In electing Kommaly Chanthavong to receive the 2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for thousands of poor, war-displaced Laotians, and thus preserving the dignity of women and her nation’s priceless silken cultural treasure.
‘I stand before you humble and a little sad that it is I who is here to receive this Special Award for Human Rights’, said Shui Meng Ng, wife of Sombath Somphone upon accepting the 2015 Gwangju Special Award for Human Rights in Gwangju, South Korea last Monday on the 18th May. ‘It would have been such a happy occasion, and such an honour, if Sombath could be here to receive this Award himself. Unfortunately, circumstances do not allow it.’
The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was established in 2000 to promote the spirit of the May 18 Democratic Uprising. The May 18 Democratic Uprising took place in the city of Gwangju, South Korea from 18-27 May 1980. At the time, Gwangju citizens took up arms after local students, who had been demonstrating peacefully against the Chun Doo-hwan government, were fired upon, killed, and beaten. Estimates suggest up to 606 people died in just a few days. It is deemed one of the turning points in the South Korean democracy movement. Every year, May 18 is commemorated with ceremonies and festivities, including the Gwangju Asia Forum and the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. Continue reading “Sombath Somphone Receives the 2015 Gwangju Special Award for Human Rights”
실종된 ‘솜바스 솜폰’ 구출 서명 동참 호소하는 부인 (광주=연합뉴스) 장아름 기자 = 2015 광주인권상 특별상 수상자인 솜바스 솜폰(Sombath Somphone·라오스)의 부인 수이 멩(Shui Meng)여사가 18일 광주 5·18 기념문화센터에서 열린 기자회견에서 실종 상태인 남편을 구출하기 위한 라오스 정부의 조속한 수사를 촉구하는 청원 운동에 보다 많은 한국인이 동참해줄 것을 호소하고 있다. 2015.5.18 [email protected]
(광주=연합뉴스) 장아름 기자 “실종된 남편 솜바스 솜폰 구출을 위한 라오스 정부의 수사를 촉구하는 서명에 더 많이 참여해 주시길 간절히 호소합니다.”
2015 광주인권상 특별상 수상자인 솜바스 솜폰(Sombath Somphone·라오스)의 부인 수이 멩(Shui Meng)여사는 18일 실종 상태인 남편을 구출하기 위한 라오스 정부의 조속한 수사를 촉구하는 청원 운동에 많은 한국인이 동참해줄 것을 호소했다.
이날 광주인권상 시상식을 앞두고 광주 5·18 기념문화센터에서 열린 기자회견에서 수이 멩 여사는 “누가 솜폰의 유괴에 대한 책임이 있는 지는 모른다”며 “다만 라오스 정부는 자국민이 자국에서 유괴된 데 대해, 무사히 돌아오게 하는데 대해 책임을 느끼고 수사에 착수해야 한다”고 말했다.
Ahead of the next APF in 2016, the forum’s organizing committee has not decided whether to hold the meeting in Laos, which will assume chairmanship of the 10-member ASEAN coalition next year, because civil society groups from the region are concerned about the safety of human rights defenders in the country.
Thida Khus, executive director of Cambodian NGO Silaka, addresses the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum in Malaysia, April 22, 2015. Photo courtesy of Silaka
Freedom of religion and expression topped the areas of discussion for Vietnamese civil groups attending forums on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia Friday, during which they engaged with their counterparts and government officials from the region.
The ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) is being held on April 21-24 to provide civil society groups with a platform to address the organization’s leaders through workshops on various rights issues alongside the ASEAN Summit of Heads of State.
One young Vietnamese presenter, Nguyen Anh Tuan, told RFA that she attended the seminar because she wanted to convey how poor Vietnam’s rights record is compared to other nations in the region and discuss ways to improve it.
“Based on what I know, the human right abuses in Vietnam exceed other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand,” she said.
“During this session, I will try to prove that the human right abuses in Vietnam are systematic and not limited to some areas. They are everywhere and include freedom of religion, expression, information and association.”
Discussions about human rights and civil society’s role in the ASEAN community took center stage at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/People’s Forum in Kuala Lumpur this week. More than 1,000 people gathered at the conference, which began Tuesday and ends today.
Former Malaysian Foreign Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar gave the keynote address on the first day of the conference. He argued for a review of the ASEAN’s stance on non-interference, saying there are limits to its usefulness in international diplomacy, “especially when the serious impacts of a problem goes beyond national boundaries, or when it involves serious international crimes.”
Malaysian politician Azmin Ali also criticized the non-interference policy in a speech to the forum: “[O]n this altar of neutrality, we watch with folded arms, the slaughter of innocent women and children,” he said, referring to incidents in Burma (Myanmar) and Laos among others. “On this platform of non-interference, we turn blind eye to the massacre of ethnic minorities or abandon them as state-less people.” Continue reading “Activists, politicians call for protection of human rights at ASEAN forum”
Thida Khus, executive director of Cambodian NGO Silaka, addresses the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum in Malaysia, April 22, 2015. Photo courtesy of Silaka
Civil society organizations in Laos are under pressure to omit key concerns from a list of regional human rights issues to be raised on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia this week and “fear for their safety” if they attempt to do so, a CSO official said Wednesday.
The groups dare not raise the concerns during the April 21-24 ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF)—intended to provide civil society with a platform to address ASEAN leaders—because they fear retribution for criticizing government policy, the CSO official told RFA’s Lao Service.
“[The CSOs] will talk mostly about gender roles only, but not other issues such as land rights, the impact of hydropower dams … and enforced disappearance, because they are afraid for their safety,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said the majority of authentic CSOs in Laos “do not want to attend the forum,” especially those which focus on human rights issues, but that the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Interior had persuaded other “irrelevant” organizations to go in their place. Continue reading “Lao Civil Society Pressured to Drop Rights Issues From ASEAN Forum”
The disappearance of respected agronomist and community leader Sombath Somphone in 2012 alerted the international community to Vientiane’s problematic rights record.
This month they are specifically to confront Laos with the issue of the enforced disappearance of prominent activist Sombath Somphone.
Jerald Joseph left speaks at a briefing on the upcoming ASEAN peoples’ forum while Sunsanee Sutthisunsanee, right, listens, April 2, 2015. (Steve Herman/VOA News)
BANGKOK—Civic organizations in Southeast Asia are expressing increasing concern their voices are being ignored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), even though the current chair, Malaysia, has vowed to realize a “people-centered ASEAN.”
When ASEAN holds its 26th Summit later this month in Kuala Lumpur, the association’s civil society conference and peoples’ forum will jointly issue a stinging rebuke.
They will tell the leaders that recommendations submitted annually since 2005 by civil society “have been neither implemented nor adopted in any meaningful way.”
They say this is because ASEAN “prioritizes corporate interests and elite groups, including state-owned enterprises, over the interests of the people.”
Members of the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum. Photo courtesy ACSC/APF
The missing Laotian civil society leader Sombath Somphone will be at the forefront of the conversation at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum meets in Kuala Lumpur next month. Sombath is a victim of enforced disappearance, and was kidnapped in Vientiane, Laos, in 2013. The Laos government has consistently denied involvement or refused to provide real information about the missing civil society leader, and his case has come to represent one of the most egregious human rights offenses still committed in the ASEAN countries.
The ACSC/APF allows civil society activists from all the ASEAN countries to voice their concerns about rights violations in their countries, and become empowered by the strength in numbers there. In countries such as Laos and Vietnam, dissent is often suppressed with jail time or enforced disappearances, which makes it extremely dangerous for activists to speak out. Jerald Joseph, chair of the APF’s Regional Steering Committee, said that by coming to the forum, activists who face risks in their home countries find a safer space to voice their concerns. And their participation puts serious human rights issues in the international spotlight, putting pressure on their governments to address injustices. Continue reading “ASEAN rights activists demand change ahead of People’s Forum”
…the Somphone case is an excellent example of Asean’s failure to take a stance on human rights. Instead of criticising the Lao government for not investigating the disappearance, she said, Asean “hides” behind its policy of ‘non-intervention’ in national issues, even though it has previously intervened in internal matters.
…Calling this “the hypocrisy of Asean,” Naidu added that the regional body refuses to intervene on human rights but has no qualms about the region’s “capitalist elites” influencing the national economic policies of member states.
In electing Kommaly Chanthavong to receive the 2015 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for thousands of poor, war-displaced Laotians, and thus preserving the dignity of women and her nation’s priceless silken cultural treasure.
The disappearance of respected agronomist and community leader Sombath Somphone in 2012 alerted the international community to Vientiane’s problematic rights record.
