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 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...
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 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...
Cambodia ‘at risk from geopolitical manoeuvres’
Prime Minister Hun Sen (left) and Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan shake hands./Hun Sen’s Facebook
Phnom Penh (Phnom Penh Post) - Three of Cambodia’s top leaders used the Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) to warn that small- and medium-sized countries were...
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.
Asean way to prevent or counter violent extremism?
Members of the Indonesian Presidential Security Force evacuate a ‘VIP’ during an anti-terror drill at the Jakarta Convention Center. Reuters
Singapore, as chairman of Asean, is convening a Southeast Asia Counter-Terrorism Symposium this week. The challenge, writes Cameron Sumpter, is to find a middle ground so that grassroots initiatives to...
