An Oral Statement to the 34th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)
Mr. President.
The ALRC has repeatedly called upon for the attention of this Council for the need for agencies like the UN and its Special Procedure Mandates to start immediately engaging with Asia’s justice institutions.
We, and our partners are of the opinion that the international community has not adequately understood the true state of Asia’s justice institutions. (i) Because it has not been sufficiently highlighted by the Asian civil society and (ii) the UN itself has not spent adequate effort to study these institutions.
Asian states have spent the least amount of resources to develop our institutions into modern temples of justice from their current primitive nature. So much so, we have some of the finest judges of the world in one or two Asian states delivering progressive judgments, that has contributed to the development of international law, yet more than 2 billion Asians having least benefited from such jurisprudence. The paradox is enormous.
Mr. President, the first line of defence for any human rights abuse are the justice institutions of a state. Unfortunately in the Asian region, these institutions are of no use for the ordinary person, the poor and less influential.
Today we are at a stage of the global human rights project, where calls for action have been repeatedly made. The ground reality is that the tragedy of human suffering and rights violations will continue in Asia unless the Asian States and the UN recognize and take action on the urgent need for reengineering of the justice sector.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Webcast video: Link (Please find the statement of Asian Legal Resource Centre after 15 minutes 25 seconds of the clip.)
