ASIA: Protection of Rights Requires Investments in Justice Mechanisms

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 […]

MYANMAR: International Community needs decisive actions to end militarism for establishing democracy and human rights

An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President: As there are profound concerns over the latest military coup in Myanmar and subsequent violence offends the conscience of humanity, the urgent questions before the international community should be what to do at this time by way of effective measures to reverse such blatant attack on democracy, international human rights law and attacks on lives and liberties of people. We have witnessed that around a million survivors of genocide were forced to take shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh, the international community was apparently relieved that the Rohingya exudes […]

ASIA: Arbitrary Detention Continues with Denial of Access to Justice and Increases Poverty

An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President: The report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention focusing on drug policies sheds lights on the darker sides of the justice mechanisms of many States. It also indicates the attitudes of the legislatures towards the citizens lacking compassion and comprehensive programmes to address the holistic impacts involving drugs. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wants to emphasise that arbitrary detention without any credible system of accountability of the law-enforcement agencies is one of the core human rights violations across Asia. There are complicities among the three […]

ASIA: Extrajudicial Executions with Impunity Require Access to International Justice

An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) ASIA: Extrajudicial Executions with Impunity Require Access to International Justice Madam President: The report on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions by the immediate past Special Rapporteur Ms. Agnes Callamard has comprehensively expanded the area of normative principles with significant observations to the discourse on arbitrary deprivation of life. The former Rapporteur’s observations on ‘the relationships between the economic, social and/or cultural dimensions of arbitrary killings and unlawful deaths’ deserve urgent attention. In many Asian countries, arbitrary deprivation of life is adopted as the way of law-enforcement. The ALRC appreciates […]

ASIA: Flawed Justice Systems Turns to be More Inaccessible for Litigants During Pandemic

An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) ASIA: Flawed Justice Systems Turns to be More Inaccessible for Litigants During Pandemic Madam President The report of the Special Rapporteur has comprehensively focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to justice, guaranteeing the right to fair trial, administration of justice as well as protection of the professionals involved. The ALRC draws the attention of the Special Rapporteur to the reality that during the pre-pandemic era the justice mechanisms in Asia has been mostly dysfunctional. The authorities in most Asian countries have systematically denied universal access […]

WORLD: Institutions Building is Key for Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development

An Oral Statement to the 47th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Madam President. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) welcomes the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to this Council. Madam High Commissioner, Your report has explained us on how your office – the OHCHR – has adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic having “significant impact on human rights worldwide”. The ALRC could not agree more with you as you have mentioned “[T]he COVID-19 pandemic has also starkly underlined the centrality of equality and human rights to the global agenda. The pandemic exposed the effects of decades of underinvestment […]