Category: documents

BANGLADESH: Torturous law-enforcement system with impunity and rewards to perpetrators impede protection of rights

43rd Session - February 2020, ALRC AT THE UN, Bangladesh, Written Submissions February 24, 2020 admin 0 Comments

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) draws attention of the United Nations Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures about the institutionalised practice of torture in Bangladesh, which is an incumbent member of the Human Rights Council. Bangladesh, being a State Party to 10 major Treaties including the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment and Punishment, poorly cooperates with the Special Procedures and the Treaty Bodies of the UN Human Rights mechanism. Its government always claims that the state “plays a constructive role in the international arena through the promotion of cooperation and dialogue, particularly at the United Nations” and that it “cooperates regularly with the […]

WORLD: Competent judicial professionals needed to administer justice to victims of international crimes

18th - Session ASP - December 2019, Oral Submissions, World December 5, 2019 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 18th Session of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, and Excellencies: First of all, please allow me to reaffirm that the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) stand by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and is committed to extend the best possible cooperations as a regional human rights organisation. In Asia, with few exceptions, we observe coercive criminal justice mechanisms particularly the policing system, crime investigation units, forensic medicine facilities, prosecutorial system, and the adjudication process. These highly important components of criminal justice mechanisms often fail to maintain […]

ASIA: Human Rights Mechanisms need practical actions on domestic institutional developments for administration of justice

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Human Rights Council, Oral Statements September 20, 2019 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 42nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) ASIA: Human Rights Mechanisms need practical actions on domestic institutional developments for administration of justice Mr. President. The effectiveness of the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms for protection of rights depends very much on the compliance of the State parties to implement Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This postulates the legislative, judicial, and administrative measures to ensure the rights that the State parties have signed to. While the ratification of the UN treaties has become a way of acquiring international respectability the […]

ASIA: Actual protection of indigenous people within the framework of SDG Goal 16

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Asia, Human Rights Council, Oral Statements September 20, 2019 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 42nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) ASIA: Actual protection of indigenous people within the framework of SDG Goal 16 Mr. Vice President. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) thanks the both mandates for their reports. We wish to emphasise on greater protection of the indigenous people in the countries of Asia and the world. The ALRC fully agrees with the Special Rapporteur and wishes to highlight the obligations arising from the Goal 16 of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030. Like the protection of every other human person and communities the indigenous people also […]

BANGLADESH: Claim of economic growth without protection of human rights is a fallacy

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Bangladesh, Human Rights Council, Oral Statements September 20, 2019 admin 0 Comments

An Oral Statement to the 42nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) BANGLADESH: Claim of economic growth without protection of human rights is a fallacy Madam Vice President. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes this Council to address some questions relating to enforcement of human rights, comprehensively. The issue of a State, which ratifies the United Nations’ treaties and allows its law-enforcement agencies to commit gross human rights violations with impunity, deserves serious attention of the Council. From January 2009 to 9th September 2019, the ALRC documented 536 cases of enforced disappearances; 2188 extrajudicial executions; 128 custodial deaths due to […]

MYANMAR/BANGLADESH: Rights, dignity, and future of genocide survivors at stake

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Bangladesh, Burma / Myanmar, Human Rights Council, Oral Statements September 19, 2019September 19, 2019 admin 0 Comments

A Joint Oral Statement to the 42nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LWRC) Mr. President, The Asian Legal Resource Centre and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada thank the Special Rapporteur for her oral update. The Council is well aware of the grave human rights violations in Myanmar perpetrated by the Tatmadaw and other state- and non-state actors. Reports of the Special Rapporteur and the two other international mandates reiterate the international crimes against Rohingya, and violence against ethnic minorities in Shan, Kachin, and Karen states. Without effective international accountability, impunity continues. We join the calls to […]

PHILIPPINES: Extrajudicial killing of jurists as part of a pattern of widespread and systematic violations of human rights

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Philippines, Written Submissions September 12, 2019 admin 0 Comments

A Joint Written Submission to the 42nd Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada PHILIPPINES: Extrajudicial killing of jurists as part of a pattern of widespread and systematic violations of human rights 1. Introduction Since 30 June 2016, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (the Philippines) has engaged in a campaign of extrajudicial killing in violation of the Philippines’ international law obligations. Since President Rodrigo Duterte (President Duterte) took office on 30 June 2016, up to 27,0001 persons have been extrajudicially killed with impunity, as part of a “war on drugs.” The Philippines’ official number is […]

CAMBODIA: The roots of Cambodia’s persistent rights violations: Impunity of the powerful

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Cambodia, Written Submissions September 10, 2019 admin 0 Comments

A Joint Written Submission to the 42nd Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada CAMBODIA: The roots of Cambodia’s persistent rights violations: Impunity of the powerful 1. Introduction Human rights in the Kingdom of Cambodia have remained a constant concern for decades, but recent years have seen marked deterioration of respect, protection and fulfilment of the international human rights obligations Cambodia has undertaken as a party to the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements (PPAs)[1] and numerous UN human rights treaties.[2] With increasing boldness, Cambodia systematically disregards its international human rights obligations and its Constitution. Instead, Cambodia misuses laws […]

THAILAND: Unforgotten in Thailand – Ensure truth, justice, and reparations for victims of enforced disappearance

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Thailand, Written Submissions September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 admin 0 Comments

A Joint Written Submission to the 42nd Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada THAILAND: Unforgotten in Thailand – Ensure truth, justice, and reparations for victims of enforced disappearance 1. Introduction: Persistent impunity for enforced disappearances A pattern of impunity for enforced disappearances1 persists in Thailand despite years of promises to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (UNCED)2 and to pass legislation making enforced disappearance a crime.3 The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) reports 82 unresolved cases of enforced disappearances since 1980.4 This number represents a fraction of […]

MYANMAR: Protect rights, ensure dignified repatriation and justice of the Rohingyas

42nd Session - September 20`9, ALRC AT THE UN, Burma / Myanmar, Written Submissions September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 admin 0 Comments

A Joint Written Submission to the 42nd Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Odhikar MYANMAR: Protect rights, ensure dignified repatriation and justice of the Rohingyas The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and ODHIKAR – Coalition for Human Rights draw special attention of the Human Rights Council and the Special Procedures to the acts of violence, persecution, extrajudicial executions, torture and inhuman treatment against the Rohingya population, who fled the genocide committed by the Myanmar Military in the Rakhine state (Arakan) of Myanmar and took refuge in Bangladesh. Odhikar carried out fact-finding missions on the atrocities committed on the Rohingya, both […]