We, the Vietnamese people --- workers, farmers, students, scholars, independent journalists and bloggers, human rights defenders, monks, priests, nuns, including over 85 million living in Viet Nam and over three million refugees living in exile around the world --- respectfully request the governments and peoples of ASEAN to promote freedom, democracy, justice, peace, and prosperity in all ASEAN countries and in all countries throughout the world.

In particular, we ask that you insist that all the people of all ASEAN countries be permitted to exercise their God-given and internationally recognized human rights, including:

--- The right to speak, write, and publish freely and without censorship or recrimination, including on the internet and in other modern communications media, and including expression that is critical of governments;

--- The right to associate with other people of their own choosing and to assemble peacefully for whatever purposes they choose;

--- The right to practice their religions, including not only freedom of worship but also the fulfillment of other religious obligations including social and humanitarian activities and the right to organize religious institutions that are independent of the government and not subject to its direction or control;

--- The right to be free from torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment;

--- The right to leave countries, including their own;

--- The right to form independent labor unions, free from any interference from the government or government-controlled mass organizations, so as to defend the rights and interests of workers;

--- The right to be free from human trafficking and other severe forms of exploitation, especially when such trafficking and exploitation takes place with the complicity of government officials and institutions, such as in government-connected forced-labor or labor-export programs; and

--- The right to change their government through free and fair elections in which candidates and political parties may stand for office with no requirement for approval by the government, the military, or the ruling party, and without other unreasonable restrictions.

In order to promote and protect these rights, we ask that ASEAN governments review their constitutions and laws and that they immediately repeal any provisions that allow the punishment of free expression or the exercise of other human rights when such activities are deemed to “injure the national unity” or to be otherwise contrary to the interests of the state or the ruling party, as well as laws that allow imprisonment, house arrest, required “working sessions” at police stations, or other forms of detention except after fair and public trials by impartial and independent judicial systems. We also ask ASEAN governments to free immediately any prisoners who are detained pursuant to such laws as well as all other prisoners of conscience.

Finally, we ask the peoples and governments of ASEAN, and particularly ASEAN civil society organizations, to recognize that civil society in countries with extremely authoritarian governments does not consist of “Government Organized Non-Governmental Organizations” that are closely connected to such authoritarian governments and/or to the ruling political parties that dominate them. Rather, we ask that you recognize and honor the real civil society in such countries, including human rights defenders, independent journalists, independent labor organizations, independent religious institutions, prisoners of conscience, and other genuinely independent voices, including those within the country and others who are forced to live in exile.

Dear country focal points,
Greeting with warm regards,
This email is to follow up again on ASEAN’s People Testimony, which will be
organized on 3rd May 2011 at the ACSC/APF, Jakarta, Indonesia. It will be
conducted in the morning (start from 9.35 AM), and after that continued with
speech/ respond from Vice President of Indonesia Mr. Boediono.
In developing the messages for the ASEAN People's Testimony, we share with
you guideline for your consideration:
a) Message must describe facts relevant to ASEAN context;
b) Message must be the people voice, not a jargon;
c) Message can be in the form of recommendation, inputs, or critics to
ASEAN; or what are your visions for ACSC/ APF; and
d) Inspiring.
*Allocated time:*
The allocated time for presentation is 2 minutes, that presented by 10
countries respectively. On the whole, 20 minutes for testimony.
*Message presentation: *
Message presentation can be in the form of any media, for example: 1) oral
statement (it means there will be one representative to read the message);
2) slide of 5 photos with message (one rep. to represent); 3) songs; or 4)
video etc. So, its opened for creativity.
*Person in charge (PIC):*
We need contact of the PIC, name, organization and email. Kindly send this
as soon as possible to us, to maximize coordination.
*Mechanism: *
The mechanism to select and get messages is under country's consideration
(SC/ PC/ DC), either through national process, email communication etc.
*Deadline: *
Wednesday, April 20, 2011. On 06.00 PM (GMT 7, Bangkok, Jakarta)
*Contact Person: *
Send your email to Program Committee Mida Saragih (
ms.mida.sara...@gmail.com) and Cheery Zahau (hre.che...@gmail.com), with
subject *People’s Testimony.*
We are waiting for your response,
Thanks for the attention and cooperation,
Regards,
Cheery and Mida,
Program Committee

--
Cheery Zahau
Human Rights Program Coordinator
Human Rights Education Institute of Burma
Tel/Fax: + 66-53-120-422
Mobile: + 66-849213423
Website: www.hreib.com


People’s Testimony_11 April 2011.doc
45K View Download
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Lo [mailto:daniel.lo@bpsos.org]
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 12:14 PM
To: Thang D. Nguyen; Joseph Rees; Can D. Le
Subject: FW: Calling Malaysian CSO rep to meet ASEAN leaders

Dear Team,

I will be meeting with Harun (from CARAM Asia) to discuss strategy on Thursday. Please read below for the general plea for NGOs from Malaysia to attend – so far looks like CAMSA is the only one. I’ve sent a text message to Glorene (of Tenaganita) whether they are going but does not look like they are.

Regards,
Daniel

From: mwg-members-only@googlegroups.com [mailto:mwg-members-only@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Vivian-Caram
Sent: 25 April 2011 05:58
To: msian-ngo@yahoogroups.com; mwg-members-only@googlegroups.com
Subject: Calling Malaysian CSO rep to meet ASEAN leaders

Dear friends,
The ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) / ASEAN Peoples' Forum 2011 will be held from 3 - 5 May 2011, Ciputra Hotel, Jakarta, Indonesia.
after the ACSC, on 7 May there will be an interface between 10 ELECTED representatives from each of the ASEAN countries to meet for 30 minutes with the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the 10 countries.

the 10 civil society reps will only be elected by their fellow national NGOs.

since i have not seen any Malaysian NGO activists at all the ACSC preparatory meeting, i want to ask if we can elect a Malaysian activist to join the interface meeting between CSOs and the ASEAN Leaders.

any Malaysians planning to attend the ASEAN Civil Society Conference next week?

the Malaysian CSO member meeting with leaders is actually, an ASEAN CSO rep, speaking on the agreed upon issues from the many debates that goes on from the ACSC from 3-5 May, therefore, who ever meeting with the leaders can't just talk about their own issues, but speaks based on the talking points prepared by the ACSC interface committee members.

the ACSC interface committee prepare these talking points based on the recommendations from the over 40 workshops that will be conducted during the ACSC from 3-5 May.

The ACSC interface committee members consists of CSOs from various ASEAN countries and 4 regional groups. i have been representing CARAM Asia, as a regional group in the interface committee.

we do not have any Malaysian NGO participation in the ASEAN Civil society process so far, hope anyone interested can contact me, so i may forward the information to the entire ACSC interface committee members for our discussion.

Countries such as Phillipines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand already had their national level consultation electing CSO country representatives to join the various CSO committees inside the ACSC, but since no Malaysian NGOs had taken a lead to organise a national consutation, i'm asking by email to gauge your interest.

Thank you!

Best Regards,
Vivian Chong
Programme Officer,
CARAM Asia
Wisma Hamid Arshat ,
No, 12- 5, Jalan Bangsar Utama 9,Bangsar Utama 59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 603-2282-7708
www.caramasia.org
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--
Migration Working Group: Advancing the rights of migrants, refugees, stateless persons, trafficked persons and foreign spouses.

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