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

APF Youth Network

Hear the Voices of ASEAN Youth

Supaporn Chonnapataweep
Youth representative
APF/ASEAN Youth Network

APF/ASEAN Youth Network is the network of young people from ASEAN countries, particularly from the Greater Mekong Sub-region which is coordinated by Action Aid Thailand ,Thai Volunteer Service(TVS), RRAFA and Youth for Local Wisdom Network. The involvement is about 50 of young people from local community and urban area. Although we are from different countries and have different background but we do have something in common. We believe in youth power and when we go together is making this world were the better place.

The objective of ASEAN youth network are to provide an opportunity for young people to share their experiences, good practice and model of successful youth led interventions in the region especially related to key challenges faced by ASEAN people such as the food crisis, human right and peace, energy and environmental crisis (natural resources management) and people participation

Secondly is, to contribute to the formulation of measurable advocacy targets for the governments at the regional level and ASEAN and present their recommendation to the ASEAN leaders

Thirdly is, to promote the participation of young people, especially young women , in the governance of ASEAN and strengthen meaningful participation of young people within civil society

Last 2 month, I attended to Mekong Youth Camp for Social Development. This is the activity that held for Network of young people as a platform to share experiences and common concerns particularly on the food and energy crisis including peace, globalization, GNH movement and also discuss about the ASEAN Charter and the three pillars.

During the camp, after we reviewed ASEAN charter was having some concern about the charter as ASEAN is going to promote a people-oriented ASEAN in which all sectors of society are encouraged to participate in. The question is ‘how to promote the participation and taken seriously from every sector…what’s about marginalized people, ethnic minority, urban poor or rural community?

ASEAN countries have a lot of diversity so the key that challenge the engagement is how to make the meaningful participation of the people in every sectors especially poor people who really face the problem. How would ASEAN do to get the voice from them?

However, we appreciate the improvement of ASEAN that you have an establishment of Senior Ministerial Meeting on youth, that’s the good initiate, but we still concern that it may not yet reach all the group of youth such as poor youth in rural area who couldn’t easily access to the information or someone who not capable to speak English so this must be very challenging to make the meaningful participation from all of us.

Youth and children are often treating as the second to adult although we are the right holder ourselves. We have been regarded as the next generation, the future but we don’t have to wait that long, we can start now so our recommendation is to create concrete mechanism to ensure the participation of youth especially the poor people and the Implementation of ASEAN which will have effect on people should ask for the agreement of people in every sectors.

Due to the financial crisis, it may causes social issue such as the unemployment crisis which would worsen the food situation in region so it would be very helpful to create concrete measures to cope the crisis and implement the social protection policy to guarantee the employment and recent living wage.

The issue in our community is not one’s responsibility, these happen from all of us and effect to everyone so we should solve the problem together and you should develop youth capability to joint activities among youth in ASEAN country, so we can share our experiences and be the co-worker to develop our region together ‘cause the sustainable growth is from the power of unity.

Youth March for Peace

International youth conference stages event in Siem Reap

The Phnom Penh Post
September 25, 2008

MORE than 300 students from around the world who had gathered in Siem Reap for a six-day International Peace Conference marched peacefully through the streets of Siem Reab last Sunday, the International Day of Peace.


The students were given permission to march by officials last Friday, and, awhile there was a large contingent of police stationed along the route, the march was trouble-free, a colourful parade that attracted large crowds of onlookers at several vantage points.

The event was organized by Youth for Peace, and program assistant Sin Putheary told the Post, “The march in Siem Reap went very smoothly. We didn’t expect that more than 300 students would join us in this march, and when I walked with them throught the streets I felt so happy because I had a feeling at feeling at the moment that there is no more war in the world.”

One theme of the conference was that, while conventional wisdom has it that older men usually start wars while young men do the fighting, young people in some countries – of ten the uneducated and uninformed – can be active agents in the agitation to commence war, while in other countries it is the youth who are the champions of peace.

Before the Sunday march, students assembled at the Provincial Teacher Training College on Charles De Gaulle Boulevard. Youth for Peace Executive Director Long Khet told the gathering that an objective of the conference was to get youth from various countries recently war-torn, to share their ideas on how to find justice, peace and reconciliation.

Many of the participants at the conference were invited from counties that had recently experience war.

“We wanted the students to understand the root causes of the wars, and why the war happened. We want them to take advantage of their experiences of war by turning them into experience to help develop their country in the future,” Long Khet said.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport’s Chey Chap said, “It is an important conference that will help pave the way for youth to find peace and justice in their mind. The Cambodian government always tries its best to provide justice and find peace.”


Siem Reap Deputy Governor Mao Vuthy said, “Youth are seeking a way to turn a conflict culture into a peace culture. This conference is also seeking ways to develop the world in this 21st century.”

Project Yet to Bring Promised Prosperity

Vietnam News Service (18-09-2008)

HA NOI - The East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) - a 1,450km highwaylinking central Viet Nam with Laos, Thailand and Myanmar - whichopened two years ago has yet to boost trade equitably among countriesas anticipated.

Statistics released by Tien Sa Port in Da Nang City, revealed that inthe first five months of the year, of the 30,000 containers passingthrough the port, there were only 1,000 belonging to Lao enterprises.

According to Thai transport companies, provinces in Thailand’s north-east region each year transport around five million tonnes of cassava,one million tonnes of rice, one million tonnes of ore and 500,000tonnes of rubber latex via Vietnamese ports. However, in reality,freight companies prefer to transport goods through Bangkok ratherthan through Da Nang, which is just 500km away - 200km nearer than theThai capital.

Thai companies claim it takes them two days to transport goods to DaNang and they incur numerous fees. They also say goods take too longto clear customs at four border gates: Mukdahan, Savanakhet, Densavanand Lao Bao.

The Lao Bao border gate in particular has suffered administrativeproblems, admitted Chairman of the central Quang Tri Province’sPeople’s Committee Le Huu Phuc.
Currently, the "one-door" administrative policy has been piloted atLao Bao and Densavan border gates - the first in the Greater Mekongsub-region to apply the policy, which is designed to shorten the timeit takes to clear customs.

However, enterprises using the two gates are still subject to numerouscharges, such as the customs fee, the botanical quarantine feecollected by the Botanical Quarantine Agency and the border-crossingfee collected by border guards.

Aside from the cost, the process is also time-consuming, freightcompanies say.
The provincial People’s Committee is drafting a plan to simplify feecollection procedures for imports and exports.

Customs clearance for imports and exports at Viet Nam’s Lao Bao bordergate are also considered more complex than that in Laos and Thailand.

Another problem encountered by freight companies is that right-handvehicles are not allowed to travel in Viet Nam, according to Lam QuangMinh, Director of Da Nang City’s Investment Promotion Centre.

Despite the fact that transport ministers from Viet Nam, Laos andThailand signed an agreement to permit right-hand-drive vehicles totravel in EWEC countries, Minh says Vietnamese cars and lorries arenot allowed to enter Thailand, while right-hand-drive vehicles areonly permitted to enter Viet Nam’s Lao Bao special commercial andeconomic zone.

Phuc suggested that the Government and the Ministry of Finance (MoF)improve fee-collecting procedures by selling goods-transport ticketsthat covers the total cost of using a border gate.
The MoF and the General Department of Customs should also simplifyprocedures for the temporary import and re-export of goods, Phuc said.

The Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministryof Planning and Investment should issue concrete guidance onimplementing the memorandum of understanding on economic co-operationamong EWEC countries signed by Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand on December26 last year, he added. - VNS