ASEAN Peoples' Forum

Call for Civil Society’s Participation
In the 2nd ASEAN Peoples’ Forum / 5th ASEAN Civil Society Conference
18-20 October 2009
Cha-am, Phetchaburi Province, Thailand

The first ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF) held in February 2009 in Bangkok brought together representatives of various citizens’ groups in the region to exchange experiences, raising issues of common concern, and deliberate on common recommendations to the ASEAN. The Forum was effectively linked to the Fourth ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC IV) in which the focus was on civil society’s continuous engagement with the ASEAN bodies as recommendations from the APF’s 30 workshops was debated and adopted for forwarding to the ASEAN leaders. The highlights of the February event were the two-hour straightforward dialogue with the ASEAN Secretary-General and the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the half-hour informal meeting between representatives of the APF with the ASEAN leaders in Cha-am.

28 February 2009, Hua Hin/Cha-am

The civil society representatives decided to continue the engagement with the ASEAN and attended the interface with the ASEAN leaders today although they had initially contemplated staging a walkout when colleagues from Burma and Cambodia were barred from attending the interface by their respective governments. The underlying need to maintain open, continued and constructive dialogue in order to ensure the voices and concerns of ASEAN peoples are heard propelled the civil society representatives to unite and stand in solidarity and engage with the ASEAN leaders. The civil society representatives decided to be introduced to the ASEAN leaders as the voices of ASEAN and not by country or organisational affiliation.