Regional Conference on Civil Society Engagement in the ASEAN, 3-5 October 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
We, the undersigned Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) coming from member nations of ASEAN, have gathered at the Regional Conference on Civil Society Engagement in the ASEAN in Bangkok, Thailand to interact with key ASEAN officials, share our views, discuss our concerns and strategies and articulate our common aspirations on ASEAN.
We welcome the openness and interest of the ASEAN Secretary General and his senior staff in the ASEAN Secretariat to engage with CSOs.
We affirm our longstanding commitment to regionalism and believe strongly in the value of CSO engagement with ASEAN to enhance the worthiness of regional integration. This engagement is essential to allow civil society to continue its work in promoting democratic and sustainable development in our region. From this perspective, we see the urgent need to address important issues and concerns surfaced by participants in the conference.
ASEAN is a community of people. However, ASEAN continues to be plagued by the perception that it is an elite association of governments. Since its establishment in 1967 and up to now, ASEAN is an institution that is detached from the people of the region. As we reaffirm our commitment for peace, stability and prosperity in the South East Asian region articulated in the 1967 Bangkok Declaration that created the ASEAN, we acknowledge our responsibility and lay our equal stake with our governments in making ASEAN work with and for our people.
The vision and practice of an ASEAN community by 2020 founded on the three pillars of security, economic and socio-cultural development has remained unknown among the peoples of this region. There is a need to build an ASEAN community on a fully transparent, accountable, and pro-people manner involving all sectors of our diverse societies, including civil society, and seriously institutionalizing mechanisms for CSO involvement in ASEAN decision-making and stake-claiming processes.
Ours is a region of 558 million people many of whom remain poor. Our countries are as diverse in their histories as in political, social and economic development. But we share a history of social and economic interaction and mobility that continue to this date. The extremes of inequality between and within countries in the region have widened according to the 2005 UN report, the ‘World Social Situation: The Inequality Predicament.’ In varying degrees, our countries are suffering the social and environmental impacts of rapid growth and trade liberalization.
In the name of free trade, most of our countries have been heavily liberalized creating more harm than benefits to the poor in this region. As such, ASEAN members should take a more unitary stance to protect and support the region, its people and its environment, from unabated trade liberalization and the harsh realities of globalization. South East Asia regionalism need not submit to the total liberalization framework promoted by the strong economic powers in the world today. Civil Society urges ASEAN to be an instrument for bringing about trade equity for and in the region.
The populations that suffer the most difficult impacts of globalization and the most severe forms of poverty are the rural communities in the region. This rural population comprise the bigger majority of people in South East Asia. ASEAN should concretely manifest its caring attitude towards small farmers and producers by ensuring that their livelihoods are protected against the indiscriminate impact of free trade agreements. Specifically, ASEAN should pursue and rigorously promote small farmer-producer’s access and control of land and resources and sustainable, organic agriculture. The protection of rural livelihoods and promotion of sustainable farming practices that enhance the environmental base will ensure long-term food security for the peoples of the region.
Labor and environment are integral components of trade and economy. Their protection must take primacy in all policies, decisions, treaties, and agreements on trade and economy taken by ASEAN.
Labor is not a commodity but concerns human beings and human activity. From this perspective, we have to address labor as human beings with rights and dignity. Under its avowed mission of creating caring communities, we call on the ASEAN to uphold and implement the highest standards in labor rights including decent work and occupational health and safety standards, equal pay for equal work, freedom of association/right to form and join trade unions and associations, social security based on non-discrimination and gender equality principles.
Despite the long history of cooperation and declared adherence to many environmental agreements in ASEAN, environmental degradation continues. We believe this to be caused by the “grow now, pay later” development strategy that our governments have taken. We challenge the ASEAN to reverse these unsustainable patterns of development. As we urge the ASEAN to improve environmental governance in the region by strengthening the ASOEN and instituting transparent mechanisms for regular monitoring of compliance to environmental commitments by Member-States, we commit to conduct local and national sustainability monitoring and assessment that will feed into the mechanisms to be adopted by the ASEAN. Further in the spirit of the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, we call on ASEAN leaders to demand accountability from industrialized countries to bear the cost of putting a stop to environmental degradation in our region and rehabilitating damaged ecosystems.
We welcome the constructive developments in ASEAN on human rights as embodied in the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) which enumerates some program areas on human rights. We also welcome their decision to designate the rotating chair of the ASEAN Standing Committee (ASC) as the focal point in ASEAN for human rights concerns, particularly on the HR mechanism proposals. However, in light of growing human rights violations in the region, we urge all ASEAN states to ratify all human rights treaties and intensify work toward the creation of an effective HR mechanism in the ASEAN community.
ASEAN now faces a wide range of non-traditional security threats with cross-border effects in the region. While people look to ASEAN as in the best position to act on these threats and conflicts, the non-interference and consensus policy observed by ASEAN have been major drawbacks in resolving critical situations that have cross-border implications and affect regional human and traditional security, such as Burma and Southern Thailand. While ASEAN has expressed adherence to a human security framework in promoting peace and security within countries and in the region, many member countries still invoke “national security” as a justification for undercutting people’s basic rights to development. We call on ASEAN to explore alternatives to the non-intervention policy, persistently promote a human security framework and join hands with civil society in planning, implementing and monitoring programs in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peace building.
We believe that a more serious handling of the Burma situation will benefit the peoples of Burma and the peoples of ASEAN. Any constitution or election resulting from oppressive and anti-democratic processes will be grossly illegitimate, and exacerbate conflicts and unrest in the country. We urge ASEAN and its member states, in the interest of international credibility and regional security, not to block, but to support a Security Council resolution in favor of a peaceful achievement of genuine reforms in Burma. In particular, we support a resolution that would require the Burmese authorities to work with the UN Secretary-General’s office in implementing a plan for national reconciliation and a restoration of a democratically-elected government. We commit the creative contribution and support of civil society to efforts at resolving these deadlocks.
Finally, we reiterate our desire to work with our governments and other stakeholders towards a fully integrated ASEAN community bringing genuine sustainable development, social equity and full respect for human rights among our people in this region. In the spirit of ASEAN being a community of people, we call upon ASEAN to:
- Improve existing mechanisms for involving non-government organizations, peoples’ organizations and social movements in the ongoing review of the ASEAN affiliation process.
- Adopt mechanisms at the national and regional levels to ensure the active participation of the various sectors, including civil society, in the development of the ASEAN Charter.
- Provide and institutionalize participation of civil society organizations in policy and decision-making bodies of the ASEAN.
- Disclose and disseminate widely the decisions of ASEAN, using all major languages of ASEAN nations.
- Promote and protect a free media in the region not only to inform and raise awareness among people but also as a means to encourage accountability and responsible governance by governments, politicians and institutions.
CSOs have had a vital and complementary role in regional development and negotiation of controversial issues because they have not been subject to the diplomatic constraints faced by many governments. In order to continue this role to help open spaces for debate and conciliation, CSOs must be able to work with governments and ASEAN, as a body, to fulfill a common vision for a region that is strengthened by diverse views and differing approaches.
We believe that it is time to develop a politically mature relationship with ASEAN and its government members that feature candid and forthright exchanges in the spirit of mutual respect, transparency and accountability.
Organizers:
South East Asian Committee for Advocacy (SEACA)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asian Partnership for Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (AsiaDHRRA)
Sustainability Watch-Asia
Participating Organizations:
ALTSEAN
Asian Farmers Association
Asian Migrant Centre
AIDS Program (Vietnam)
Bina Swadaya (Indonesia)
Burma Lawyers’ Council
Commune Council Support Project (CCSP) (Cambodia)
CNAC-CamboDHRRA
DHRRA Network Malaysia
Focus on the Global South
Initiatives for International Dialogue
Institute for Global Justice
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID)
Kanlungan Centre Foundation (Philippines)
Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation
Migrant Forum in Asia
Mekong Migration Network
Philippine Community Organizers Society (PHILCOS)
Philippine Partnership for Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (PhilDHRRA)
Philippine Alternative Study Center for Research, Education and Social Development (PASCRES)
Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA) (Philippines)
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement
Thai Labour Campaign
Rapid Agrarian Conflict Appraisal (RACA) Institute (Indonesia)
SAMIN Foundation
SILAKA (Cambodia)
St. Francis Workers’ Center
ThaiDHRRA
Third World Network
Vietnam NGO Network
Vietnam Community Mobilization Center for HIV/AIDS Control (VICOMC)
Wana Mandhira
