Regional Training on Advocacy at the ASEAN Level
Between 2014 and 2016, MMN collaborated with Oxfam and other supporters on a regional programme to promote the social protection of marginalised workers in the region, focusing specifically on matters of social security for migrants, access to healthcare, and labour rights protection. Under this programme, MMN started a series of projects aimed at building the capacity of migrants’ rights advocates in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to strengthen their knowledge and skills in engaging with the ASEAN mechanisms to promote migrants’ rights. MMN held a regional workshop on ASEAN, developed training modules on ASEAN advocacy catered to migrants’ rights advocates in the GMS, and organised a regional training programme.
Key Activities
Between 4-8 June, 2016, MMN held a five-day training course on “Advocacy with ASEAN” in Bangkok, Thailand attended by 17 trainees from Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The majority of trainees worked for non-governmental organisations advocating for migrant rights in their respective countries, and all of them were selected based on their prior knowledge on and experience of working with migration issues. Upon completion of the training, trainees were expected to remain engaged with MMN’s ASEAN advocacy-related activities. The training course aimed to strengthen trainees’ understanding of how to engage with ASEAN mechanisms and to develop their advocacy and analysis skills. Training sessions also provided important information on the context and background of ASEAN. To learn more about the training, please click here.
As ASEAN officially declared the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015, there was increased discussion on the AEC’s impacts on migration in the region. To exchange views on this matter, MMN organised a workshop in Phnom Penh from 16-17 March 2015 entitled ASEAN Integration and Labour Migration in the Mekong. The workshop had two primary objectives: 1) to explore the link between ASEAN integration and migration; and 2) to assist in the capacity building of migrant rights advocates in the region, aiming to strengthen their knowledge and capacity to utilise existing regional human rights mechanisms to protect and promote the rights of migrants. The workshop provided an opportunity for participants to examine and discuss potential points of engagement for civil society groups in ASEAN, and to brainstorm future advocacy opportunities with various ASEAN bodies, including the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, and the ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour. More than 60 participants from civil society organisations, intergovernmental organisations, research institutions, and private foundations from the region took part in the workshop. To learn more about the workshop, please click here.