September 10, 2006

Human right violations from human trafficking to political murders continue in the ASEM countries.
At the first ASEM, held in Bangkok in 1996, member governments claimed their support for international human rights treaties. But with ASEM now marking its tenth anniversary, the reality remains that child labour, the denial of free speech and limitations on the freedom of assembly are everyday practices in many ASEM countries.
The daily human rights violations committed by the Burmese military junta are among the worst examples of the abuse of human rights, but they are far from the only ones.

The people of the Philippines have witnessed constant violations of the right to life in recent years. According to Amnesty International’s statistics, there were 66 or more political killings in 2005, and another 50 political killings have already been recorded in the first half of 2006.

“A condition of creeping martial law exists in the Philippines right now. The killing of political activists is a reflection of the worsening human rights condition in the Philippines” says Milet Morante of Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD), the ‘Movement for National Democracy’ in the Philippines. A number of KPD activists have been victims of political killings this year.

“The pattern of political killings in the Philippines indicates that these are not random excesses but part of a systematic national policy” according to a statement from Laban Nang Masa (‘Struggle of the Masses’), a broad coalition of progressive political parties, people’s organisations and NGOs from the Philippines. The coalition is demanding the formation of a genuinely independent citizen’s commission that will investigate all political killings and bring the perpetrators to court.

“There will always be diversities, differences and disagreements but we have to start with learning, understanding and respecting the rights of all peoples and nations if we are to proceed with making peace” says Fatima Salapuddin of the Mindanao Peace Weavers, also based in the Philippines. “Governments should allow room for dialogue where no one is discriminated and persecuted.”

Another serious human rights issue raised at the Asia Europe People’s Forum – which, in stark contrast to ASEM, has made human rights violations a central focus – is human trafficking.

“In the European Union context trafficking is primarily considered as a problem of illegal immigration connected with organised crime. It is a multi-faceted issue, however, and this approach might prove to be questionable or even a misinterpretation or distortion of the reality of trafficking”, says Venla Roth, researcher in International Law at the University of Helsinki.

The AEPF urges the ASEM summit to address critical human rights issues when it meets on 10-11 September in Helsinki.

For more information, contact:
Sirpa Pietikäinen, Chair of the AEPF6 National Organizing Committee, tel. + 358 (0)50 4666222
Salla Nazarenko, AEPF6 Information Officer, tel. + 358 (0)45 111 7321

December 2, 2005

Based on IOC discussions in Helsinki December 2005
AEPF
December 2005

Background

AEPF emerged in the mid 1990s from a common desire and need among people’s organisations and networks across Asia and Europe to open up new venues of dialogue, cooperation and solidarity. A first convergence of these networks came together in the Asia-Europe Conference which was organised in Bangkok in February 1996 on the occasion of the Asia Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM) 1. The Bangkok Conference concluded by launching an Asia-Europe civil society initiative which was named the Asia Europe People’s Forum (AEPF) in 1997. As it developed, the AEPF has sustained information, education and constituency building initiatives and it has also organized People’s Conferences in London (1998), Seoul (2002), Copenhagen (2002) and Hanoi (2004) preceding the ASEM intergovernmental meeting.

Preamble

From its beginnings, the AEPF has provided a space for social actors in each region to:

• strengthen network building on a national and regional level and undertake cross-regional initiatives and campaigns
• analyse issues of common interest such as security, militarisation and neo-liberal globalisation and its consequences for the peoples in each region and how these issues relate to global economic and political trends
• provide people’s organizations and networks with a channel for critical engagement with official ASEM

In 1998, a ‘People’s Vision towards a more just, equal and sustainable world’ was elaborated and widely endorsed by hundreds of people’s organisations and networks. It was later revised and endorsed at the ASEM 2000 Peoples Forum in Seoul.

People’s Charter

Our People’s Charter of principles underpins the ways of working and practice of the Asia Europe People’s Forum.

Therefore we, the participants in and supporters of the Asia Europe People’s Forum, declare that:

We support the

• promotion of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights as agreed in international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• promotion of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable patterns of development; greater economic and social equity and justice including equality between men and women, and
• active participation of people’s organisations and networks in the ASEM process.

We demand that the ASEM process recognize and respond to people’s needs and rights and become more transparent and accountable to national parliaments.

We state that

• The AEPF’s purpose is to engage and advocate for change in Asia and Europe, including in the overall ASEM process and to reflect social issues and people’s concerns.
• The alternatives proposed by the AEPF stand in opposition to the current paradigm of globalisation dominated by financial capital and transnational corporations in their search for profit and power without consideration for equity and the environment, and by governments and international institutions which are increasingly serving corporate interests.
• The alternatives being pursued by AEPF in co-operation with people’s organisations and networks designed to ensure that a globalised solidarity between people and people’s organisations will be at the centre of a new stage in world history.

We respect

• universal human rights;
• the rights of all women, men and children.

We will work for the protection of the environment and will found our actions on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality, peace and the sovereignty of peoples in Europe and Asia.

We affirm that

• The AEPF is an open space for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals and networking for effective actions by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by corporate power and any form of imperialism.
• The AEPF is an inter-regional process between Europe and Asia – all the meetings that are held as part of this process have an inter-regional dimension.
• The AEPF is a plural, diverse, non-sectarian and non-governmental space that, in a decentralised fashion, interrelates organisations and movements engaged in concrete actions and initiatives.
• The AEPF wants to build relationships, dialogue, shared analysis and action between progressive organisations in Asia and Europe. The AEPF brings together and interlinks active citizens organisations and movements from all countries in Europe and Asia.
• The AEPF welcomes and participates in the World Social Forum and the Regional and National Social Forum processes associated with it.
• Neither government nor military organisations shall participate in the AEPF.

The Proposed organisational framework and policy for the AEPF network and AEPF biennial Forum are set out in the AEPF network structure.

September 7, 2005

We reproduce below two articles from Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, written in Helsinki (Finland) at the AEPF meeting. A third article can be found in the Philippines “Human Rights” section: Finnish exec raps Arroyo rights record.

First posted 00:11AM (Mla time) Sept 07, 2006
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Inquirer

Editor’s Note: Published on Page A11 of the September 7, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HELSINKI — Here in the land of revered Finnish composer Jan Sibelius (1865-1957), Asian and European peoples’ voices are being aired loudly. Here is a symphony of sounds, so to speak, rising, blowing with the cold Baltic wind that is getting colder by the day.

The event is the Asia-Europe Peoples’ Forum 6 (AEPF 6) for NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs) that are non-state and non-corporate. The theme is “People’s Vision: Building Solidarity Across Asia and Europe.”

What better way to start than with a short ferry boat ride and an informal dinner-gathering of kindred spirits at Suomenlinna Island, a historic tourist site just off the city? After that it was back to the city and the tasks ahead. Time for long words and CSO-speak.

AEPF aims to bring all these voices from the ground to the official Asia Europe Summit (Asem) and create alternatives to Asem’s “neoliberalist agenda.” Asem would be to Asia and Europe what Apec is to Asia Pacific and the United States. Well, more or less. Heads of state, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, among them, are attending Asem, which consists of the member countries of the European Union (EU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asian countries China, South Korea and Japan.

AEPF (which I am attending) consists of NGOs and civil society groups from all European and Asian countries. Created in 1996, AEPF has had forums every two years that paralleled the Asem summit. The last one was in Vietnam. These forums are meant to give a venue for CSOs in Asia and Europe to discuss issues that affect their respective regions. (Not to confuse this with AEBF, or Asia-Europe Business Forum, which is also going on.)

Asian and European CSOs have called for more civil society participation in Asem but this is not happening. These groups have had to make their own parallel gathering in order to call attention to issues on the ground. Coming out together in a big way calls the attention of world leaders and decision-makers. The Philippines has a good representation in AEPF, from the non-communist Left mostly, and why not, it is also the NGO/civil society hub of Asia.

As a bi-regional network, AEPF has indeed opened a new chapter in people-to-people relations and among CSOs in Asia and Europe. Socio-economic and political experts from both regions have recognized the significance of intergovernmental relations and concerted responses to issues.

Besides strengthening linkages in these two regions, AEPF has made lobby visits to Asem member countries to bring up the Asian financial crisis and call for an Asia Monetary Fund, European development cooperation and the EU-Latin American regulation.

AEPF has also done research on the impact of economic instruments such as the Investment Promotion Action Plan and the Trade Facilitation Action Plan developed by Asem.

There have been exchanges on privatization of water utilities in Asian cities and the involvement of European companies. The reconciliation process in the Korean peninsula and security issues have also been discussed in the past. The AEPF network has been expanded with the inclusion of Vietnamese groups and requests from Chinese groups for inclusion.

AEPF bewails the “narrow economic focus” of the Asem process that results in the “severe marginalization” of key concerns such as human rights, equitable development, democratization and environmental protection. Government-civil society dialogue has yet to be concretized.

AEPF sees EU-Asia relations to be in an interesting stage. Both are seeking positions in the global trade and the geopolitical state of affairs. For EU, it is the inclusion of new countries, deepening integration and major constitutional issues.

In Asia, things continue to unfold. There is the restructuring of the labor market, migration, deregulation and privatization of public services. Asia also hopes to be a fully integrated region with the establishment of the East Asian Community modeled after the EU.

The question: How united can East Asia be with its “patchwork of political discord, territorial conflict and economic equality”? Asia has much to learn from the EU experience.

AEPF’s long-term goal is to establish itself as a leading forum for advancing a critical understanding of Asia-Europe relations through research excellence, policy formulation and campaigning. “Critical mass” is important if it is to sustain its interregional connectivity, expertise and collaboration. It hopes “to develop into a hub of networks with genuine national and international significance leading to multilateralism from below.”

AEPF’s target groups from below are trade unions, peasant and farmers organizations, food sovereignty networks, environmental movements, human rights and development groups, women’s movements, indigenous peoples’ movements, peace movements, debt and trade justice campaigns, academics and students. Throw in the media, parliamentarians, policymakers in government, and Asem-related institutions. It’s a very potent brew.

Deliberations, discussions and debates are still going on among the stakeholders. More on the aftermath next time.

So much for long words and CSO jargon. Tomorrow, AEPF’s last day, there will be a meeting with Asem delegates and the drafting of the Final Declaration. And a street carnival in the center of Helsinki.