ASEAN Youth Statement

We are the youth of Southeast Asia—young persons from different organizations in eight ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam—plus South Korea). We would like to make our voices heard, as the youth of the region, the next generation who will eventually inherit it.

We met in Bangkok from 16-19 February 2009 to learn and share about ASEAN, and about issues and concerns that we face in our respective countries, the ASEAN region and as young persons. We discussed about the issues we are already working on: natural disaster management, peace-building, human rights and democracy, natural resource management and food security, and globalization and gross national happiness (GNH).

We affirm our common identity as the youth of the ASEAN, bound by a shared destiny as neighbours. We are united as young persons who are bound by a common concern for our countries, the region and the peoples. We celebrate the diversity of our roots, which are a source of our strength that serves to highlight the need for solidarity and unity as a region.

We, as youth of the ASEAN region, would like to assert that:

As ASEAN transforms itself into a more formal organization of states, it must set and lead in higher standards and mechanisms which will promote the welfare of its peoples. These standards and mechanisms need proper and full implementation so that words and ideas become reality.

ASEAN, as a regional organization, must address all forms of oppression of peoples in different countries in the region, who continue to endure curtailment of freedoms and violations of human rights different forms and degrees.

ASEAN, in order to be a true community of caring societies, must be based on a framework of human rights, sustainable development and peace-building.

ASEAN and its members must recognize and support the role and involvement of the youth in social development at the community, national and regional level.

We also commit ourselves to work together as young people in the Southeast Asian Region, and form a growing network of individuals an organizations who will engage ASEAN as young people on various issues and concerns.

Particularly, we would like to make the following specific recommendations:

On Environment and Natural Resource Management:

We urge the ASEAN Senior officials on the Environment (ASOEN) to work transparently with civil society (NGOs, people’s parties, mass organizations and independent organizations) in giving pressure on investors to practice business ethics and internalize social and environmental costs in their projects and production processes based on sound environmental and social impact assessment (EIA and SIA).

We propose ASOEN to set up standards for its member countries to empower local people to raise awareness, for livelihood development, alternatives and participatory natural resource management.

We demand governments of ASEAN countries to enforce balanced economic policies consistent with ecological and socio-cultural values, which will improve the right of local people to access and manage natural resources based on local knowledge.

On Human Rights and Democracy

We want an ASEAN Human Rights body that is independent from member governments, in order to have a fair and unbiased investigation of violations in member countries.
We demand that the ASEAN Human Rights body must protect and promote the rights of youth and students (for example, the rights to organize and conduct human right campaigns, to form student governments and organizations, to freedom of political beliefs and participation, to expression, to peaceful assembly, to access to education, academic freedom, to decent work, and to human rights education, among others)
We urge ASEAN and its members to protect and promote all human rights, which requires greater participation of peoples in Democracy.

On Globalization and GNH

We urge ASEAN to promote and support youth participation in ASEAN policy-making, and decision-making.
1. ASEAN must support the formation of Youth networks, exchanges and solidarity.
2. ASEAN and its members must promote and support youth voluntarism.

We urge ASEAN to strengthen and promote the respect and diversity of local culture.
ASEAN must promote and support alternative education and local knowledge curriculum.
ASEAN must support people-driven policy and increase spending for youth social services.
ASEAN must promote and support sustainable youth entrepreneurship.
ASEAN must protect and promote local product markets from the impact of globalization on food production.
ASEAN must protect the local youth workers from exploitation resulting from globalisation.

On Peace-building

We believe that ASEAN’s peace-building efforts must be based on human rights framework.

- ASEAN should promote and set up a Youth Network for peace-building and peace education (curriculum that stimulate youths to respect diversity, multiracial perspectives)
- ASEAN should promote fully the participation of ASEAN people, especially young people, to shape their future and respect their self-determination at all levels with compromise.
- ASEAN’s role should control foreign intervention in terms of militarization and free trade. ASEAN should insist each country’s regional to use peaceful settlement to their internal affairs.

On Natural Disaster Management

In order to respond the local phenomena of natural disasters and possible impacts from ASEAN, as the peoples of ASEAN, we strongly recommend and propose the following suggestions.

• For Implementation of Socio-Cultural Community, there should be the program for Environmental awareness and education for grass-root people.
• The economic co-integration should have a standard for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and social impact assessment (SIA)
• To empower the activities of ASEAN Senior Officials On Environment (ASOEN) Focusing on civil society rather than ministerial levels and revise the agreement on “non-interference among internal affairs of member states” which is the great block for implementing the ASEAN’s mechanisms.

22 February 2009
Bangkok, Thailand

Voice of Salween Cry

19th August 2008

I’m tired of hearing the voices of cars engine and the smell of car smoke. I want to go back to my hometown where there are a lot of mountains, big trees, green forests, the song of animals and river wave, but it is difficult for me to go back to my home. I was born in Mong Pan Township, in Southern Shan State, at a place 31 miles from the Salween River. The livelihood of residents of Mong Pan is based on agriculture and fishing.

The Salween River is 2,800 Kilometers long and the longest free-flowing river in Southern Asian. The Salween River has some of the world’s richest biodiversity with one hundred different fish species. It supports many local people who rely on the river for transportation and their economy. They all depend on the Salween River for their livelihoods. The Salween River runs through Shan State and along Thai-Burma border, many ethnic groups, including the Shan, Pa O, Karen, Kareni, Lahu, Akha, Wa, Mon, Padang, Lisu, Palaung, Yindalay and other ethnic groups live in traditional communities along the river. Unfortunately, we have not been able to live on our land in peace. Dams in many countries are used to provide water for farming and to control flooding. Many big hydropower dams are producing the electricity for development of the country but they also have a lot of negative impacts on the ecosystem, river and society.

Burma’s military regime, the Thai energy companies and Chinese companies have signed agreements for the development of the Ta Sang Dam on the Salween River. Thai Contraction Company MDX has been preparing for the construction of the Ta sang dam. It will produce 7,100 megawatts, and will be 288 meter high and it will be the highest dam in South East Asia. These projects have not benefited the local people because the SPDC has sold all of the electricity that is being produced to Thailand. The SPDC is able to get money from selling the electricity to make their military stronger and for cleaning ethnic people from their land and human right abuses.

In 2007 Thai company and the SPDC celebrated the building of the Ta Sang Dam. For security of their planning, SDPC forced our village and other villages around the dam area to move out of our farms, homes and must move to military controlled relocation site near main town and SPDC camp. SPDC gave orders to us to move; also they gave us the date we must leave. After that SPDC burnt down our villages, houses and farms and killed our animals. Most of us are farmers, so we depend on this area to farm. When SPDC came and forced us, we had to run for escape with our family so we couldn’t take our home, farm, animals and the main food like rice was left behind. We had no money to move in the city for new lives. We lost our property and also suffered from severe depression and helplessness, so we went into the deep forest. In the forest we didn’t have shelter, medicine, equipment and mosquito net to protect us in the night time. Some of us were killed by malaria disease and other problems. In the forest it is difficult for living. We were afraid to use fire because SPDC will see the smoke and will follow us so every second we felt not safe. Many unlucky villagers were arrested, tortured, raped or killed.

SPDC cut down the teak trees to reconstruct roads and for their worker’s houses so we didn’t have more places to hide. If we heard SPDC entered the forest we had to move again and again until we migrated to Thailand. I lived in Thailand for many years and I had a chance to study more about environment. In the training, I focused on the dam projects that are close with my home town. At that time I knew more about our situation in Shan State that many people suffer from hydropower project. Before 1996 Mong Pan Township had about 43 villages and 30,000 villagers. Between 1996 and 2007, SPDC forced people to move out and just left only 21 villages and about half the population was gone. I had never known about many people will suffer abuse from SPDC. Before, I thought this only happened in my hometown, but it also happened around different parts of Shan State, other people lost their land. Over 1300 villages have gone and over 300,000 villagers have migrated to Thailand. We don’t have power to go against the SPDC military but I will try to tell my hopeless experiences to NGOs and UN community so they know our situation and pressure the SPDC to stop the human rights abuses and to conserve the environment.

Before I came to Thailand, I was hopeless and I had never known “What are Human rights”. Also many people in Burma didn’t know that they had rights to stay on their own land and to be safe. I am lucky that I have chance to study, so I will try hard to do my best. After I graduate from the training, I am going to go back to my hometown and give training to our people as much as I can and help our Salween River to flow free again.

By Hseng Jom

I wrote this diary when I was studied at SSSNY (School for Shan State Nationalities Youth). This is the first english diary in my life so I would like to express to our mekong friends and happy seed group to know what happen in Burma and let help us to see the freedom light.

GNH Activities

Dear everyone,

Still a very Happy New Year from GNH Team, Thailand. Hope you have not forgotten about us.

I am not sure whether this will work but I attached announcements of two GNH activities in Bangkok.

27-30 Dasho Karma Ura and Ron Colman will be in Bangkok for a workshop.

And 29 January 13.00-17.00 they will give public presentations at SASIN Business School, Chulalongkorn University. Admission free. Please spread the news in your network.

Our aim is that the workshop will lead to the next step in long term planning in line with the Mekong region network meeting in Rayong. In February we expect more GNH planning during the postponed ASEAN People's Forum.

Let me know if you need more information. Later, 5th February, Roger Torrenti (France) will present the results of the Paradiso project (see website address in the attachment). Also our comments to the Paradiso Reference Document in line with the discussions on Youth employment during GNH3. Please join this presentation (free) and discussion if you are in Bangkok that day.

Best regards from busy team,
Hans

ASEAN Youths’ Preparatory Meeting for the ASEAN People Forum

Where: Garden of Fruition (Suan Nguen Mee Ma), Bangkok
When: 16-19 February, 2009

The three-day preparatory youths’ forum will be held from 16-19-11 February 2009 at Garden of Fruition, Bangkok to prepare young people from ASEAN countries for their participation at the ASEAN People Forum, to be held at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok from 20-22 February 2009.

The forum will be co-organized by ActionAid Thailand ,Thai Volunteer Service and RRAFA, where approximately 45 youths from ASEAN countries will participate and play an important role in the preparatory regional meeting. During a three day preparatory meeting, participating young people will have an opportunity to build their knowledge and understanding on ASEAN and its mechanisms (ASAEN Charter and three principal (political, economic and social) pillars) as a regional body that plays important role in the region. They will also have an opportunity to prepare for their participation at the ASEAN People Forum.

The objectives of Young People’s Participation at the ASEAN Youths’ Preparatory Regional Meeting are:

• To provide an opportunity for young people to share their experiences, good practices and models of successful youth led interventions in the region specifically related to key challenges faced by ASEAN people such as the food crisis, human rights and peace, energy and environmental crisis (natural resources management) and people participation

• To contribute to the formulation of measurable advocacy targets (specific targets/goals with indicators) for the governments at the regional level and ASEAN and present their recommendations at the ASEAN People Forum

• To establish preparation processes leading up to the ASEAN People Forum and to select youth representatives to meet with ASEAN leaders in a meeting in Chiang Mai

• To ensure follow-up mechanisms (in terms of sharing of outcomes/implementation of the recommendations of the Preparatory Meeting and the ASEAN People Forum) with wider groups of young people in the region, and to see follow up institutionalized in relevant organizations, youth network and projects in the region

• To promote the participation of young people, especially young women, in the governance of ASEAN and strengthen the institutionalization of meaningful participation of young people within civil society