Protesters call on the government to block any Myanmar junta representatives from entering New Zealand for the ASEAN summit, on 9 April, 2024. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
An attempt to bar a diplomatic representative from the military junta in Myanmar from entering New Zealand has failed.
Myanmar community members applied for the courts to bar the diplomat from attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), saying allowing them to attend would legitimise the military regime.
It would be the first time a Myanmar official had been hosted in New Zealand since the February 2021 coup by the military junta.
Labour's associate foreign affairs spokesperson Phil Twyford previously explained: "They stole democracy at the barrel of a gun. Do we want them in our country? No".
The group was looking for interim orders to keep the diplomat out of the country.
But Justice Matthew Palmer ruled that, as the representative was already an accredited diplomat, and there was no evidence this status was obtained illegitimately, they should be allowed to enter.
The judge noted that none of this mitigated the understandable concerns about the human rights abuses by the military junta in Myanmar.
"The evidence before me indicates the junta is responsible for well documented, widespread and systematic human rights violations and crimes against humanity," his judgement reads.
The ASEAN conference began today in Wellington.
