ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection must reject the Myanmar junta’s membership and uphold its mandate to protect consumers

Mizzima

NGO Defend Myanmar Democracy has spoken out against an ASEAN consumer protection body over its plan to allow the Myanmar junta to host a meeting in Yangon.

The following is their statement date 1 June:

We deplore the ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection (ACCP) for allowing the Myanmar military junta to host the 32nd ACCP meeting in Yangon and urge the committee to reject the junta’s membership and cease recognizing the junta-controlled Department of Consumer Affairs as the Myanmar representatives.

The ACCP, as the regional consumer protection body is meant to safeguard the well-being of over 600 million ASEAN consumers. It cannot credibly do so while allowing the military junta, that is itself one of the largest sources of cross-border consumer harm in the region, a seat at the table, and working alongside them to develop and implement regional strategy on consumer protection.

The Myanmar military attempted to grab power through a violent coup in 2021, triggering an unprecedented polycrisis. The military junta continues to act with rampant impunity, committing international crimes nationwide, including killing, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and sexual violence and airstrikes targeting civilians, schools and hospitals displacing more than 3.6 million people.

Recently, it has attempted to legitimize its coup through a sham election, which the UN Human Rights Council has strongly condemned. Its impunity and ongoing conflict have driven transnational crime, cyber scam operations, and human trafficking harming ASEAN consumers and beyond. Post 2021, Myanmar has become the epicenter of the cyber-scam industry powered by trafficked workers with an annual value of funds stolen by these scam syndicates worldwide estimated at around US$64 billion a year.

The illegal military junta have long harbored and nurtured militia and transnational criminal organizations in their growing operations, making them partners in crime and the linchpin of this transnational criminal ecosystem. The illegitimate junta have also illegally taken over institutions meant to protect consumers from harm. This includes the Department of Consumer Affairs (DOCA), the body representing Myanmar at the ACCP and the host of the 32nd ACCP meeting in Yangon, which sits under the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), a key channel for sustaining the junta’s revenue. Ministers from the MOC have been sanctioned in multiple jurisdictions for sustaining the junta’s economic activities, including facilitating fuel oil imports while atrocities continue, and for undermining democracy and the rule of law.

The stated agenda of the 32nd ACCP meeting included strategic initiatives under the ASEAN Consumer Protection Strategic Plan (2026-2030), product safety monitoring and enforcement, and the development of an online dispute resolution mechanism. Civil society organizations have consistently called on ASEAN and governments around the world to reject the junta’s attempts to gain legitimacy. This call is made more urgent by the junta’s sham elections and convening of “parliament” to consolidate its illegitimate coup attempt.

We strongly urge ACCP, its members and the ASEAN Secretariat to:

● Stand with the people of Myanmar and reject military junta’s membership in the ACCP, and cease to recognize the junta’s officials from DOCA or any other working-level junta officials as Myanmar’s representatives in the Committee;

● Suspend and refuse to adopt any outputs, strategies, or work products developed during the 32 nd ACCP meeting hosted by the junta as this would also validate the work of a ministry under the junta’s illegal control;

● Bar any working-level junta officials from attending, speaking, or holding representational roles at the upcoming 5th ASEAN Consumer Protection Conference (ACPC) on 8–9 June 2026, the 3rd ACCP–OECD CCP Joint Meeting on 10 June 2026, and all subsequent ACCP meetings, events and dialogues with external partners;

● Ensure that no technical assistance, capacity-building, or support of any kind will be provided to the junta through the ACCP;

● Engage with the legitimate representatives of the Myanmar people, the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, the National Unity Government, ethnic revolutionary organizations and civil society organizations.

We further urge ACCP’s development partners to:

● Ensure that no development assistance, technical cooperation, or capacity-building support, whether channeled through the ACCP, the ASEAN Secretariat, or bilateral programs, reaches or benefits the junta-controlled Department of Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, or any other institutions illegally controlled by the Myanmar junta;

● Reject the participation of junta representatives at meetings, events and dialogues involving the ACCP and refrain from lending institutional branding to ACCP meetings, conferences, or outputs which the junta participates in or has hosted.

ASEAN leaders and Min Aung Hlaing agreed to the Five-Point Consensus in April 2021. As the junta shows total disregard for ASEAN and commitments it has made, allowing it to represent Myanmar and host ACCP meetings only emboldens a military that continues to commit international crimes with impunity. A committee that seats the junta cannot credibly claim to protect consumers from it. The ACCP has the standing, the mandate, and the responsibility to refuse the junta’s seat at its table and stand with the people of Myanmar.