ANRSP attends the ASEAN People's Forum

The ANRSP, represented by Bismo and Ath Thorn (Cambodia Steering Committee Member), attended the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ ASEAN People Forum in Singapore from 2 till 4th of November 2018. ACSC/APF is a gathering of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Southeast Asia to engage with ASEAN on the issues affecting the region. ASEAN is composed out of 10 countries in South East Asia; Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. The 10 states of ASEAN have very different political systems, which are reflected as well in their representatives attending the forum. After initially focusing on lobbying towards, due to the lack of response, ACSC/APF will mainly build an alternative model of regional integration and people’ solidarity across the Southeast Asia region. In Singapore, delegations were limited to maximum 200 peoples or 20 delegations per country -compared to a total of more than 1.000 people in the ACSC/APF Philippines in 2017, certain topics were considered ‘sensitive’ and there were no officials present from ASEAN or Singapore.

This year was the 2nd time that the Thematic Convergence Spaces model is being used in the ACSC/APF process. There are 6 Thematic Convergences

1. Just and Sustainable Development (trade, climate, migration, corporate governance, development aggression resource grabs and food sovereignty) 
2. Safe movement of migrants (labor migration, abandoned families, marriage migration, climate displacement, refugees)
3. Peace and Security (militarization, territorial dispute/ conflict, human trafficking, oppression)
4. Human rights and access to justice (human rights, people’s - children – women – peasants rights, food security, democracy, access to justice)
5. Life with Dignity (Decent jobs, guaranteed essential services and social protection for all, livelihood, healthcare, living wage)
6. Against all forms of discriminations (disabled, gender based, marginalized)

The Convergence ‘Life with Dignity’ was organized by NTSP in cooperation with GPF, APHR, ANRSP, ASETUC, AHF and other organizations. The 1st session of role play was went well, where 1 group played as the government who propose 2 motions on ‘flexible labor market’ and ‘scrapping minimum wage’, and another group as opposition to the motions. Bismo led the 1st group, while Ath Thorn as one of opposition in the other group. The result is 1st motion was supported by Majority and 2nd motion was rejected. Final remarks were made by Neena from MEP UK and Tom from MP Philippines, Rajendra from ASETUC and Vanny from Laos.

In the 2nd session of panel discussion on Social Protection, Ath Thorn made a short presentation on the NSSF in Cambodia, together with COSE Philippines, GPF. On the 3rd session of panel discussion, Bismo gave a short presentation on Heath care in Indonesia and Philippines, together with AHF, COSE and academic from Malaysia. In the last session, we proposed some points into the 4 recommendations from the Convergence into the general statement of ACSC/APF, to realize social dimension in regional integration particularly in the ASEAN Economic Community:

1. Ratify and implement ILO core labor standards including enforcing occupational safety and health, full employment, living wage that is sufficient to meet a dignified living standard, and consultation mechanisms, as well as conduct continuing education and skills training for all workers – both in the formal and informal economy.
2. Work towards the realization of peoples’ right to social protection – guaranteeing essential services, sustainable livelihood, and income throughout each person’s life cycle – by allocating adequate fund that is not below the UN-ILO recommended social protection spending of 6% of the country’s GDP, and ensuring CSOs participation in designing the programs as well as in monitoring and implementation of the ASEAN Framework and Action Plan on social protection.
3. Develop, promote, and implement policies, instruments and mechanisms towards accessible and non-discriminatory state-funded quality healthcare -- for all, by giving healthcare high priority in the national budget, stopping the privatization of public hospitals and health services, penalizing pharmaceuticals for prohibitive drug pricing, and abandoning trade agreements commodifying people’s health.
4. Institutionalize dialogues and consultations on economic as well as social issues with and between CSOs, trade unions, people’s movement, parliamentarians, and policymakers at the national and regional levels. Ensure that CSOs, people’s movement and trade unions have space in the dialogues for policy making. At the end, the Global Charter for Universal Social Protection from AEPF was distributed to the participants for signature and support.

On the 3rd day, final recommendations from the 6 Convergences was discussed to make the final Recommendation of ACSC/APF 2018 Singapore and how to deliver it to the ASEAN leaders. The Local Committee was handover the hosted of the next ACSC/APF 2019 to the LOC Thailand.
After participation, these recommendations were made to the ANRSP:

• We are considering that the ACSC/APF is an important event as the only CSO’s forum recognized by the ASEAN and giving a space for dialogue between CSOs and ASEAN Leaders. 
• The shrinking space of Civil Society Organizations in the ASEAN regions were closely linked to the shrinking space of democracy and freedom of association in many countries in ASEAN, oppression and restriction on critical CSO’s, raising intolerance and hatred. 
• The ACSC/APF forum gives a good opportunity for networking with other regional/ international CSOs, and look for opportunities to cooperate or having synergy on Social Protection, Healthcare, Living Wage or other issue concerned.
• Updated information and development from other countries in the region and from the regional level of ASEAN.