ASEAN Human Rights Declaration Draft Ignores Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS) express deep regret that there was no specific reference concerning the collective rights of the Indigenous Peoples as enshrined in the UNDRIP in the drafting of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) draft during the national consultation held at Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations in Kuala Lumpur on June 12, 2012 […]

Parallel Battles for Burma and Asean’s Human Rights Commission

The Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) will meet in Rangoon starting this Sunday to finalize the draft of the long-awaited Asean Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). Held in a country that has for the past year made headlines in the international media for its reforms, this event might be seen by some as evidence of a “new” Asean and a “new” Burma. However, looking at it as an Asean citizen and a longtime activist for democracy and human rights in Burma, I see something entirely different.

While the AICHR will be discussing a human rights document that is supposed to protect our fundamental rights, I will be thinking of my Kachin brothers and sisters. For the past year, they’ve seen their villages burnt, fathers and brothers tortured or killed, and had mothers, sisters and daughters raped by Burma Army soldiers.

I will also be thinking of my colleagues still languishing in prisons for the simple reason that they decided to speak up for people’s rights and for a better Burma. There are still hundreds of them behind bars, forgotten by the international community.

That Burma is changing is hard to deny, but for activists, ethnic people or myself, Burma is still a long way from being a country where people’s human rights can be respected and protected […]

ASEAN Human Rights Declaration Cannot Move Forward Without Genuine Consultation of Civil Society

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) today called on ASEAN to delay the putting of its draft declaration on human rights before the foreign ministers of members states next month pending a fully inclusive, meaningful and transparent consultation of civil society and other stakeholders […]

High Commissioner For Human Rights Urges ASEAN to Set the Bar High with Its Regional Human Rights Declaration

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday offered her encouragement to ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in drafting a regional human rights declaration, but called for a meaningful consultation […]

Total Reform Is Needed to Make AICHR Independent, Effective and Relevant to the ASEAN Peoples

The performance of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has been disappointing and wanting, epitomized by the lack of transparency, failure to consult with civil society organizations and no demonstrable progress in protecting and promoting human rights, according to a civil society assessment report on the performance of the AICHR for the period of October 2010 to December 2011 […]

Joint Statement on Calling AICHR to Release ASEAN Human Rights Declaration

We, the undersigned civil society organizations and networks from Southeast Asia, express our grave concern and disappointment over the continuing secrecy in the drafting process of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) […]

Joint Rally of Indonesian People To Commemorate The 23rd Anniversary of 8888 People Uprising, mass killings and detention: it is time for ASEAN to act

Twenty years ago in 8 August 1988 people uprising in Burma has toppled the military dictator, General Ne Win. Military in response has brutally suppressed the uprising leading to the killings of around 10.000 people, disappearances and another thousand detained until today. Some them has yet found dead mysteriously in the most severe prisons in the country. Another thousand has fled the country living stateless until today […]

Letter: Myanmar should not chair ASEAN

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) deeply regrets a statement made by Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia’s representative to ASEAN’s Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), as reported by The Jakarta Post on July 19: “ … giving Myanmar a chance [to chair ASEAN] could encourage the country to show ASEAN and the world that it is committed to improving its national situation” […]

AIPMC Statement on Current Military Offensive and Rights Abuse by the Myanmar Army in Ethnic Areas

Monitor recent rape cases, reject Myanmar’s bid to chair ASEAN and cut financial lifelines for despots, AIPMC urges ASEAN

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) is deeply concerned about atrocities against civilians following Myanmar Army offensives against ethnic armed groups in Shan State and Kachin State in Myanmar, notably sexual violence against women and girls, including gang-rape by order of high level officials […]

Panel will start work on a rights declaration

The Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights is taking shape as a panel will start discussions on drafting a declaration on human rights for the Southeast Asian region during a meeting in Vientiane next Monday […]