[Repost] APHR Welcomes ASEAN Special Envoy’s Intent to Engage Myanmar’s EROs, Urges Rights-Based and Inclusive Process

14 June 2026

JAKARTA, 10 June 2026—ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) welcomes the ASEAN Special Envoy and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro’s stated intention to meet with Myanmar’s political and ethnic resistance organizations (EROs), as a potentially meaningful step toward inclusive dialogue under the Five-Point Consensus (5PC).

“The Special Envoy’s planned meetings with Myanmar’s EROs would mark a departure from the narrow, junta-centric engagement that has long undermined ASEAN’s credibility on Myanmar.. For years, resistance forces and civil society have called on ASEAN to widen its engagement beyond the military, and this initiative signals a willingness to heed that call,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, Member of Indonesian House of Representatives, and Chairperson of APHR.

APHR urges that the engagement be guided by clear principles: transparent, rights-based, and anchored in the lived realities and democratic aspirations of the Myanmar people. Any consultations must be conducted in good faith, without preconditions that would exclude legitimate stakeholders including representatives of the National Unity Government, civil society, and affected civilian communities.

ASEAN must ensure that such dialogue is substantive, leads to concrete de-escalation measures, and is not used to legitimize or normalize the junta’s parallel “civilian” transition process. Any political roadmap that emerges must be people-centered and responsive to the aspirations of all those impacted by years of military brutality.

APHR calls on the ASEAN Special Envoy to maintain momentum, ensure full transparency with ASEAN member states and civil society, and resist pressure from member states seeking premature normalization with the military regime.

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[Repost] APHR Demands Unconditional Release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Supports Proof of Life Campaign

7 May 2026

https://aseanmp.org/publications/post/aphr-demands-unconditional-release-of-daw-aung-san-suu-kyi-supports-proof-of-life-campaign

JAKARTA, 6 May 2026—As ASEAN leaders convene in Cebu for the 48th ASEAN Summit, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and urges the bloc to add its voice to growing global demands.

The UN Secretary-General, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk, and governments including the United States, the European Union, Japan, and France have all called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta’s transfer of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Naypyidaw Prison to an undisclosed location under house arrest on April 30—four days before the summit opened—has done nothing to satisfy that demand. APHR views this as a calculated attempt to deflect pressure and generate diplomatic goodwill amid heightened international scrutiny.

APHR also supports the ‘Proof of Life’ campaign, and underscores the urgent need to verify Aung San Suu Kyi’s health and well-being. Kim Aris, leading champion of the campaign, has had no direct contact with his mother since February 1, 2021. No independent observer has been permitted to verify the health or welfare of the 80-year old former leader.

Moreover, APHR welcomes the Philippines’ call, as ASEAN Chair, to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and urges ASEAN to elevate that call into a unified bloc position. The Five-Point Consensus requires the junta to engage in genuine dialogue with all stakeholders. Yet in five years since its adoption, the ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar has never once been permitted to meet the leader of the party that won Myanmar’s last free election.

APHR calls on ASEAN leaders to:

– Demand Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate and unconditional release, not merely in words but through concrete, coordinated pressure on the junta to act;
– Ensure her family is granted immediate access and independent observers are permitted to verify her condition without delay; and
– Reaffirm that any political process excluding Myanmar’s democratically elected representatives lacks legitimacy and must not be recognized by ASEAN.

For media inquiries, please email:

Elsa Jade | elsa.jade@aseanmp.org
Myanmar & Crisis Response – Program Coordinator

Neal Roxas | neal@aseanmp.org
Media & Communications Officer

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[Repost] In search of the first female ASEAN secretary-general – The Jakarta Post

30 March 2026

https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2026/02/24/in-search-of-the-first-female-asean-secretary-general.html

After 50 years and 15 male secretaries-general, the time has come for ASEAN to break its longest-standing glass ceiling. As Indonesia prepares to nominate the next chief, a historic opportunity emerges to prove that the region’s future is both inclusive and ready for female leadership at the very top.

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[Repost] International Women’s Day statement by Women’s Peace Network

10 March 2026

This International Women’s Day, we reexpress our commitment to our fellow women in Myanmar and across the world, as well as our urgent calls for protection, relief, and justice.

Over five years after its attempted coup, the Burmese military has arbitrarily arrested and detained over 6,300 women, and exposed them to torture and sexual violence in detention centers and prisons. Even after conducting its sham election, the military has continued to intensify its air, drone, and ground attacks on civilians and civilian properties; since February 2021, the military’s armed attacks have disproportionately injured and killed over 2000 women. Surviving women continue to be exposed to the military’s forced recruitment and its decades-long use of rape as a weapon of war.

The widespread nature of this crime extends to Rakhine State, where the Burmese military and Arakan Army are continuing to target Rohingya women in an attempt to ethnically cleanse them from their homelands. From Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships, reports are increasingly emerging of the AA’s sexual violence and forced recruitment of Rohingya girls. The AA is committing these crimes as its soldiers pillage Rohingya villages, forcibly transfer its residents, and disappear and murder them. 

There is no end in sight to the ongoing catastrophe, one that has now emboldened some of our revolutionary allies to brutalize our fellow women with impunity. Over the past year, cases of torture and sexual violence against women by resistance forces have been reported in conflict areas, including Mandalay and Sagaing regions. Most recently, in the latter’s Yinmabin District, officials of the area’s 20th Battalion deliberately beat and raped a Muslim woman for her minority faith, and threatened her family members. 

In addition to its atrocity conditions, the country’s widespread lack of humanitarian access further exposes women to lethal conditions and mass displacement. In 2025, more than half of the Rohingya forced to flee on boats were women and children embarking from Myanmar. Even in exile, women continue to face deteriorating livelihood and protection challenges as refugees in Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and across South and Southeast Asia.

Therefore, this International Women’s Day, we urge the international community to actively support women-led civil society in ending the ongoing crisis. Immediate actions must be taken to end its root causes, especially by holding accountable the Burmese military, and all other perpetrators of sexual violence.

At the same time, the National Unity Government and resistance forces must immediately investigate cases of sexual violence within their organization, hold their perpetrators accountable, and implement victim and survivor-centered measures to prevent the recurrence of this heinous crime. Comprehensive safety and protection will enable us and our fellow diverse women to fully and effectively contribute to the Spring Revolution and Myanmar’s peaceful and inclusive federal democracy.

The time to act is now. In Myanmar and beyond, the world must work with us and our fellow women in paving our unique lives and futures.

Please click here for a PDF copy of the statement.

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[Repost] [MODEL LEGISLATION] AI & Human Rights: A legislative blueprint for lawmakers and civil society – ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)

7 March 2026

🌏 ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) works in a region that is impacted by a multitude of socio-political and environmental crises, a region witnessing a steady rise in right-wing authoritarianism, increased threats to human rights and backsliding of democracy. Civil society organizations, rights defenders and progressive lawmakers face surveillance, censorship and legal threats impacting their rights and freedoms. Operating within this context, there is an urgent need for APHR to put effort into envisioning and contributing to internet governance that safeguards our right to freedom of expression and opinion and translating this towards bolstering parliamentary expertise and oversight of the use of AI technologies in Southeast Asia.

In this light, we are happy to share with you this policy paper, entitled “AI and Human Rights: Model Legislation for Southeast Asian Lawmakers and Civil Society” that we have developed together with APHR member lawmakers and civil society technical experts.

A practical, human rights-centred policy model to help legislative bodies, oversight units and rights defenders prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) that threatens human rights, democratic processes and civic space across the Southeast Asia region.

WHAT THE MODEL LEGISLATION OFFERS
This resource (full text and legislative commentary) lays out a complete draft Act and operational provisions lawmakers can adapt and adopt:

  • Clear definitions and scope, including extraterritorial coverage for systems whose outputs affect people inside the country.
  • A prohibited practices chapter banning social scoring, untargeted scraping, predictive policing and abusive biometric surveillance.
  • A risk-based compliance regime for high-risk systems with mandatory Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments (FRIAs) and bias-mitigation rules.
  • Rights for individuals; transparency, meaningful explanations of automated decisions and routes for complaints and redress.
  • Worker protections against intrusive algorithmic management and safeguards for platform-based workers.
  • Provisions to protect civic space, elections and survivors of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV).
  • Institutional architecture; an independent National AI Oversight Body, whistleblower protection, liability regimes and dissuasive penalties.
  • This Model Law was drafted to be interoperable with established frameworks and global best practice, including the principles reflected in the EU AI Act, while adapting those standards to regional realities.

Thank you very much and 

we hope this will be useful to your civic and policy advocacy endeavors to safeguard digital rights, strengthen human rights protections and uphold democratic principles in the governance of emerging technologies.

In solidarity always. 

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[Repost] Five years since the Burmese military’s attempted coup in Myanmar

2 February 2026

Today marks five years since the Burmese military’s violent overthrow of an elected government in Myanmar, and subsequent commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against our fellow people.

The military’s atrocities – including air and drone strikes, arbitrary arrest and detention, mass killing, sexual and gender-based violence – have forced millions of civilians to become internally displaced persons in areas of armed conflict and famine, or refugees in life-threatening conditions of exile over land and sea.

We strongly reject the military’s recent sham election, which will only embolden its forces to intensify its campaign of terror across the country. Even during its so-called election period, in just weeks, the military murdered over 170 civilians with its airstrikes. This month, at the International Court of Justice’s public hearings on The Gambia v. Myanmar case, the military publicly denied its genocide against the Rohingya and the Rohingya identity.

We urge the international community to hold the Burmese military accountable for international crimes. Holding the key agent of Myanmar’s catastrophe will help end the country’s decades-long impunity, which is now being exercised by the Arakan Army to ethnically cleanse Rakhine State of the Rohingya. Myanmar’s future must rest on the rule of law, equality, and fundamental freedoms of all of the country’s diverse peoples.

At the same time, we call for immediate protection and relief to all civilians in Myanmar. The international community must enable cross-border aid via credible actors to Myanmar, as well as comprehensive support to women-led groups and other local civil society. 

We urge the international community to join our brave people’s resistance against authoritarianism, dictatorship, patriarchy, and all other forms of oppression.

WOMEN’S PEACE NETWORK

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[Repost] Myanmar begins defence in landmark genocide case at UN World Court

20 January 2026

https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2026/01/114937/myanmar-begins-defence-landmark-genocide-case-un-world-court

Myanmar on Friday rejected allegations of genocide against the Rohingya minority, telling the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the Gambia’s case rests on “unsubstantiated allegations,” as public hearings continued in a landmark case on the application of the Genocide Convention.

Addressing judges in The Hague, Ko Ko Hlaing, speaking as Myanmar’s agent, said his country fully recognizes the importance of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide but firmly denies breaching its obligations under international law.

“A finding of genocide would place an indelible stain on my country and its people,” he said, describing the proceedings as “of fundamental importance for my country’s reputation and future.”

Mr. Hlaing accused the applicant of relying on what he called rudimentary and partisan, including reports by a fact-finding mission, “which are neither reliable nor objective, and were a condemnation without trial of Myanmar.”

Myanmar acted against terrorists

Myanmar also rejected claims that its military’s so-called “clearance operations” in northern Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017 were genocidal in intent, maintaining they were counter-terrorism operations launched in response to attacks by the armed groups.

“Obviously, Myanmar was not obliged to remain idle and allow terrorists to have free rein of northern Rakhine state,” Mr. Hlaing told the Court, while acknowledging that civilians were killed and large numbers of people fled to Bangladesh as a result of the clashes.

He further disputed allegations that Myanmar denies the existence or rights of the Muslim population in northern Rakhine state, arguing that questions of citizenship, terminology and identity “have nothing to do with genocide.”

Myanmar said it has complied with all procedural orders of the Court, including provisional measures issued in January 2020, and has submitted regular reports on steps taken.

It also reiterated its stated commitment to the repatriation of displaced people from Bangladesh, citing bilateral agreements and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.

The case before the ICJ

The case stems from an application filed by Gambia in November 2019, accusing Myanmar of violating the Genocide Convention through acts allegedly committed during military operations in Rakhine state.

Those operations escalated in 2017, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh amid widespread killings, sexual violence and village burnings, according to UN investigations. Nearly one million Rohingya remain refugees in Bangladesh.

The hearings, which will continue through late January, mark the first time the Court is examining the merits of the case. The Court’s final judgment, which could take months after the hearings conclude, will be legally binding.

Source URL 

Myanmar begins defence in landmark genocide case at UN World Court

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Join us – Decoding Digital Dignity: AI, Human Rights, and Constructive Dialogue (6 December 2025)

19 November 2025

MARUAH is pleased to invite you to an urgent and hopeful conversation on the future of Human Rights in an AI world.

About this event

Artificial intelligence (traditional and generative) is rapidly reshaping how societies make decisions about healthcare, security, work, travel and entertainment, raising profound questions about dignity, fairness, privacy and the rule of law. From biased algorithms and pervasive surveillance to empowering tools for access to justice and expression, AI has become a new frontier for long-standing human rights struggles in Singapore, the region, and beyond. This talk will explore how both traditional and generative AI can either deepen existing inequalities, censorship and invasion of privacy or be harnessed to advance human rights.

Drawing on recent global developments, the session will first explore in layman’s terms what AI is, what it can do, and how it intersects with core rights such as privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and due process. It will then examine concrete examples from everyday life and public policy, showing how AI systems can help deliver better services while also creating new risks of discrimination, censorship, and loss of privacy. The discussion will connect these issues to emerging international and regional standards on AI and human rights.

Finally, the audience will be invited to debate on what a rights‑centred approach to AI should be: from transparency and accountability mechanisms to impact assessments, remedies for harm, and the role of civil society in shaping technology governance. Practical questions on what is meaningful consent, participation, and oversight in the age of AI, and how communities can work with policymakers, industry, and advocates to ensure that technological innovation serves human dignity rather than
undermining it.

Featured speakers

Programme

StartSession
09:50 AMRegistration
10:00 AMWelcome address
10:10 AMThe Future of AI in a Human Rights World
10:45 AMConflicts and Constructive Dialogue
11:00 AMQ & A / Open Discussion
11:30 AMInteractive Workshop
12:00 PMConcluding Remarks
12:10 PMCoffee, Tea & Mingling

Registration

Please click here to register. Successful registrants will receive an email confirmation at least one week before the event date.

Can’t attend but want to stay involved? Sign up for updates by sending an email to maruahsg@gmail.com and visiting this website https://maruah.org/.

Feel free to share this event and invitation with anyone who cares about human rights and technology that serves people.

In solidarity, the MARUAH team

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[Repost] ASEAN Declaration on Promoting the Right to Development and the Right to Peace Towards Realising Inclusive and Sustainable Development

29 October 2025

26 October 2025

https://asean.org/asean-declaration-on-promoting-the-right-to-development-and-the-right-to-peace-towards-realising-inclusive-and-sustainable-development/

WE, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) namely Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, on the occasion of the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26-28 October 2025;

COGNISANT of the growing and pressing need to address global and transboundary environmental concerns, in particular, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, and to advance the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment;

Download the full statement here.

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[Repost] ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

29 October 2025

26 October 2025

https://asean.org/asean-declaration-on-the-right-to-a-safe-clean-healthy-and-sustainable-environment/

WE, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) namely Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, on the occasion of the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26-28 October 2025;

COGNISANT of the growing and pressing need to address global and transboundary environmental concerns, in particular, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, and to advance the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment;

Download the full statement here.

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