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Mine Blasts Kill 2 Rohingya Girls in Rakhine as UN Extends Arrangement with Myanmar
Mine blasts in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state killed two Rohingya children and injured another child as they picked mangoes in a deserted village on Wednesday, with the government military and the rebel Arakan Army blaming each other for the deadly explosions, locals said.
The blast highlighted the peril and instability...
ASEAN has failed to cooperate on COVID-19, leaving marginalized groups exposed
Editorial
As we settle into the age of the coronavirus, scathing critiques of government responses to the pandemic are increasingly common in the media—tropes of foreign policy analysis play out on the pages of The New York Times and The Guardian. For Southeast Asia, the now-tired hot take is that countries in China’s backyard...
COVID-19, a litmus test for ASEAN
By: Eunice Barbara C. Novio - @inquirerdotnet
INQUIRER.net / 09:53 PM April 13, 2020
BANGKOK – With over 13,000 cases of COVID-19 in the ASEAN Region, many countries are still treating the pandemic as a security issue rather than a health and medical issue. This was an observation shared by the...
Group slams rollback of human rights in Asia
MANILA, Philippines — Governments in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, have used the COVID-19 pandemic to impose measures that have rolled back human rights in the region, according to Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia).
Under the pretext of public safety and national security, these governments have either...
ASEAN MPs urge governments to put human rights at centre of COVID-19 response
JAKARTA – As governments in Southeast Asia increase measures in response to the spread of coronavirus, regional lawmakers have today urged authorities to ensure that human rights are at the forefront of their responses.
“Now is a particularly challenging time for governments around the world to combat the virus, but...
ASEAN must uphold human rights in responding to the COVID‐19 pandemic, says FORUM-ASIA
In a joint statement earlier today (20 March), the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), together with the Solidarity for ASEAN Peoples’ Advocacy and the undersigned organisations, expressed grave concerns with the lack of a human rights focus in the current response to the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic...
ASEAN Must Do More to Help the Rohingyas
The deaths of more than a dozen Rohingyas on an overcrowded boat that was bound for Malaysia but capsized in the Bay of Bengal in early February highlighted the desperation that about a million refugees continue to face in the sprawling camps in southern Bangladesh. While the refugees’ plight...
Keynote Speech on Viet Nam’s 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship
By H.E. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Viet Nam
(Hanoi, 6 January 2020)
Distinguished guests,
Fellow citizens of the ASEAN Community,
1. Along with the rest of the world, the ASEAN Community is celebrating the New Year 2020 amidst blooming spring with...
Lao Woman Gets Five Years for Criticizing Government on Facebook
Houayheuang Xayabouly, 30, also known by her nickname Mouay, was arrested Sept. 12 after she voiced her concern about the government response to flooding in the country’s southern Champassak and Salavan provinces in her Sept. 5 Facebook Live video.
Human Rights Talks Absent from ASEAN Summit
HO CHI MINH CITY - Much of the recent ASEAN summit was focused on political snubbing between Donald Trump and the region, an Asian trade agreement, and the South China Sea dispute, but one topic was not a priority: human rights.
