PRESS RELEASE

Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN

November 14, 2012

ASEAN peoples push for corporate accountability in ASEAN: Make ASEAN work for the people and not for big corporations
In the face of the looming economic integration of the ASEAN member-economies in 2015 and the widespread concerns on practices of human rights violation and environmental destruction by corporations, representatives of Southeast Asian civil society organizations, through the Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN, demand for corporate accountability and a stronger regulation of corporations by the governments in the regional grouping. It is disappointing how member-governments of ASEAN tolerate the bad practices of some corporations in our communities. Instead of ensuring that development projects and investments respect the rights of the community, some ASEAN governments act in collusion with big business in trampling the rights of our people. ASEAN should not just serve the interest of the elite few but the interest of the peoples of the region, said Yap Swee Seng, Regional Coordinator of Asian Forum on Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) and Co-Convener of the SAPA Working Group on ASEAN. About one hundred delegates from civil society organizations, human rights activists, fair trade groups, indigenous peoples, women and child rights advocates from the Burma, Cambodia, Lao, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Timor Leste and the Philippines gathered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the site of the 21st ASEAN Summit which will start on November 18. For two straight days on November 12-13, the delegates shared their experiences on the impacts of various investments and big-ticket development projects in the region including how they fall victim to the false promises of corporations, especially its concept of corporate social responsibility or what is known as CSR. CSR as a corporate sanitation remedy; a mere tool for image enhancement One delegate from an affected mining community in the Philippines countered that for them CSR means corporate sanitation remedy as she shared her communitys experience with an Australian mining company operating in Didipio District, Nueva Vizcaya province. Oceana Gold Philippines came in her community in 1994 and since then committed various human rights violations including violent demolitions of their properties and sacred places despite having a policy on CSR. The company even charged them in courts for illegal occupation of their own land. She then recounted how local government agencies such as the regional office of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights even awarded the Australian mining company for its so-called exemplary business and human rights practices.

This is how they get away with it, getting the support of the ASEAN governments. CSR is only good on paper. For us, CSR does not make companies responsible and respectful of the rights of the indigenous peoples and communities. These mining companies and their CSR cannot be relied on to respect our human rights, lamented Carmen, an indigenous woman leader from Didipio District. Meanwhile, the SAPA Working Group on ASEAN said that the demand for accountability by corporations, governments, and international financial institutions (IFIs) has increasingly become a major advocacy agenda of civil society organizations in ASEAN. International financial institutions also had roles to play. How do we hold IFIs accountable on the impacts of their policies on the environment? Investments made by corporations and loans provided by IFIs in the region have a big impact on the environment. These had caused widespread environmental degradation and social damage as evidenced by the eighteen cases that we had heard from all over the region in our two public hearings in 2011, said Premrudee Daoroung of Terra Foundation, whose group is opposing the construction of the Xayabouri megadam project which will affect communities in Lao, Thailand and Cambodia. While the group is outraged with ASEAN and big business for the various human rights violations across the region, they added that they are still engaging the regional body, and will continue in putting forward recommendations on how to safeguard the rights of the people and the affected communities. We have to hold ASEAN accountable in order to ensure that human rights, social and environmental protection and accountability are promoted and implemented. It is time ASEAN governments do their roles in regulating big business practices. They should realize that ASEAN is us, the peoples of the region, and not the corporations Ms. Corinna Lopa of the South East Asian Committee on Advocacy (SEACA) said. The group calls on ASEAN to review all national laws in order to regulate activities of corporations and strengthen the right to remedy for the peoples, adopt a clear set of regional standards that reflect international standards and a grievance mechanism, including dispute resolution mechanism, audit system, as well as advisory for corrective action, when these standards are violated. ###
The Solidarity for Asian Peoples Advocacy (SAPA) is a joint platform for advocacy of regional and national civil society organizations that do joint strategizing and action in engaging the ASEAN. SAPA has engaged the ASEAN on the drafting processes of the ASEAN Charter and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD). It also works with other CSOs in engaging ASEAN on various thematic issues including civil society participation mechanisms, labour and migration, agriculture and trade, food security, extractive industries, climate change, freedom of information, corporate accountability, border conflicts, indigenous peoples rights, gender and childrens rights. Since 2006, SAPA and its members have endeavored to broaden the involvement of civil society in the various ASEAN processes and are committed to ensure civil society participation to the annual civil society parallel event. This year, under the aegis of the ASEAN Grassroots Peoples Assembly, SAPA is organizing four regional workshops on the following issues: business and human rights, AHRD, peace and trade justice.

Contact Persons: SAPA Media Team: Joey DImaandal, jdimaandal@seaca.net, jdimaandal@gmail.com, +639088730349, Anelyn de Luna +855 13995805 Spokespersons: Corinna Lopa, +855962356904, Yap Swee Seng +85513995545