The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is an NGO having General Consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The ALRC was founded in 1986 by a prominent group of jurists and human rights activists in Asia. It is a body committed to the development of legal self-reliance and empowerment of people. It will place particular emphasis in its work on the areas of cultural, social and economic rights and the right of development. ALRC will work closely with and support regional, national, and local groups involved in this field, taking care, at the same time, to protect the autonomy and independence of such groups.

The Centre will promote the development of, and support specific legal service and resource programmes promoting self-help at the local level. It will also seek to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues by the bar and other legal bodies and personnel, at local and national levels. The Centre will press, where appropriate, for the introduction and improvement of effective government legal services.

The ALRC has done extensive work in several countries in Asia. More notable ones are: the judges’ and lawyers’ programmes conducted in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. At such meetings judges and lawyers from a particular country are brought together with other experts from the region and discussions are conducted for arriving at conclusions on what changes are to be recommended to the governments concerned. These programmes have been well documented.

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