Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Migrant labourers tell of being forced to isolate in brutal conditions as Covid wave grips region
It was around mid-May when workers at the Cal-Comp factory in Phetchaburi, central Thailand, heard a small group of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. It soon became clear the (...)
“China’s seizure of maritime formations that are within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea is illegal and should stop. (...) We cannot, however, be narrow-minded and myopic and single out China for condemnation and limit our demand to asking it to “leave” (...)
22 April 2021
Open Letter to ASEAN Leaders: Recommendations from CSOs in Myanmar and in Southeast Asia to the ASEAN Special Summit on Myanmar
To: Leaders of the Member States of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Dear Excellencies,
In alignment with the upcoming special (...)
From Vietnam to Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia, millions of children are being raised by extended family members as their parents migrate to find work Many parents accept separation as the price they pay for working. And while there are fears for the effects on children, places like (...)
In Southeast Asia, as the health crisis escalates and countries go into different variations of a lockdown, it is affording regimes with authoritarian tendencies the opportunity to suppress political expression, enforce strict obedience and consolidate their rule. Unless this is called out and (...)
The new EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (FTA) shows the EU will look past human rights violations to push a trade agenda. But as FTAs with ASEAN states don’t offer the EU the same economic benefits, it’s unlikely the bloc will pen more in the near future.
Since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade (...)
The forced disappearances and assassinations of Thai republicans exiled in neighbouring countries has attracted considerable attention in recent months. But political exile can be a two-way street. The activities of Lao dissidents who have fled to Thailand can offer some insight into (...)
Save the Mekong, a coalition of non-government organizations, community-based groups and concerned citizens within the Mekong region, wish to express our shock and concern at the recent collapse of the Xe Pian - Xe Nam Noy hydropower project in Laos, and our deep condolences to communities (...)
Research shows risk of trafficking will rise, as automation pushes low-skilled workers into ‘race to the bottom’ for jobs
Robots will slash millions of jobs and create an upswing in trafficking and slavery across south-east Asia, research claims.
In a report launched on Thursday, supply-chain (...)
Shrinking space, shrinking resources
As democracy experiences a global decline, and Southeast Asia oscillates between authoritarian endurance and democratic rollback, civil society in the region is facing a bleak future.
Dictatorships and quasi-democracies are racing to curtail freedom of (...)
Malacañang’s spokesperson has termed Asean’s commemoration of its 50th year a “tremendous success,” but based it mainly on the absence of any “untoward incident” rather than on the concrete and clear outcomes. There were the usual platitudes of the Asean 2017 chair being finally recognized “not just (...)
Civil society leaders and activists from the region under the banner of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum deplored today the lack of substantial discussions and policy actions on critical issues such as human rights atrocities, peace and security, the territorial conflict (...)
Manila, Philippines - After two days of ceremonious meetings, Southeast Asian leaders missed the bullseye in talks about two major human rights issues affecting their region: Myanmar’s handling of the Rohingya crisis and the Philippines’ bloody campaign against illegal drug traffickers. (...)
Even ten years on, the first mental image that comes to mind with regard to Theravāda Buddhism is that of Myanmar’s Saffron Revolution of August-September 2007 are preaching violence instead of peace , and “firm action” instead of meditation.
It’s not just in Myanmar that this militant Buddhism (...)
The relationship between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or Asean and civil society organizations (CSOs) has been a thorny one throughout 11 years of engagement. This is despite the fact that Asean has explicitly recognized the role that CSOs can play in the region. The main forum (...)
The move is in the tradition of grand power politics. Officially, it has been sweetened as something more, a goodwill gesture by Washington that is designed to rope in and keep partners in the Asian-Pacific area close to its bosom. More to the point, state of the Association of South East Asian (...)
A series of deadly suicide bombings and shootings in Jakarta have killed at least seven people, and been claimed by Islamic State (IS).
At first glance, this seems to confirm that long-held worries of a full-blown IS campaign in South-East Asia were well-founded – but viewed in context, the (...)
Some countries, as Vietnam, fear it, others, like Thailand, have high hopes - what can be expected of ASEAN’s neo-liberal project? About its future perspectives and an alternative vision.
By 31 December 2015, the targets and visions for a regional economic bloc through institutional reforms and (...)
Statement by local people on dams in the Mekong Region
We are people from local communities in the Mekong region, who depend on the eco-systems created by the Mekong river and numerous other rivers and lakes in the region, especially, the Tonle Sap, Sesan and Mekong Delta, for our food, (...)
The tension between the imperatives of “market sovereignty” and the entrenched principle of “state sovereignty” of authoritarian oligarchies will define the open-ended tendencies and outcomes of the ongoing regionalisation process in Southeast Asia.
For the 48-year-old Association of Southeast (...)
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