Jul 28, 2023 | DFF, Statements
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia expressed their grave concern today that ASEAN countries are still scheduled to hold counter-terrorism military exercises with the Myanmar junta in August and September. They called on ASEAN to exclude the illegal junta from all joint military exercises held by the regional bloc.
“It would be utterly absurd for ASEAN countries to join the Myanmar junta in military exercises when the junta has consistently shown a lack of political will or interest in abiding by the Five-Point Consensus, notably ‘the immediate cessation of violence’,” ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Chair and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives Mercy Barends said today.
“It is especially galling that these exercises are purportedly for counter-terrorism purposes as the junta has branded the democratically-elected National Unity Government and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, as well as the People’s Defense Forces and various other pro-democracy entities, as terrorists,” said Barends.
According to statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense as well as documents from ASEAN’s website, the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM+) Experts Working Group on Counter Terrorism is planning to hold a tabletop exercise in Myanmar in August as well as a field exercise in Russia in September. Myanmar and Russia have chaired this working group since 2021, following their appointment in 2020.
“These exercises would only serve to increase the junta’s capacity to continue its campaign of murder and terror against the people of Myanmar. ASEAN must be unified in their condemnation of the escalating human rights situation and take action which makes clear that the Myanmar junta’s atrocities are unacceptable. One way to do this is by canceling these exercises and excluding the junta from all future joint military exercises and defense meetings,” said Barends.
“If ASEAN as a bloc refuses to do this, then we call on ASEAN and ADMM+ countries to follow the example of the United States, Australia and New Zealand and boycott the training.”
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
