A Joint Oral Statement to the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Franciscans International on Torture in Asia
Category: Human Rights Council
ASIA: Gender parity in food security requires a focus on public institutions
An Oral Statement to the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on Right to Food
ASIA: Inefficient criminal justice institutions are an impediment to human rights in the region
An Oral Statement to the 31st Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on Situation of Human Rights Defenders
INDONESIA: Minority religion and belief yet to be protected by government
1. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to draw the attention of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to the repeated violations taking place against minority religions and beliefs in Indonesia. In the last two years, congregations of Ahmadiyya, Christian, Gafatar, and even Muslim communities, have all been targeted.
INDONESIA: Judicial and legal systems have failed to address torture
1. The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to draw the attention of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to the fact that torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment continues to recur widely in Indonesia. Although Indonesia is a state party to the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), with the promulgation of Law No. 5 of 1998, torture remains routine, with only a few perpetrators being lightly punished.
INDIA: A country afraid to prevent custodial torture
Six years have passed since the lower house of the Indian Parliament passed the Prevention of Torture Act, 2010. The upper house of the Parliament, which reviewed the law after a broad consultation, recommended thorough revision of the law. Since then, the government has shelved the law and nothing has been heard about it since. Prohibition of torture is not the policy of the Indian State. The Prevention of Torture Act, 2010, is a riveting example of this. The law fails to meet standards, in adequately defining torture and in prescribing appropriate process of investigation of complaints of torture, rendering the law useless, even if it is passed. Policy makers […]
BANGLADESH: Justice institutions need fundamental change to address torture
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is making its Written Submission to the 31st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council when the Council is about to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. Adequate attention should be paid to Bangladesh’s policing system, which is guaranteed blanket immunity by the government, despite the most heinous crimes being committed by officers.
PAKISTAN: Government undermines the people’s Right to Life
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) would like to draw the UN Human Rights Council’s attention to the deteriorating human rights conditions in Pakistan, particularly regarding the right to life.
MYANMAR: A state that requires the foundations for justice institutions to be built to achieve a stable change
The Asian Legal Resource Centre congratulates the people of Myanmar for successfully and peacefully electing a democratic government through national elections held in November 2015. The country and its people are, however, for all practical purposes still under the influence of militarisation that has gripped the country since 1959. For instance, the people of Myanmar and their institutions do not have a memory of independent justice institutions. Concepts like presumption of innocence, right to silence, and independent adjudication of disputes have never been given a chance to take root in the country. Instead what is rooted is the dependence upon the patronage of the powerful, a character that is deeply […]
INDONESIA: No effective judicial process or remedy for victims of summary executions
1. Although Indonesia’s Constitution guarantees the right to life, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to inform the UN Human Rights Council that summary executions occur frequently in Indonesia. The targets are most often indigenous people and human rights defenders.