The civil society representatives gathered in Jakarta for the conference “The Role of ASEAN Civil Society in Supporting Security, Human Rights and Democracy in Burma” issued the “Jakarta Declaration on Burma” on 7 March. The declaration calls on governments and peoples of ASEAN to reject the constitutional referendum announced by the military junta. 
A civil society conference in Jakarta has called on governments and peoples of ASEAN to reject the constitutional referendum announced by the military junta.

About 60 civil society representatives gathered in Jakarta for the conference “The Role of ASEAN Civil Society in Supporting Security, Human Rights and Democracy in Burma” issued the “Jakarta Declaration on Burma” on 7 March. The declaration insists on rejecting the referendum “unless steps are taken to guarantee genuine popular participation and meaningful and time-bound tripartite dialogue process”.

An unfair referendum process of referendum, the declaration warned, could lead to “social unrest and political instability within Burma”. ASEAN, according to conference participants, risks its own credibility if it goes along with such an illegitimate process. The declaration urges ASEAN to initiate a commission of enquiry, in relation to the September crackdown in 2007.

In the light of the human rights situation in Burma, the declaration also called on Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights “to establish a permanent presence on the ground in Burma to undertake sustainable and comprehensive human rights monitoring protection”, and to dispatch a full-fledged fact-finding mission composed of different human rights mandates.

Apart from raising the awareness on the issue, the conference aimed to consolidate and unify national and regional (ASEAN) civil society advocacy on human rights and democracy in Burma.

The organisers of the conference included Indonesian Coalition for Burma (KMSUB) and two FORUM-ASIA members based in Jakarta: Indonesia’s NGO Coalition on International Human Rights Advocacy (HRWG) and Commission against Violence and Disappearances (KontraS).

Please visit the website of Burma Partnership to read the full statement .