diplomatic channels, both formal and informal, to call on Cambodia to reverse its course. It is not too late for the Cambodian government to restore a fair environment for the July 29, 2018 national election, which will allow the Cambodian people to choose their leaders in a credible electoral process. No Cambodian government elected under the current circumstances would have any claim to legitimacy.
In order to establish the conditions in which credible elections could be held, measures the Cambodian Government must implement include: reinstating the CNRP as a legal entity; immediately releasing Kem Sokha and permitting Sam Rainsy and other CNRP leaders to return from exile; freeing all political prisoners, including civil society leaders and political activists; allowing journalists and media outlets to operate free of violence and intimidation, including VOA, RFA and The Cambodia Daily; restoring fundamental liberties including the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Once these conditions are met, domestic and international election observer groups should be granted free access to monitor all aspects of the electoral process, and a new election commission should be formed that includes members of the opposition.
ASEAN can play an important role in mediation with the Cambodian government until conditions in the country show marked improvement, and there is precedent for its engagement. ASEAN issued a strong statement following the 1997 coup, and postponed Cambodia’s membership application which was pending when that coup occurred. The international community and the Cambodian people have invested a great deal in efforts to build a stable, democratic and prosperous Cambodia since 1991, and we urge the ASEAN community to stand by the Cambodian people to exercise their legitimate civil and political rights as important elections approach.
Very few countries suffered more violence in the 20th century than Cambodia, and its people deserve a fair and just future, and live in “peace, stability, and prosperity” as envisioned by the ASEAN Charter.
Yours sincerely,
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia)
Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD)
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
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Erywan Yusof, Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Brunei Darussalam
Prak Sokhonn, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cambodia
Retno Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Indonesia
Saleumxay Kommasith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laos
Dato’ Sri Anifah Aman, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Malaysia
Alan Peter Cayetano, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Philippines
Don Pramudwinai, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Thailand
Phạm Bình Minh, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vietnam
