International cause-oriented groups urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to uplift the human rights of Southeast Asian people, especially at times of crises and disasters.

Some 30 grassroots leaders and experts from the Southeast Asian region issued a collective call to the ASEAN to particularly implement pro-poor social protection measures among those affected by the series of disasters and the global financial crisis.

According to Tina Ebro, coordinator for Asia of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum (AEPF), there is a need to work together not just locally, but also regionally and globally, noting the scope of crises expands beyond that of political borders.

Ebro pointed out that these crises are “golden opportunity” to push the agenda of social protection especially for the poor that will guarantee jobs and livelihoods with wages and working conditions that are in accordance with International Labor Organization (ILO) standards, adequate and affordable food where no one goes hungry, universal health service, free and quality education, socialized decent housing, universal access to water and electricity, giving subsidized water and electricity for the poor, and better quality of life that is environmentally sustainable.

The grassroots leaders and experts joined together for a two-day meet at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City to build a consensus that will create an agenda on transformative social protection in response to joblessness, death, and destruction brought by man-made and natural calamities.

“We (in the Philippines) are still reeling from the onslaughts of the recent typhoons. People moved as zombies — shocked, helpless, and overwhelmed. But this story is not ours alone. Destruction also struck our neighbors in Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, India, and islands of Samoa
and Tonga,” Ebro said.