Chiang Mai, Thailand - On the 99th anniversary of International Women’s Day, APWLD urges the international community to become involved in what has the potential to be Southeast Asia’s most powerful tool for the protection and promotion of women’s human rights. This April at the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) will be established.

56 organisations/groups have sent a letter to the ASEAN and Heads of Government of ASEAN countries, calling them to pay attention to the struggle of factory workers in Burma.

(Cha-Am, Thailand, 25th October 2009) On the occasion of the inauguration of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA TF-AHR), a coalition of more than 70 non-government organisations, reiterates its expectation that the Commission will be accountable, independent and effective in protecting and promoting human rights throughout the region.

Fifty one civil society organizations from Burma today submitted a petition to the Thai government at the ASEAN People’s Forum demanding an immediate halt to dam plans on the Salween River to avoid being drawn into Burma’s escalating civil war.

A delegation of Burma civil society actors organized by the Task Force on ASEAN and Burma (TFAB) are attending the ASEAN People’s Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference in Cha-am, Thailand, on October 18-20, days before the ASEAN Summit. The APF/ACSC has been reformatted to create greater opportunities for interaction between civil society and ASEAN senior officials. Burma’s civil society groups are calling on ASEAN to address the SPDC’s violations of the regional body’s Charter. 

On the Thai-Burmese border--When the dogs start baying at night, fear begins to grip those living in a village in the west of Burma (Myanmar) where the Rohingya people live. More often than not, the howling of the dogs means soldiers are coming and one of the villagers will be taken away.

So the Good Leaders of ASEAN, the same people who thought it better for them to approve the ASEAN Charter before the people of ASEAN could even see it, have agreed on an ASEAN Human Rights Body. And like all new bodies that arrive in this world, this baby comes with no teeth.

This 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) will be a milestone for the development of human rights in the region and community building in ASEAN. After 12 months of hard work, the High Level Panel (HLP), the team that was tasked to draft the Terms of Reference (TOR) on the establishment of the ASEAN human rights body (AHRB) will have their meeting tomorrow (18 July 2009) and will submit the draft to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on the day after.

Following the demands from the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus on humanitarian aid for new refugees who arrived in Tha Song Yang district of Tak Province since early June, and the expression of concerns from the network of Thai non-governmental organizations regarding the increase in forced repatriation, restriction of humanitarian aid, access to education, and the lack of a clear, proper and up-to-date refugee management measures,

The ASEAN charter was adopted at the 14th ASEAN Summit in November 2007 and eventually came into force in December 2008.

As the target date for launching the ASEAN human rights body (AHRB)
nears, civil society groups have warned depriving it of watchdog
powers would erode the credibility of the regional organization.