ALRC-CWS-27-07-2014 September 3, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, General Debate A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre PAKISTAN: End slavery and bonded labour 1. Pakistan’s constitution expressly prohibits all forms of slavery and forced labour. Article 11 deems slavery non-existent and forbidden; no law shall permit nor facilitate its introduction in Pakistan in any form; it prohibits all forms of forced labour and trafficking of human beings and the employment of children below the age of fourteen years in any factory, mine or in any form of other hazardous employment. The International Covenant on Civil and Political […]
Author: ALRC
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) works towards the radical rethinking & fundamental redesigning of justice institutions in Asia, to ensure relief and redress for victims of human rights violations, as per Common Article 2 of the International Conventions. Sister organisation to the Asian Human Rights Commission, the ALRC is based in Hong Kong & holds general consultative status with the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations.
ASIA: Arbitrary Detention
ALRC-CWS-27-06-2014 September 2, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Working Group on Arbitrary Detention A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre ASIA: Arbitrary Detention 1. Arbitrary arrest and detention take place in large numbers in most Asian countries, both under ordinary laws and anti-terrorism laws. 2. In Indonesia, the law allows any person arrested for any crime to be detained for 90 days in police custody without access to a judicial officer. Over the last five years or so, there has been considerable agitation for the abolition of this law and for […]
NEPAL: Pressure needed in support of women forgotten in transitional justice process
ALRC-CWS-27-04-2014 September 1, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre NEPAL: Pressure needed in support of women forgotten in transitional justice process 1. In the recent past, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and its sister organization the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have continued to highlight myriad problems in the substance of the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Act passed by government of Nepal. However, given the nature of the violence during Nepal’s insurgency, and given […]
INDIA: Addressing Poor Sanitation & Access to Water a Must to Fight Disease & Child Malnutrition
ALRC-CWS-27-03-2014 September 1, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre INDIA: Addressing Poor Sanitation & Access to Water a Must to Fight Disease & Child Malnutrition 1. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) draws the attention of the Human Rights Council to the persistent problem of a lack of sanitation coverage for a majority of the Indian population. Estimates reveal that around 600 million people, or around 60% of the country’s population, defecate in the open. While […]
EGYPT: Dissolution Ultimatum for Independent Groups
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ALRC-STM-004-2014 August 30, 2014 A Joint Statement by the Asian Legal Resource Centre EGYPT: Dissolution Ultimatum for Independent Groups September 2 Deadline to Comply with Draconian 84/2002 Law (London, August 30, 2014) – Independent organizations in Egypt face a looming crackdown, 45 international and national human rights groups from across the globe said today in a joint statement. The Egyptian Social Solidarity Ministry placed an advertisement in leading state newspaper Al-Ahram on July 18, 2014, giving all Egyptian and international nongovernmental organizations until September 2 to register under Law 84/2002, a restrictive measure passed during the Mubarak rule. This law empowers the government to shut down any […]
SRI LANKA: Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings
ALRC-CWS-27-02-2014 August 29, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre SRI LANKA: Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings 1. Although, technically speaking, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are two distinct categories of gross violations of human rights, these two categories often overlap in Sri Lanka. Often, what get classified as enforced disappearances are kidnappings followed by interrogation, which often involve the use of torture and ill-treatment, followed by executions done in secret and, finally, the secret disposal of bodies. Despite several commissions looking […]
BANGLADESH: Justice not afforded to victims of enforced disappearance
ALRC-CWS-27-01-2014 August 29, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre BANGLADESH: Justice not afforded to victims of enforced disappearance 1. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has made written submissions in the recent Sessions of the UN Human Rights Council on the prevalence of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. To reiterate the overwhelming fact, victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh have no option of legal remedy from the criminal justice system. When this is reality, justice is simply a bridge too far. Article […]
PHILIPPINES: Failure of the court to prevent arbitrary detention
ALRC-CWS-27-05-2014 September 2, 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Twenty seventh session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Working Group on Arbitrary Detention A written submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre PHILIPPINES: Failure of the court to prevent arbitrary detention 1. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) takes note of the opinion of the two reports of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (A/HRC/27/47 and A/HRC/27/48) on the role of courts in protecting persons from arbitrary detention. The ALRC agrees on the importance of the “right to challenge the lawfulness of detention before court as a self-standing human right (A/HRC/27/47, para 13),” […]
THAILAND: The Council must declare the coup illegal
Date: June 23, 2014 Document id: ALRC-COS-26-21-2014 HRC section: Item 4, General Debate Speaker: Mr. Budi Tjahjono A Joint Oral Statement to the 26th session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), NGO with general consultative status and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and Franciscan International, NGOs with special consultative status THAILAND: The Council must declare the coup illegal Thank you Mr. President, On 22 May 2014, a military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), usurped power by force and overthrew the democratically elected government of Thailand. The ALRC and LRWC are concerned that since the coup, human rights have suffered a […]
NEPAL / REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Blind amnesty and systematic segregation
Date: June 19, 2014 Document id: ALRC-COS-26-20-2014 HRC section: Item 3, General Debate Speaker: Mr. MOON JeongHo Oral Statement to the 26th Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organization with general consultative status NEPAL / REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Blind amnesty and systematic segregation Thank you Mr. President, The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)expresses its deep concern about the absence of investigation into the systematic segregation regulation and policy that resulted in at least 500 deaths in a so-called ‘welfare’ facility in the Republic of Korea during the 1970s and 80s. The Ordinance no. 10 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, […]