“Defending and Asserting Southeast Asian Peoples Civic Space, Democracy, and Human Rights towards an Equitable and Just Society”
Amidst the current turmoil caused by social, economic, political, and climate crisis in the region and at global levels, more than 500 participants with gender balance, from a diversity of civil society, ethnic minorities and groups, indigenous groups, LGBTQIA+, women, persons with disabilities, elderly, Buddhist monks, migrant workers, informal workers, trade unions, farmers and fisherfolks, youths, human rights defenders, victims of land conflicts, victims of human right violations gathered together in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 3-5 November 2022. The inauguration started with a powerful drum performance by an all-female cultural group from the host country calling for unity and solidarity among peoples of Southeast Asia, amplifying the voices of grassroots and marginalized communities, the spirit that has been carried on in the last 17 years.
The ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (ACSC/APF) aims to provide a safe space for peoples’ voices and strengthen an intersectional and cross-movement and cross-border solidarity among ASEAN civil society and peoples’ movements to generate sharing and learning and build solidarity towards an alternative regionalism amidst the rise of militarism and authoritarianism and to urge ASEAN Member States to better address inequality and human rights issues stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Myanmar crisis, climate crisis, and other threats to human rights and regional stability. Lastly, to prioritize an inclusive and sustainable recovery for all peoples in Southeast Asia .
Over the past three days, through four plenaries and 20 workshops organized under the five convergence spaces, the ACSC/APF delegates collectively discussed the challenges faced, developed recommendations and alternatives and called on the ASEAN governments to take bold actions to address these challenges.
Regionally, ASEAN States are facing many challenges. Among these are the following:
- Electoral democracy can be a threat if democracy is not delivered substantially. It failed to reduce poverty while the neo-liberal policy pushed for destabilized agriculture, job loss, and forced migration. Substantive participatory democracy needs to be in place to ensure the broad base of people’s participation in all decision making.
- The South China Sea issue, somehow, contributed to the dispute among ASEAN Member States with the use of arms race and nuclearization were used to tighten the national security measure.
- Destruction of natural resources, pressure on local and existing armed conflict and violence, involuntary migration in the country/region.
- Cyber attacks affect the freedom of expression, civil and political rights of active citizens intended to take active part in their concerns.
This 3-day ASEAN Peoples’ Forum provides platform for exchange, dialogues and debates on a broad range of concern issues on these various convergence spaces:
- Defending Civic Space from Militarism & Authoritarianism
- Combating Neoliberalism for Economic Justice, Climate Justice, and Food Sovereignty
- Life with Dignity: Social Protection, Decent Work, and Healthcare for All in the Post COVID-19 Recovery
- Peace and Human Security
- Southeast Asian Peoples’ Alternative Regionalism
Brief Report of Convergence Space 3: Life with Dignity: Social Protection, Decent Work, and Healthcare for All in the Post COVID-19 Recovery
ASEAN has adopted the “ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection’’, and a Regional Framework and Action Plan to implement, followed by high level conferences on social protection. However, ASEAN member countries lack the political will to implement the declaration. Even worse, the emergence of privatization and austerity that results in harmful socio-economic consequences to the majority of people, including increased poverty rate, deterioration of income distribution.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governments have applied austerity measures including scaling down public services and social protection programs for vulnerable groups of peoples; women, children, elderly, people with disabilities, migrant workers and those in the ‘missing middle’ such as workers in the informal economy, entertainment workers, sex workers, digital platform, and home-based workers. In fact, before the onset of the pandemic, the social protection services provided by the government were insufficient. It lacks coverage, service quality, and benefits. Workers are discriminated against because of their gender and employment status. In case of the migrant workers, they are excluded because of their immigration status and the sectors they are working in.
In the Convergence Space 3, more than 100 participants comprising women and men, ethnic minorities and groups, indigenous people, LGBTQIA+, women, persons with disabilities, elderly, Buddhist monks, migrant workers, informal workers, trade unions, and youths attended the workshops. The CS3 was co-organized by different regional organizations and networks including Asia Monitoring Resources Centre representing Asia Roundtable on Social Protection, Asia Solidarity Economy Council, HomeNet Southeast Asia, INSP!R Asia, Migrant Forum in Asia and WIEGO, and local organizations including Cambodian Labour Confederation, Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association and Legal Support for Children and Women. In total, there were 21 speakers, 11 of those were women from Laos, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.
In workshop 1, participants reflected on the implementation of the ASEAN framework on social protection with a focus on maternity protection and child care especially in the pandemic context: i) universal health care with good examples from Thailand and the Philippines; ii) social security schemes especially on affordability, quality, etc. shared by Laos and Cambodia; and iii) highlighting the coverage and financing gaps shared by Vietnam and Cambodia.
MFA spearheaded Workshop 2: Access to Social Protection for Migrant Workers. The workshop focused on raising awareness on migrant workers’ rights to social protection and the global issue of wage theft. The speakers from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand shared challenges, good practices and initiatives in their country’s context.
It is in these times of unexpected socio-economic shocks that social protection becomes utmost important. Particularly, in the case of migrant workers, who have been experiencing a huge deficit already on decent work conditions including social protection even prior to the pandemic.
Ms. Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, Director of Our Journey, Malaysia discussed the disparity of men and women in terms of accessing Social Protection. Social protection systems that address gendered risks throughout the lifecycle and provide assistance in times of poverty, vulnerability, or crisis are critical in protecting women and men from poverty and insecurity, assisting them in coping with risks and recovering from shocks. Maternity protection insurance is one type of social protection coverage that provides benefits to mothers during pregnancy and the post-delivery lactating months. However, one barrier is that women migrant workers are not eligible for paid maternity leave. In reality, they are forced to choose between leaving their jobs to care for their newborns or losing an important source of income. Women face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination if social protection systems do not address gender inequalities. Access to gender-responsive social protection has a significant impact on the empowerment and opportunities of women with broader positive effects for men, their families, and communities. Hence, we must urgently step up our efforts to ensure that social protection explicitly promotes gender equality.
The policy gaps and implementation issues are still the issues decades ago, although there are improvements and new programs. Ms. Ellene Sana, Executive Director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy, Philippines shared her insights and made an intervention about the relationship between wage theft and social protection. She shared the Justice for Wage Theft (JFWT) campaign, which urged governments to address wage theft committed against millions of migrant workers in the aftermath of the pandemic, including those who voluntarily returned home or were forcibly repatriated. States along the migration corridor have become complicit in overseeing procedures that have resulted in millions of workers returning and continuing to return without receiving their hard-earned wages or seeing justice in their situation. Wage theft has a strong connection to social protection because it is a major contributor to low wages and low-income status, which reduces migrant workers’ ability to afford medical care and achieve safety nets in times of crisis and shocks.
However, despite all these affirmations by duty bearers, the international community and social partners, social protection programs remain inaccessible for the bigger global population. In the case of migrant workers, only 22% in destination countries are covered by social protection. Moreover, while 70 out of 163 countries have social protection laws, less than half (of the 70 countries) cover migrant domestic workers. Mr. Erwin Puhawan from Kanlungan shared learnings from the pandemic and where we are now in pushing for portable social protection. Social protection measures must be implemented with a view to ensure long-term impact and sustainability. However, legal protection in the countries of destination do not automatically ensure actual enforcement. Hence, the intervention concentrated in financial inclusion for the migrant workers towards achieving social protection in the long run.
Financial inclusion refers to having access to and using formal financial services, such as cash transfers, microinsurance, payment services, credit, and cash savings in addition to remittances and financial education. The bulk of migrant workers have very little access to financial services and usually rely on black market lenders who target migrants for short-term loans and remittances. Historically, MWs have had extremely limited access to financial services. Also, due to different reasons, including cultural, social, economic, and legal ones, migrant women frequently face a worse condition and more disadvantageous than male migrants when it comes to financial services. These restrictions make women more unattractive to the financial sector due to the higher “credit risk” they represent for financial institutions. Women’s access to finance is most frequently constrained by societal norms and gender bias, which are standard restrictions from gender analysis. In many nations and regions of the world, the emergence of remittance transfer services via mobile phones has helped to lower remittance transfer prices and undermine the monopoly of businesses like Western Union or MoneyGram. However, what is needed is a better connection between remittance transfer channels and financial institutions where migrant workers can access a broad array of services like savings, loans, insurances, and pensions.
In workshop 3, participants actively participated in the games and quizzes to have a better understanding about the multi-crisis and shocks that we are facing today, such as pandemic COVID-19 and climate crisis, and the evidence-based information on crisis mitigation.
Lastly, in workshop 4, participants jointly recapped the CS3 discussions and reflections and agreed to continue to monitor the CS4 recommendations and deepen analysis on social protection in SEA in preparation for the next APF 2023 in Indonesia. Further, the participants commit to involve more organizations especially representatives from youth and LGBTQIA+.
The following recommendations under CS3 were adopted in the final APF document:
- Social protection, including healthcare, decent wage, as human rights for all, regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, citizen, and economic status must be implemented, improve the accessibility, affordability, and quality, including essential benefits packages of voluntary social protection programs for informal workers. The social protection schemes must not be based on contribution. Governments should provide maternity protection for all women in need, including maternity leave and paternity leave, productive healthcare, childcare, unemployment allowance, and access to care allowance.
- Strengthen national laws, policies, and regulations to help migrant workers and their families cope with and build resilience in times of future crises. Inclusive social protection measures and health care coverage, including but not limited to mental health and psychosocial support, should be provided. Therefore, we call upon the government to accelerate portability of social security benefits that migrant workers are entitled to, through multilateral or bilateral social security agreements.
- Realizing Universal Social Protection, including Healthcare for all, by developing its response capacity to prepare, cope and adapt to strengthening people’s resilience towards future shocks, such as climate and health crisis.
- Public social services should be available with good quality, accessible, and affordable to everyone who needs it. The Governments should stop privatization of the public social services to reduce out-of-pocket payments to healthcare and education. The Governments should increase progressive taxes on corporate profits, financial activities, wealth, digital services, etc. and re-allocate public expenditures for larger social impacts investments.