An Oral Statement to the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC)
Category: documents
WORLD: Draft Asian Declaration on right to justice – right to an effective remedy for violations of human rights in terms of Article 2 of the ICCPR
A supplement to the Asian Human Rights Charter launched in Gwangju, South Korea on 17 May, 1998 This declaration is to be launched on the 20th anniversary of launching of the Asian Human Rights Charter (A People’s Charter) The Asian Human Rights Commission (Hong Kong) and the May 18 Memorial Foundation (Gwangju, South Korea) are presenting herewith the working draft of the Asian declaration on the right to justice – right to an effective remedy for human rights violations in terms of Article 2 of the ICCPR with a view to encourage a wide discussion of the issues raised in this declaration. Together with this, we will also be presenting […]
ASIA: Working against torture poses threats to human rights defenders
An Oral Statement to the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President. Torture and ill treatment are institutionalised in the criminal justice architecture of most Asian states and is practiced as state policy. Crime investigation often begins and ends with a confession statement for which torture is used as a tool. Impunity to torture also promotes its use by the state to silence the voices dissent. A domestic law criminalising torture or the state being party to the CAT or the membership of a state in this Council are all irrelevant in these circumstances. Asian states like Bangladesh, Sri […]
SRI LANKA/WORLD: Josefina Bergsten’s documentary “The Activist”
The full documentary can be viewed HERE. Josefina Bergsten is a producer of several social documentaries. Some of these documentaries are, “Unjust – a story of three surviving widows of three human rights activists who were assassinated in their countries”. They were, Munir Said Thalib from Indonesia, who was assassinated by poisoning while travelling in an Indonesian Garuda Airlines to the Netherlands; Mr Somchai Neelaphaijit, a senior human rights lawyer in Thailand who was abducted while travelling in Bangkok and thereafter disappeared; and Jerad Perera a Sri Lankan torture victim who was pursuing his cases before the courts and who was murdered while he was travelling to work by bus.
INDONESIA: Recurring Torture Judicial System failed to address
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to inform the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regarding torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment occurring in Indonesia at this time. We note that torture cases are sill serious problems in Indonesia, despite the fact that the Government has ratified the International Convention against Torture in 1998. Additionally, Indonesia has enacted some regulations in favor of eliminating torture. Three examples are: Government Regulation No. 92 2015 regarding Compensation for Victims of Wrongful Arrest; Law No. 16 2011 on […]
PAKISTAN: Rising violence against children
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) would like to draw the UN Human Rights Council’s attention to the rise in violence against children in Pakistan. The Realization of Children’s Rights Index has ranked Pakistan as 159 out of 196 countries in the world in terms of child mortality, health and education facilities, and protection of child rights. Pakistan’s collective morality was recently shaken to its core by the rape and murder of a seven year old girl Zainab, from Kasur District in Punjab Province. The brutal murder initiated a […]
BANGLADESH-INDIA: Rising energy demand cannot be used for destroying people and their habitats
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to draw attention of the Human Rights Council to massive displacements and damage to habitats caused across Asia for meeting growing energy needs.
SOUTH ASIA: Asia’s children on the verge of severe malnourishment
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to draw attention of the Human Rights Council to the massive relapse of severe malnutrition among children in Asia, reversing the advances made over decades.
NEPAL: Repeated tenure extensions of transitional justice bodies without much progress, has been frightening victims and national and international communities
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to draw the attention of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to Nepal’s two transitional justice bodies. They are the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission for the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP). They were set up in 2015 to investigate conflict-era human rights violations. However, even after 3 years, they have not been able to make much progress and are mired in controversy.
PAKISTAN: Rights defenders remain at high risk
A Written Submission to the 37th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) would like to draw the UN Human Rights Council’s attention to the rise in violence against Human Rights Defenders in Pakistan. It is unfortunate that human rights defenders, bloggers and social activists have conventionally been considered an irritant to state policies in Pakistan, and are often targeted by the state as well as non-state actors. Fundamentalist groups working under the direct tutelage of the state often use the Damocles sword of blasphemy allegation against all critics of state policies. The judiciary has been […]