Two rights groups have called on the Philippines, as chair of ASEAN, to confirm publicly that Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will not be invited to the bloc's leaders' summit in Manila on 16–18 November.

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) issued a joint statement on Monday, 9 November, warning that inviting Min Aung Hlaing or any other senior member of Myanmar's military junta would wreck ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus, the bloc's only agreed framework for the crisis in Myanmar.

Min Aung Hlaing led the February 2021 coup that ousted Myanmar's elected government. ASEAN has barred Myanmar's leaders from its summits since 2021, but the statement says the junta has been pushing for a return to the table, and that some member states have rewarded its pressure with creeping legitimisation.

Why the groups say an invitation would be a capitulation

The statement argues that every concession ASEAN has granted the junta has been followed by a fresh outrage. It points to 12 July 2026, when junta jets bombed civilians in Karen State on the same day ASEAN foreign ministers met informally with the junta's foreign minister.

It also cites figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, saying junta airstrikes killed at least 100 civilians in October alone, 12 of them children. During and after the ASEAN Special Envoy's humanitarian mission to Myanmar in late October, the Irrawaddy recorded nine junta airstrikes in four days that killed 16 people, including three children and a newborn, at a school in Karenni State and a maternity clinic in Rakhine State, the statement says.

"Given ASEAN's mounting political and moral failures on Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing's attendance at the Summit would mark a total capitulation," said Yanghee Lee, a founding member of SAC-M and a former UN special rapporteur on Myanmar. "It would be a permanent stain on ASEAN."

The statement notes that UN Special Envoy Julie Bishop told the UN General Assembly in October that up to 70 per cent of Myanmar is contested or controlled by resistance forces, undermining the junta's claims of nationwide control.

What the groups are asking ASEAN leaders to do

APHR and SAC-M call on ASEAN leaders to confirm immediately that Min Aung Hlaing or any other senior junta member will not be invited to the November summit. They also want the bloc to adopt concrete, measurable benchmarks for compliance with the Five-Point Consensus, with clear deadlines — including an end to the junta's violence, the full and unconditional release of all political prisoners, and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid.

The benchmarks, they say, should include the release of detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who remains under strict house arrest. They also call for a series of escalating punitive steps to be triggered if the junta fails to meet the benchmarks.

The Philippines and Singapore, as outgoing and incoming ASEAN chairs, should also prioritise engagement with Myanmar's democratic actors, including the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, the National Unity Government, ethnic organisations, women-led organisations and civil society groups, the statement says.

The court judgment hanging over the summit

The statement also points to the International Court of Justice, which is due to deliver its judgment on 19 November in The Gambia v. Myanmar, a case over the military's 2016–2017 clearance operations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. Min Aung Hlaing was commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces at the time.

"The Philippines, as Chair, can end this uncertainty now by confirming that Min Aung Hlaing will not be invited," said Mercy Chriesty Barends, APHR chairperson and a member of Indonesia's House of Representatives. "Inviting him would signal that the junta can disregard the Five-Point Consensus without consequence. As parliamentarians, we call on ASEAN leaders to stand with the people of Myanmar, not with the military that is bombing them."

APHR has taken the same position before. In an earlier statement on 5 October, it opposed Malaysia's decision to host Min Aung Hlaing for an official visit, warning that receiving him with the honours of an official visit would tell the region that the 2021 coup and the violence since are acceptable. That statement also noted that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested a warrant for his arrest over the alleged crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution.

The Manila summit runs from 16 to 18 November. The Philippines has not yet publicly confirmed who will represent Myanmar at the meeting.