Participant Profiles
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High-Level Roundtable on the State of Democracy in ASEAN Manila, Philippines – 18 September 2017 Hosted by ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Participant Profiles Charles Santiago, APHR Chairperson and Member of the Parliament of Malaysia Charles Santiago is a member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Klang constituency in Selangor. He is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition. Santiago was first elected to Parliament in 2008, winning the seat of Klang from the governing Barisan Nasional coalition. Prior to his election, Santiago was an economist and worked for non-governmental organizations such as the Coalition Against Water Privatisation and Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation Malaysia. Mu Sochua, APHR Board Member and Member of the National Assembly of Cambodia Mu Sochua is a member of the National Assembly of Cambodia, representing Battambang, and Vice President of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). She has been in Parliament since 2008 and previously served as Cambodia’s Minister of Women’s Affairs from 1998 to 2004. In addition to her work in government, she has spent decades as a human rights advocate, particularly for marginalized groups including migrants, workers, and women. She helped draft and pass Cambodia’s Prevention of Domestic Violence Bill, and has also worked on campaigns to end the spread of HIV/AIDS, support female entrepreneurs, and develop communities for squatters. Kasit Piromya, APHR Member and former Foreign Minister of Thailand Kasit Piromya is a former foreign minister of Thailand (2008-2011). He served as Ambassador of Thailand to the Soviet Union, Indonesia, Germany, Japan, and the United States. He was a member of parliament from the Democrat Party from 2011 to 2013. He is currently a member of Policy Committee in Democrat Party. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and held several head positions, including: Director of the Commerce and Industry Division of ASEAN Department; Director of Policy and Planning Division, and Deputy Director for General, Economic Affairs Department. He was posted abroad as the Ambassador respectively to Moscow; Jakarta; Bonn/Berlin; Tokyo and Washington D.C (1990-2005); and he was the Second Secretary of the Royal Thai Embassy in Brussels and Thai Mission to the European Union (1975-1979). He was the lecturer on Economic Diplomacy in Chulalongkorn University and he was the Thailand Representative in The Caux Round Table in the United States as the NGO promoting good governance and CSR. 1 Teodoro “Teddy” Baguilat, Jr., APHR Board Member and Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Teodoro Baguilat, Jr. is a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, serving his third term as elected representative of the Lone District of Ifugao Province. He is a long-time member of the Liberal Party and has also served as a municipal mayor and governor of Ifugao, Cordillera Administrative Region. In Congress, he is a strong advocate for human rights, particularly indigenous people’s rights, and is currently working to oppose efforts to reintroduce the death penalty and lower the age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines. He has authored numerous bills on the environment, human rights, and indigenous peoples. Tom Villarin, APHR Member and Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Tom Villarin is a member of the House of Representatives from the Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party. He is a devoted social development worker and an activist from Mindanao, Philippines. Tom is recognized as a versatile and all-round social advocate. Tom integrated with different sectors and developed expertise on various issues ranging from agrarian reform, trade unionism, local governance up to issues of security and peace. He served as the Executive Director and Corporate Secretary of the Sustainable Integrated Area Development (SIAD) Initiatives in Mindanao-Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development (SIM CARDD), a regional network and resource institution that helps facilitate the empowerment and development of local communities in Mindanao (southern Philippines) through agrarian, peace-building programs and other asset reforms. Son Chhay, APHR Member and Member of the National Assembly of Cambodia Son Chhay is a member of the Cambodian National Assembly of Cambodia and he is a chief whip of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Son Chhay has been elected to Parliament since 1993, first representing his birth province of Siem Reap and then from 2003, representing Phnom Penh in the National Assembly of Cambodia. Son Chhay is well respected for his tireless effort to fight against corruption and, promoting liberal democracy and human rights. On 14 June 2010, he was awarded the Order of Australia award for his services to Cambodia and the Cambodian-Australian community in Australia. Tian Chua, APHR Member and Member of the Parliament of Malaysia Tian Chua is a Member of the Parliament of Malaysia, representing the Batu constituency in Kuala Lumpur since 2008. He, currently serves as Vice President of the People’s Justice Party (PKR). He has been involved with human rights and labour rights issues concerns since 1990 and has participated in numerous. Active in activities concerned with human rights, labour movement, and migrant issues. Graduated with a BA degree in Philosophy from University of New South Wales (Australia), and a MA degree in Employment & Labour Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. 2 Walden Bello, APHR Board Member and former Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Walden Bello served as a congressman in the Philippine House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015. While in the House he was chairman of the Committee for Overseas Workers' Affairs (COWA). He is currently the International Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Binghamton and was professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines from 1994 to 2009 when he retired to join Congress. He obtained his PhD in sociology from Princeton University in 1975. He is the author of several works on authoritarianism, including "Rodrigo Duterte: A Fascist Original" in Nicole Curato, ed., The Duterte Reader (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017) and "Counterrevolution, the Countryside, and the Middle Classes," in the Journal of Peasant Studies (forthcoming, 2018). Ana Theresia "Risa" Navarro Hontiveros-Baraquel, APHR Member and Member of the Senate of the Philippines Ana Theresia "Risa" Navarro Hontiveros-Baraquel is a Filipino socialist activist, politician, and journalist who was a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 2004 to 2010 and is currently serving as a Senator since 2016. She was also a television journalist and news anchor, having worked for two television networks in the country, IBC (Headline Trese) and GMA Network (GMA Network News). In Risa’s career as an activist, she has been affiliated with a number of organizations and movements: Akbayan Party List, Coalition for Peace National Peace Conference, Government Panel for Peace Talks with the National Democratic Front, Pandayan para sa Sosyalistang Pilipinas (Pandayan/Forge for a Socialist Philippines), Pilipina, Amnesty International Pilipinas, Institute for Politics and Governance. Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament Neena Gill is a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands a socialist and a democrat. In 1999, she was elected as the first female Asian MEP in the European Parliament. Representing the West Midlands. Among her concurrent positions, she is currently the First Vice President for the Delegation for relations with India and a Substitute for the Delegation for Relation with ASEAN. Neena sat on the Budget, Legal, Transport, Energy and Industry Research Committees in the European Parliament. Since 2009, she was an MD for Public Affairs and from 2010 she worked for SAS Software, as Vice President Corporate Affairs (Europe and Asia Pacific). Neena was awarded her first degree by Liverpool John Moores University (BA Hons Social Studies) in 1979, and she completed a postgraduate professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Housing in 1986 and the London Business School SEP in 1996. She is fluent in several Asian languages and Italian, and has recently learned French and German. 3 Dr. Noer Hassan Wirajuda, former Foreign Minister of Indonesia and member of the Indonesian Council of Presidential Advisors Dr. Noer Hassan Wirajuda was the Foreign Minister of Indonesia and member of the Indonesian Council of Presidential Advisors. A career diplomat, he was Ambassador to Egypt and Permanent Representative to the U.N. in Geneva and Director General of Political Affairs at the Foreign Ministry. He facilitated the peace talks between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Liberation Front leading to the signing of the Manila Peace Agreement in September 1996. He was the Chief Negotiator of the Government of Indonesia in dialogue with the Free Aceh Movement (First Phase, 1999-2000). He is a proponent of a balanced concept of community building in ASEAN and East Asia. He was the initiator and architect of the establishment of the National Commission on Human Rights and advocated the establishment of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights. He initiated the establishment of the Bali Democracy Forum in 2008 and its implementing agency, the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD), in which he is sitting as Patron. He co-founded and is currently Professor of School of Government and Public Policy (SGPP-Indonesia). Jose Luis Martin Gascon, Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines Jose Luis Martin Gascon is the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines. He is a political activist and social reformer who has been working on human rights, democracy, and governance concerns for over three decades. He served as the youngest member to both the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution and the 8th Philippine Congress.