Category: ALRC AT THE UN

ASIA: Enforced Disappearances Continue With Zero Accountability and Blanket Impunity

51st - Regular Session - September 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Oral Statements September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. Vice President: The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) welcomes the comprehensive report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) and appreciates its prompt interventions in response to reprisals against the victims’ families and human rights defenders who keep working on the issue defying multiple forms of challenges. We are seriously concerned over the behaviours of the states where documenting the cases of enforced disappearances and cooperating with the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms is considered to be ‘anti-state activities’. In May 2022, Bangladesh officially replied […]

BANGLADESH: Independent Investigative Mechanism Needed for Affording Justice to Victims of Enforced Disappearances

51st - Regular Session - September 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Bangladesh, Written Submissions August 22, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

A Written Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) reiterates the issue of Bangladesh’s unabated enforced disappearances with blanket impunity to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s 51st Regular Session. Halting enforced disappearances in Bangladesh has been an everlasting challenge under the incumbent government. Previously, the ALRC informed the UN Human Rights Council regarding the situation of enforced disappearances since Sheikh Hasina assumed to the office in January 2009.[1] Now, prior to the 51st Regular Session 619 people are documented to have been disappeared under the incumbent government.[2] It should be […]

ASIA: Democratic Governance Equipped with the Rule of Law Required for Ending Arbitrary Deprivation of Life

50th - Session - June 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Oral Statements June 22, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President The Special Rapporteur’s report on “Medico-legal death investigations” has comprehensively covered the highly necessary aspects regarding medico-legal investigation into deaths involving extrajudicial or summary executions. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is not surprised that in the report’s ‘Best Practices’ component there is no reference to the Asian states. The ALRC’s experience suggests medico-legal investigation and forensic examination as an integral part of the criminal justice mechanisms is not made a priority in the region. The policy of keeping a bad-governance coupled with dysfunctional justice mechanisms to […]

ASIA: Victims and Litigants Suffer in Absence of Independent Judiciary and Legal Profession

50th - Session - June 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Oral Statements June 21, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President The Special Rapporteur’s report has substantively covered the aspects regarding the protection of the lawyers against undue interference and independent exercise of the legal profession. Echoing the Special Rapporteur the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) reiterates that many States in Asia are disempowering the Judiciary for enjoying authoritarian powers. The notion of separation of power is neither promoted nor respected in most of the countries. Judiciary suffers systematic setbacks as the Executive Branch of the State: i) controls the recruitment of judicial officers on political loyalty; ii) […]

BANGLADESH: Victims of Gross Human Rights Abuses are Defenceless in Absence of Judicial Independence

50th - Session - June 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Bangladesh, Written Submissions May 23, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

A Written Submission to the 50th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wants to update the Human Rights Council of the United Nations about the situation of Bangladesh’s human rights in relation to the mandate of independence of judges and lawyers. The situation of the judicial independence[1] of Bangladesh has been widely discussed[2] in the Written Statements[3] and Oral Interventions[4] that the ALRC keeps submitting since the inception of the Council. At the 50th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council the ALRC reiterates that the people suffer in the absence of judicial independence in […]

INDONESIA: State Curbs Freedom of Expression amidst Non-stop Human Rights Violations in Papua

50th - Session - June 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, Indonesia, Written Submissions May 20, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

A Written Submission to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) strongly condemns all forms of police brutality against demonstrators who refused the New Autonomous Province (DOB) in Papua Island on 10 May 2022. Based on the monitoring and information we received, there were several actions of brutality such as forced dispersal, beatings, pursuits, shootings, and arbitrary arrests. A number of violence and human rights violations occurred in various areas such as Abepura and Heram. The objection of the new autonomous province voiced by the Papuan people is a legitimate and constitutional expression as regulated […]

WORLD: International Conversations Needed for Removing Gaps Between UN Experts’ Recommendations and Monitoring of Actual Implementation for Protecting Human Rights

50th - Session - June 2022, ALRC AT THE UN, World, Written Submissions May 20, 2022September 21, 2022 admin 0 Comments

A Written Submission to the 50th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has for over 40 years carefully studied, documented and reflected upon the actual possibilities for protection of human rights in many countries of Asia, in particular South Asia and South East Asia. It is our observation that while the knowledge about human rights and some extent the improvement of ratification of the UN conventions and also in cooperation of provisions for protection of human rights in domestic legislations have improved in many of the countries at a practical level, the possibilities of realization […]

MYANMAR/BURMA: UN Member States’ Urgent Actions Needed for Addressing Human Rights Catastrophe

48th - Session - September 2021, ALRC AT THE UN, Burma / Myanmar, Oral Statements October 12, 2021 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President: The Asian Legal Resource Centre endorses the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Madam High Commissioner, You have rightly concluded that there is “a human rights catastrophe” in Myanmar. We agree with your recommendation that the “Member States must act urgently to prevent a further disintegration of Myanmar into a nationwide armed conflict or state collapse”. The “Instrumentalization of Law” and “Subversion of Judiciary and Due Processes”, as highlighted in the report, are matters of great concerns. The “instrumentalization of law” criminalises “perceived intent and […]

ASIA: Protection of Rights Requires Investments in Justice Mechanisms

47th - Session - June 2021, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Oral Statements October 11, 2021 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President: The protection and promotion of all human rights – the civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and the right to development – rest on the foundation a State’s capacity to enforce the law for safeguarding these rights. Many international instruments enshrine these rights yet the realisation remains unsatisfactory. Inadequately developed law-enforcement mechanisms with poor education and absence of instructions to implement are key reasons. States’ failure to enforce the rights let the people consider human rights as empty promises devoid of any real value. Existence of rights must […]

ASIA: Human Rights Mechanisms Require Effective Approaches for Protection from Enforced Disappearances

48th - Session - September 2021, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Oral Statements October 11, 2021 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President: The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has commendably contributed to the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms during the global pandemic. The incidents of enforced disappearances involving extraterritorial transfers, as identified in the report, is an important area of concern. The trend of transnational transfers of the victims of enforced disappearances needs to be understood in the context of a growing authoritarianism equipped with artificial intelligence and sophisticated technologies. The absence of administrative or judicial remedies for enforced disappearances and the pattern of guaranteeing blanket impunity is […]