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.
Category: documents
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.
INDIA: Woeful implementation of welfare schemes responsible for high malnutrition among children
“Among children under age six years in areas covered by an anganwadicentre, one in four (26 percent) received supplementary food from an AWC, one in five received an immunization from an AWC, and one in six went to an AWC for a health check-up in the 12 months preceding the survey.”
ASIA: Situation of human rights defenders in China, Thailand, and Bangladesh
A Written Submission to the 31st Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre wishes to direct the attention of the Human Rights Council to the critical situation of human rights defenders in China, Bangladesh, and Thailand. While this Council is holding its 31st Regular Session, human rights defenders in these three countries are facing dire threats to their person and profession. Members of the Council, at least 290 lawyers are currently being held in detention in China, for nothing more than undertaking their professional responsibilities. Many have had their licences revoked. Almost all of them have been […]
NEPAL: At the occasion of the Universal Periodic Review NGOs call on Nepal to end impunity for torture and other serious human rights violations
The entrenched impunity for past crimes committed allows for ongoing human rights violations in the country. The stakeholder submission details Nepal’s systemic practice of torture in detention and the lack of implementation of recommendations by the Committee against Torture. Nepal has neither passed legislation that criminalizes torture, nor has it put a system in place that allows for meaningful redress or adequate compensation for torture victims.
ASIA: 4th Asian Alliance against Torture and Ill-treatment & for Fair Trial – Conference of Asian Parliamentarians
“Endemic torture in Asia portrays how medieval and underdeveloped are justice institutions in Asia. That there are only three countries in Asia that has criminalised the practice proves that even today prevention of torture is not state policy…”
ASIA: Abuse of laws and military courts to silence civil society
“a protective and enabling environment in law and practice for civil society” and put “an end to impunity for violations against defenders.”
BANGLADESH: Continued Enforced Disappearances need to be urgently addressed
We call for the return of the disappeared to their families, and remind the Bangladeshi authorities of their responsibility to fully investigate and ensure justice for these crimes. Bangladesh has ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC; therefore it legally recognizes enforced disappearance as an international crime, and is bound to ensure accountability.
CHINA: Crackdown on lawyers and other advocates violates international law obligations.
Date: 21 September 2015 HRC Section: Agenda Item 4 General Debate Speaker: Ms. Vani Selvarajah Joint Oral Statement to the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council Regular Session by Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Lawyers for Lawyers and the Asian Legal Resource Centre, NGOs with Special Consultative Status China: Crackdown on lawyers and other advocates violates international law obligations. Mr. President, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, Lawyers for Lawyers and the Asian Legal Resource Centre call on Council to address the ongoing wrongful arrests and detentions in China of lawyers engaged in human rights work. . Since the beginning of July over 284 human rights lawyers, their staff and […]