Nov 1, 2022 | CCHR, Statements
BANGKOK – The rights of indigenous peoples and local communities must be put at the center when discussing urgently needed solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, lawmakers, civil society members, and experts said in the first ever conference on the role of parliamentarians in addressing climate change in Southeast Asia, organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
“Climate change is not something that can be postponed; in fact action needs to be taken yesterday. Parliamentarians have a big role to play in order to avoid a climate catastrophe, which will disproportionately affect poor and marginalized communities.” said Charles Santiago, APHR Chairperson and former Malaysian MP.
The two-day conference, held in Bangkok on 29-30 October 2022, gathered former and current parliamentarians from the region as well as regional and international experts, civil society organizations, affected communities and other relevant stakeholders who have been active and engaged on climate change issues.
Participants shared their experiences and knowledge and discussed possible alternative approaches on what lawmakers can do to push further action on climate change from their respective governments, particularly how to ensure that such actions include meaningful involvement from indigenous peoples and local communities, who are often the most affected by the impacts of climate change.
“Climate-induced disasters don’t just result in economic damage, communities are displaced from their lands, indigenous communities lose their culture too,” said Patricia Wattimena, from the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). Wattimena added that proposed solutions to climate change, such as large hydroelectric dams, too often ignore indigenous communities’ voices and result in their displacement.
“Parliamentarians should come to the local communities, listen to the impact of climate change, and the impact of climate solutions, and listen to what they need,” said Wanun Permpibul, Climate Watch Thailand.
Participants also noted that funding for the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, which has been generally lacking in the region, has failed to reach local communities. Funding for adaptation efforts have been particularly insufficient, especially as Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in the world, with 56.3 million people living on the coastlines.
“Current climate change finance is not inclusive and less than 10 percent of it reaches the local level. Scaling up adaptation finance is especially important because even if we reach zero emissions today, we still need to deal with historical emissions,” said Dr. Ornsaran Pomme Manuamorn, advisor to Thailand’s Fiscal Policy Research Institute.
She added that adaptation finance was needed not just to address climate induced-disasters such as flooding, but also slow-onset events sea level rises, changing rainfall patterns, and biodiversity loss, which can be devastating to indigenous peoples and local communities.
Mercy Barends, APHR Board Member and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, said that influential leaders who champion climate change efforts must be protected, particularly as environmental and indigenous activists across the region have often faced criminalization in the past few years. “All levels of society have to work together in order to achieve a just and equitable energy transition that can help us avoid a climate catastrophe,” said Mercy.
Oct 25, 2022 | DFF, Open Letters
To: ASEAN Leaders
H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam
H.E. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia
H.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia
H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
H.E. Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, Prime Minister of Malaysia
H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines
H.E. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore
H.E. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
H.E. Phạm Minh Chính, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
25 October 2022
Subject: Open letter from civil society organizations concerning ASEAN’s approach to the ongoing political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar
Your Excellencies,
We, the 457 undersigned Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations, call on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (‘ASEAN’) to cease inviting all political and non-political representatives of the Myanmar military junta to all summits and meetings, and revise the mandate of the Special Envoy to Myanmar. We further call on ASEAN under the Indonesian Chairship, as a regional bloc and as individual states, to move beyond the failed Five-Point Consensus (‘5PC’), enable effective humanitarian assistance, and publicly recognize the National Unity Government.
For the past 20 months since the failed coup, ASEAN has been largely ineffective in responding to the escalating crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “dialogue” demonstrates a selective approach to the 5PC and yields no results to stop the ongoing crisis in Myanmar. Despite being put on notice for non-compliance with the 5PC in a joint communique in August 2022, the junta has continued committing atrocity crimes against the Myanmar people. Just one month after the warning, the junta’s airstrikes on a school in Sagaing Region killed 11 children.
The exclusion of the junta from ASEAN Summits in October 2021 and November 2022 was a step in the right direction. We also note positive stances taken by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore, and welcome the bloc’s statement in July 2022. Nevertheless, any engagement with the junta is in breach of the ASEAN Charter. The crimes that are being committed by the Myanmar military amount to acts of a terrorist organization under international legal definitions and Myanmar’s domestic laws. The Myanmar military stands accused of atrocity crimes at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and under a universal jurisdiction case in Argentina. We are alarmed that this illegal entity holds sway in ASEAN’s actions.
Mandate of Special Envoy
Since the establishment of the desultory 5PC, the mandate of the ASEAN Special Envoy (‘SE’) has proven unsuccessful in resolving, let alone positively impacting, the worsening crisis in Myanmar. Several efforts by the SE, and by extension of ASEAN, to initiate “dialogues” and “visits” to the military junta have not actualized in any meaningful progress. Instead, such actions have condoned and emboldened the illegal junta to continue its heinous crimes with blanket impunity.
Evident in the visits by the second SE, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, in March and June 2022, the junta has been reassured of ASEAN’s inaction and launched intense aerial attacks against civilians and spiked the death toll of children. State Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was repeatedly given additional prison sentences, along with her economic adviser, Sean Turnell. It is a shame that, per the junta’s disapproval, in none of the visits was the SE allowed access to the State Counsellor and other arbitrarily detained parliamentarians elected in the November 2020 general elections. The SE has further failed to meet with the Acting President, Prime Minister or other officials of the National Unity Government (‘NUG’), the legitimate government of Myanmar, key ethnic revolutionary organizations (‘EROs’) and civil society organizations (‘CSOs’).
The junta was emboldened to carry out extrajudicial executions of four political activists in July despite the appeal from ASEAN Chair, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The executions clearly demonstrated, as Singapore’s Foreign Minister put it, “the high level of cynicism or even outright disrespect for the role of ASEAN”. We are deeply disappointed that such a reprehensible action, which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, was met with no more than empty condemnation.
These imprudent engagements of the SE further caused extensive damage to the struggle of Myanmar people to end military tyranny and establish a federal democracy. Such actions stand in contrast to the 5PC’s promise to strive for a solution “in the interests of the people”. Furthermore, the vague nature of the SE mandate has so far created public confusion of whether the mandate is a political mediator, interlocutor or focused on humanitarian delivery.
Humanitarian Aid and AHA Centre
ASEAN’s ongoing cooperation and engagement with the military junta to deliver humanitarian aid through the bloc’s Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (‘AHA Centre’) has only exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. The AHA Centre, designed to tackle natural disasters, is ill-equipped to deal with a multi-dimensional political crisis. With its operating procedures, the Centre relies on the junta for access and is dictated by a board consisting of the junta’s Myanmar Task Force. Aid is being weaponized by the very perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes that led to the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and of the genocide of the Rohingya in 2017. The former director of the AHA Centre stated that the junta “is unwilling to provide access to the people in line with humanitarian principles,” and called on ASEAN to remove the junta as aid partner.
Local humanitarian actors and CSOs have been effectively delivering the much-needed humanitarian assistance to communities since the failed coup, along with the NUG and EROs. Border-based CSOs have been indispensable in assisting groups in hardest-to-reach areas with financial and subsistence support. The NUG provided 2.73 billion Myanmar Kyat to internally displaced people and the Civil Disobedience Movement in a year. Meanwhile, international humanitarian organizations, UN agencies and the AHA Centre have been largely unable to reach those most in need. In his letter to the ASEAN Secretary-General, the Malaysian Foreign Minister noted that “the special [humanitarian] task force formed by ASEAN together with the junta is not working well”. With the lack of trust in the junta as a result of its ongoing campaign of terror and weaponization of aid, local aid providers are increasingly unwilling to work with the junta or organizations linked to it.
Recommendations
While Myanmar people themselves are sacrificing their lives, livelihoods and futures for the future of their young generations, ASEAN must take concrete actions to end all inhumane acts committed by the military junta. We appeal to the Indonesian President, set to assume ASEAN Chairship in 2023, to support the will of the Myanmar people.
It is imperative that ASEAN no longer holds official meetings with the junta or recognizes it and its representatives as the government of Myanmar. The bloc must bar all junta representatives, political and non-political, from all ASEAN summits and meetings, including the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Such disengagement must include ending defense ties with the Myanmar junta. ASEAN must officially recognize the NUG, allowing its delegation to the bloc and member states.
We strongly urge ASEAN to move beyond the 5PC and develop a plan that includes clear benchmarks and indicators of success to realistically measure progress. The plan must be based on extensive consultation with the NUG, the National Unity Consultative Council (‘NUCC’), EROs and CSOs. ASEAN must establish actionable punitive measures upon the junta’s non-compliance with the 5PC to cease the ongoing violence.
At the November Summit, we also call on ASEAN to amend the mandate of the SE to be a full-time position from 2023 onwards with a three-year term, appointed by the ASEAN Chair, and to represent and be accountable to ASEAN as a whole. The SE must have clear terms of reference not for peace-brokering, but be grounded in human rights principles, justice and accountability, and the will of the Myanmar people. The mandate must hold authority and independence to take actions unencumbered by the delay of infrequent ASEAN high-level meetings. The mandate must immediately open formal communications and engage with the NUG, the NUCC, EROs, CSOs and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw.
On humanitarian aid, ASEAN must stop partnering with the junta and recognize that the AHA Centre cannot address the humanitarian crisis. We recommend to ASEAN to take a solidarity-based approach to facilitate cross-border aid by working in partnership with local humanitarian actors, the NUG and EROs. ASEAN members must also accept and provide protection for asylum seekers from Myanmar. All regional efforts must be based on humanitarian principles of do-no-harm, humanity and impartiality, and the agency of displaced communities.
The political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is not merely an “internal affair,” but a threat to regional security and stability which ASEAN vowed to protect. Without swift action, Myanmar’s neighboring countries and ASEAN states will continue to face the influx of refugees, loss of commercial interests and irreparable reputational damage. We believe that ASEAN’s credibility depends on its ability to act in a timely manner to effectively prevent the junta’s violence and destruction spilling over and destabilizing the entire region.
We CSOs remain at your disposal to ensure the bloc’s effective action in addressing the needs of Myanmar people in line with their will and aspirations.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 457 organizations including 297 organizations who have chosen not to disclose their name,
Click here for the full list of signatories.
Oct 17, 2022 | FoRB, Statements
JAKARTA — Parliamentarians should uphold freedom of religion or belief and work in preventing religion from being turned into a political weapon in the midst of increasing conservatism and discrimination against minorities worldwide, a group of twelve sitting and former lawmakers from Southeast Asia said at a conference held in Jakarta.
“Religion is too often weaponized as a political tool, especially in election years. It is important for parliamentarians to connect and discuss strategies on how to combat such tactics, particularly with upcoming elections in Malaysia, Indonesia, as well as Timor-Leste,” said Timor-Leste MP Antonio Benevides.
In recent years, religion has often been used in the region to attack political enemies. One example discussed during the conference was the 2019 presidential elections in Indonesia, when supporters of President Joko Widodo and his challenger Prabowo Subianto traded accusations about the rival candidate’s lack of commitment to Islam.
In Myanmar, the military and its proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), have often accused the National League for Democracy (NLD) of endangering Buddhism and being infiltrated by Muslims plotting to take over the country. Now, the junta that ousted the NLD government in an illegal coup d’état in February last year is attempting to use Buddhism to legitimize its rule.
“The world is not okay right now and we need to work together to help make it better by ensuring that everyone enjoys basic rights including freedom of religion and faith, particularly minorities,” said Eva Kusuma Sundari, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) board member and former member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.
This and other issues were discussed by lawmakers hailing from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines, who were attending the annual Southeast Asia Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (SEAPFoRB) conference in Jakarta on 16-17 October 2022.
The SEAPFoRB conference was hosted by APHR, together with the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (IPPFoRB), and is part of an initiative to strengthen parliamentarians’ action to promote and protect the right to freedom of religion or belief in Southeast Asia.
On the second day of the conference, eight MPs visited the Indonesian House of Representatives to have a roundtable discussion with Indonesian MPs – including Luluk Nur Hamidah, Sylviana Murni, and Bobby Rizaldi – on the freedom of religion or belief situation in Indonesia.
“Indonesia celebrates all the six religions as well as the many indigenous beliefs that are practiced here, but given the huge diversity here we face a large challenge in continuing to develop respect for plurality in order to maintain the ‘Unity in Diversity’ that is our national motto. We also realize that protecting religious freedom is something that requires a global response,” said Luluk.
The conference concluded with a number of key conclusions and recommendations, including the need to provide counter-narratives toward intolerant messaging on social media and increasing engagement with other key stakeholders such as religious organizations and civil society.
“Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental human right that is incredibly important to protect. MPs have a huge role to play in ensuring that protection.,” said Philippine MP Arlene Brosas.
Click here to read the statement in Indonesian.
Sep 19, 2022 | DFF, Statements
NEW YORK – The Malaysian Foreign Minister, Dato Sri Saifuddin Abdullah, parliamentarians from Europe and Asia, and members of the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar have urged the global community to take stronger action to tackle the crisis triggered in Myanmar by last year’s illegal coup d’état.
Minister Abdullah hosted a meeting focused on Myanmar today at the Malaysian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, which is taking place this week.
“There should be an inclusive and fair consultation with all stakeholders in Myanmar, including the NUG and NUCC. Then there should be a framework with a clear endgame, which includes a return to democracy in Myanmar,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah is the only ASEAN minister who has publicly met with members of the NUG, the legitimate government in Myanmar, which represents the democratic aspirations of the country’s people. The meeting was attended by the NUG Minister for Human Rights, U Aung Myo Min; the NUG Minister of Communications, Information and Technology, as well as its spokesperson, U Htin Linn Aung; the permanent representative of Myanmar to the UN, Kyaw Moe Tun; as well as representatives of other Myanmar pro-democracy organizations.
“The Myanmar people deserve to have their true representatives at the table where regional decisions are being made,” said Htin Linn Aung.
The meeting was attended by Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament and Chair of the International Parliamentary Inquiry (IPI) into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar; Charles Santiago, Malaysian MP and Chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR); Mercy Chriesty Barends, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives and APHR Board Member; U Shwe Maung, former Myanmar Member of Parliament, and APHR Board Member; and Tom Villarin, former congressman from the Philippines, and APHR Board Member.
Since the coup d’état on 1 February 2021, Myanmar has been plunged into a deep crisis, as the military junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing engages in an all-out war against its population in order to cement its power. A massive civil disobedience movement has demonstrated that the vast majority of the country’s population does not wish to live under military rule and has valiantly resisted the power grab. Meanwhile, international attention has largely shifted to crises elsewhere.
“Nineteen months after the coup, the international allies of the junta have shown a commitment to supporting Min Aung Hlaing which surpasses that of those countries claiming to support the pro-democracy movement. Simply put, the latter are not doing enough to help the Myanmar people, as countries like Russia or China actively support the military, engage the junta and give it the recognition it so keenly craves. It is high time for those governments that claim to support democracy in Myanmar to act forcefully,” said Charles Santiago.
In order to assess the global response to the crisis in Myanmar and offer recommendations on what international actors should do to support democracy and human rights in the country, APHR launched the International Parliamentary Inquiry on Myanmar in June. Chaired by Heidi Hautala, Vice President of the European Parliament, the IPI Committee is formed by eight parliamentarians from seven countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
The IPI has held a total of six public oral hearings, as well as two special and three confidential oral hearings, with experts, diplomats, politicians, and activists from Myanmar and other countries. IPI committee members also conducted a fact-finding mission to the Thai-Myanmar border in August, where they met with over a dozen civil society organizations and other stakeholders. On the occasion of the UN General Assembly, the IPI has sent a delegation to New York and Washington, in order to present its preliminary findings. The IPI final report will be released in November.
The IPI members are presenting a position paper to a variety a stakeholders in New York and Washington, in which they assert that the coup has failed in the face of widespread popular opposition. Myanmar has been plunged into a civil war between the military and the pro-democracy movement, which is bound to be long and protracted.
“As the conflict in Myanmar remains undecided, and the coup is triggering a humanitarian crisis of an enormous scale, what international actors do, or fail to do, may tip the scale in favor of military dictatorship or democracy. We urge the global community to scale up humanitarian aid, to increase the pressure on the junta through improved coordination on sanctions and diplomatic isolation. We further urge international actors to fully acknowledge the NUG as what it is, the legitimate government of Myanmar, and support it accordingly with funding, capacity building initiatives, and diplomatic recognition,” said Heidi Hautala.
Aug 3, 2022 | DFF, Opinion Articles
By Kasit Piromya.
As ASEAN’s foreign ministers meet in Cambodia this week, the recent executions of four political prisoners in Myanmar by the illegal military junta should serve as yet another wake-up call for the group to change course in its approach to the deepening crisis in the country. The executions are acts of judicial barbarism committed by a military that has shown no qualms about committing any and every crime against the Myanmar population in order to cement its hold on power.
To be clear, the death sentences were handed down without fairness, by military tribunals conducting secretive trials without respect for due process. These are the conditions in which 76 other prisoners currently in Myanmar jails were sentenced to death, including two children, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). The executions that took place last week, the first known in over three decades, are an ominous sign that this cruel punishment may continue to be carried out.
This is another page in the extensive catalog of atrocities that Min Aung Hlaing and his men have been committing for the past 18 months. Since the coup in February last year, at least 2,114 people have been killed by the self-styled State Administration Council (SAC), which continues shelling villages and killing protesters in a pattern of “systematic and widespread human rights violations and abuses” that may amount to “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In this context, there is no room for inaction or neutrality between the generals and the widespread popular movement opposing their rule, and all ASEAN member states should act accordingly.
Yet ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn – who visited the country only two weeks before the executions – issued a statement condemning these barely disguised political assassinations, without once mentioning the culprits – the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and his henchmen.
Moreover, Prak Sokhonn asserts that an “extreme bellicose mood can be felt from all corners of Myanmar,” setting out a false equivalence between the criminal junta waging an all-out war against the people and a countrywide opposition movement organized to restore democracy in the country. We should not forget that the opposition to military rule only resorted to armed struggle to resist the brutal campaign launched by the military to quash an initially non-violent civil disobedience movement.
The ASEAN envoy also showed this false even-handedness when he asserted a couple of weeks ago its willingness to secretly meet the National Unity Government (NUG) of Myanmar, which opposes the junta and represents the democratic aspirations of the Myanmar people. Such secrecy stands in stark contrast with the very public meetings that Prak Sokhonn has held with the SAC, which have lent the junta a degree of legitimacy that he, representing ASEAN, is denying to the NUG.
As ASEAN chair this year, Cambodia has clearly not been up to the task of dealing with the crisis in Myanmar. Neither is ASEAN itself nor the global community above criticism. They have acted with a timidity and absence of leadership that have contributed to the Myanmar generals’ sense of impunity.
In April 2021, ASEAN member states and Min Aung Hlaing’s junta agreed on a Five-Point Consensus that called for, among other things, an “immediate cessation of violence,” and a dialogue between all stakeholders in Myanmar. It was an agreement without precedent, and it was immediately supported by other international actors such as the United States, China, and the U.N.
Yet the Myanmar military has flagrantly ignored its obligations under the agreement. It has not ceased its campaign of violence and has not taken any step towards any kind of political dialogue. Given that the Consensus lacks any enforcement mechanisms or deadlines for compliance, the junta has not faced any consequences for its failure to implement it.
With no progress on the ground, ASEAN has apparently been paralyzed, and it is deeply divided between those countries, such as Cambodia, that show an undue indulgence towards the junta, and those willing to adopt a tougher approach, such as Malaysia and Indonesia. Meanwhile, actors beyond the region are seemingly hiding behind their support for the Consensus and ASEAN to justify their lack of decisive action on Myanmar.
In order to work, the Five-Point Consensus should, at the very least, be reinforced with clear “milestones and time limits” to be met by the junta, as the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah argued recently at an oral hearing of the International Parliamentary Inquiry on the global response to the crisis in Myanmar organized by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
ASEAN can, and should, do more. For starters, the group should begin exerting pressure on the SAC by suspending Myanmar’s membership, imposing targeted sanctions and travel bans in the region on the junta and its cronies, in order to show Min Aung Hlaing and his men that they cannot commit their crimes without consequences. The chair and its special envoy must desist from making a show of its apparent even-handedness in dealing with the junta, adhere to the collective ASEAN plan, and engage openly with the NUG, as has Saifuddin.
This is a turning point for ASEAN to decide on which side of history it will place our region. Confronted by the worsening Myanmar crisis, the group cannot assert the principle of non-interference as an excuse for inaction or neutrality. Such a principle was designed to protect the sovereignty of ASEAN’s member states, but the biggest threat to the sovereignty of the Myanmar people now is its own military, which is acting as a brutal force of occupation, throwing the country into chaos with potentially destabilizing effects beyond its borders. Nor should non-interference be used as an excuse to turn a blind eye to crimes against humanity itself.
ASEAN must deliver on its responsibility to Myanmar, its people, and the region. The so-called tiger cub economies should come into their own, serve the junta with consequences that bite, and support the Myanmar people in their hour of direst need.
Kasit Piromya is a former Foreign Minister of Thailand, and a Board Member of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).
This article first appeared in The Diplomat.
