From Myanmar crisis to LGBTQ rights: What HRW urges Malaysia to champion as Asean chair this year

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Malaysia, as the new Asean chairman, to follow up on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution to impose an arms embargo on the junta-led Myanmar.

HRW’s Asia director Elaine Pearson said the move is crucial as the junta continues its “scorched earth” tactics by raining airstrikes at hospitals, schools and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps despite agreeing to implement the Five-Point Consensus in April 2021.

“The current approach of Asean isn’t working and we need something stronger,” she said at the HRW World Report 2025 Asia launch in Bangkok, Thailand today.

In June 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution urging member states to prevent the flow of arms into Myanmar.

Despite that, a UN report in 2023 disclosed that Myanmar’s military had imported weapons and related materials worth at least US$1 billion (RM4.5 billion), with companies in Thailand, Singapore and China supplying parts and materials for machine guns and bombs.

Pearson also raised concerns about Thailand undercutting Asean’s efforts to hold the junta accountable by unilaterally setting up their own side meetings with junta officials.

Earlier today, Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Amran Mohamed Zin affirmed Malaysia’s commitment to helping Myanmar find “a Myanmar-owned and -led solution” to the political turmoil that has gripped the country since February 2021.

Amran said Malaysia will announce the Special Envoy of the Asean Chair on Myanmar — a position appointed by the sitting Asean chairman — at the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Retreat (AMM) in Langkawi this weekend.

Meanwhile, Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand in HRW’s Asia division, criticised Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s decision to appoint former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and former Cambodian premier Hun Sen as informal advisers to the Asean chairman, calling it a “bad sign”.

“Has Anwar subscribed to the idea of supporting the Myanmar election already?” he asked, referring to the junta’s plans to hold a general election in 2025, which critics have called a sham.

Pearson also called on Thailand to encourage Malaysia to address human rights issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community at the Asean level, though she acknowledged that same-sex relations remain criminalised in many Asean countries, including Malaysia.

Thailand, she said, is well-positioned to initiate the discussion since the country is expected to pass the Equal Marriage Act that legalises same-sex marriage next week, making it the first South-east Asian country to do so.

However, in March 2024, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told Parliament that Malaysia has no international obligations to the LGBTQ community since it has not ratified any conventions on LGBTQ and does not recognise the lifestyle.

Earlier today, in its World Report 2025, HRW accused Putrajaya of neglecting key reform promises and instead bolstering laws that restrict freedoms of expression, assembly and religion.

As such, the human rights watchdog urged Malaysia to champion rights both at home and in the region as the country assumes the chairmanship of Asean this year.

Malaysia took over the Asean chairmanship from Laos and had previously chaired the group in 1977, 1997, 2005 and 2015.