Brunei joins workshop on Asean legal cooperation to combat human trafficking
The delegation in a group photo. - RBPF
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: A delegation from Brunei recently attended a workshop on the Asean International Legal Cooperation (ILC) Handbook and Asean International Legal Cooperation (ILC) Compendium in Bangkok, Thailand.
The delegation included personnel from the Prime Minister's Office, the Criminal Justice Division of the Attorney General's Chamber, the Human Trafficking Investigation Unit (USPM) of the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF), and the Immigration and National Registration Department, who attended as representatives of the National Working Committee on Anti-Trafficking in Persons.
The two-day workshop, held on May 6 and 7, was organised by the Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime in cooperation with Counter Trafficking Asean-Australia (Asean-ACT) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The workshop's objectives align with the implementation of the Asean Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), and the Asean Multi-Sectoral Work Plan Against TIP 2023-2028 (Bohol TIP Work Plan 2.0).
It aims to strengthen international legal cooperation (formal and informal) among Asean member states, in line with Asean member states' laws on cross-border crimes, especially trafficking in persons (TIP) cases.
The project aims to update the Asean Handbook on International Legal Cooperation in Cases of Trafficking in Persons and prepare an Asean Compendium on International Legal Cooperation in Cases of Trafficking in Persons.
It also aimed at disseminating information to more stakeholders about the Asean Handbook and the Asean Compendium on Trafficking in Persons Cases to explore any future collaboration.
The two documents are expected to be further discussed for endorsement during the 25th Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC).
The workshop was attended by 69 representatives from various Asean Sectoral Bodies, including participants from 11 countries.
The programme also promoted international cooperation and the exchange of ideas and views on the increasingly complex issue of human trafficking, ensuring a stronger response against all forms of exploitation related to human trafficking. – Borneo Bulletin/ANN
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Since ASEAN adopted the 5PC in 2021, the junta has never honoured it. First and foremost, the consensus calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar. This step has never been implemented by the junta. Instead of ending military rule, the regime has rained bombs on its citizens and blocked essential supplies, including healthcare facilities, not to mention the continued atrocities like arson and massacres. Over the past four years, more than 6,000 civilians have been killed by the military, including children, prompting the UN early this year to say that the junta had ramped up its violence against civilians to a level that was unprecedented in the four years since the generals launched their coup. Rather than taking the juntas total disregard for its plan as a blatant insult, ASEANs leadership doggedly clings to the 5PC as its main reference to address the political crisis in Myanmar, writes Hpone Myat in anti-establishment news portal The Irrawaddy. 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In April, Anwar met with junta chief Hlaing in Bangkok and held virtual talks with Myanmars National Unity Government (NUG) in exile. Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim should not have appeased Min Aung Hlaing, believing in the illusions that the General would restore peace in the country, riddled with civil strife. After a call from the ASEAN meeting in April, Hlaing promised a ceasefire by the Myanmar armed forces, Tatmadaw, and the ethnic rebels. His junta even signed an MOU with some rebels, but that ceasefire was broken within days. Hlaings air force continued to bomb civilian areas, causing immense suffering, pain, and agony for the villagers. At the summit, he (Anwar) described those talks as significant, saying both sides were open to engagement while highlighting Gen Hlaings supposed willingness to engage in peace efforts despite dubbing NUG as a terrorist organization. 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ASEAN members have univocally urged the regime in Naypyidaw to extend a temporary ceasefire and engage in peace talks with its rivals at the summit, but did not spell out a timeline. Instead, the ASEAN urged that negotiations were needed and that Malaysias Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan would visit Naypyidaw in June regarding the mitigation of the crisis. Furthermore, the regional leaders statement on an extended and expanded ceasefire in Myanmar can only be greeted with dismay. The leaders further called for the sustained extension and nationwide expansion of the ceasefire in Myanmar, but the reality is the ceasefire has never existed on the ground, as the junta has consistently violated the truce from the very start, wrote The Irrawaddy. Instead of being unrealistic about the reality of present-day Myanmar, ASEAN should have adopted a serious resolution against the regime. Such moves would have put pressure on the junta by making it harder for it to survive, but also would have helped move the currently stalled resolution mechanism for Myanmars crisis forward. To make that happen, the bloc must first drop its empty rhetoric and take meaningful steps, concludes Hpone Myat. Last week, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) raised concern over the deteriorating human rights situation and economic collapse in Myanmar, with violent military operations killing more civilians last year than in any year since the 2021 coup. The military operations have sparked an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Over half the population now lives below the poverty line, facing food insecurity and soaring prices, which has worsened since the March 28 earthquake, according to the U.N. Possibly, ASEAN has lost all moral position to pressurise the military junta, since Justice for Myanmar accused 54 companies in Southeast Asian countries ASEAN of supplying the regime with funds, jet fuel and technology. Saleem Samad
