Rohingya issue to feature highly

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.

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) in a letter yesterday called the heads of state ahead of the 32nd ASEAN 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 organisation. 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, according to a message UNB received from Jakarta.

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 prioritised 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 emphasised 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.