ASEAN Summits in Malaysia should focus on human rights

Governments attending upcoming regional summits in Malaysia should reject the Myanmar military junta's plans to hold "elections" in December 2025, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to all countries sending delegates, reports UNB.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ASEAN partner Summits will take place in Kuala Lumpur on October 26-28, with the Myanmar crisis on the agenda.

The Myanmar junta has continued its repression of pro-democracy forces, carrying out arbitrary arrests, torture, and abusive conscription, and increased military attacks on civilians, said the New York-based rights body.

The junta has intensified its crackdown ahead of the planned elections, which the authorities scheduled to begin December 28.

ASEAN members and partner countries should strengthen efforts to address Myanmar's human rights and humanitarian crisis and the plight of millions of its people displaced since the February 2021 military coup.

"Myanmar's junta has demonstrated neither the intention nor the capacity to organize and hold elections that would even remotely meet international standards," said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.