“Yangon statement on human rights and agribusiness in Southeast Asia released”, 7 November, 2014

The 65 participants of this workshop drawn from the South East Asian National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF) and from supportive civil society organisations…met in Yangon, Myanmar…to consider ways of ensuring State and Non-State actors respect, protect and remedy human rights in the agribusiness sector…Human rights, environmental and development NGOs from the region noted increasing number of complaints about human rights violations and environmental impacts linked to transnational investment, migrant labour and human trafficking. Participants also noted that government policies to generate foreign exchange, foreign investment, agro-fuels and commodity exports, while designed to stimulate national development, were imposing heavy costs on communities in terms of land grabs, forced eviction, loss of livelihoods, lack of local and national food security, and environmental degradation and erosion of biodiversity.