FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALRC-ANM-001-2014
12 February 2014
An Announcement by the Asian Legal Resource Centre
The Asian Legal Resource Centre wishes to invite you for a side event on Human Rights in India to be held from 13:00 to 15:00 hrs, on 18 March 2014 in room number XXVII.
The side event will discuss human rights issues in India, and the efforts of civil society and state institutions. The panellists will highlight steps in, and concerns regarding, seeking and obtaining adequate redress to human rights violations, speaking to specific issues of gendered violence, livelihood options, and ethnic and religious violence, and to issues relevant to minority communities and issues of inclusive security, and concerns pertaining to human rights defenders.
Kindly reply to india@ahrc.asia confirming your attendance.
Chair: Mr. Bijo Francis, ALRC, Hong Kong
Francis is a lawyer from India, currently heading the Hong Kong based regional human rights organisation, ALRC. His work focuses on the development of legal self-reliance at the local level. Francis works closely with and support regional, national, and local groups. Through ALRC, Francis promotes the development of specific legal service and resource programmes for self-help and seeks the introduction and improvement of effective government legal services.
Speakers:
Dr. Angana Chatterji, Cultural Anthropologist and Human Rights Specialist
Chatterji focuses her academic and scholarly work on issues of gender violence, religion in the public sphere, and cultural survival. Chatterji’s recent publications include: Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India’s Present; Narratives from Orissa (2009); Land and Justice: The Struggle for Cultural Survival (forthcoming); a co-edited volume,Contesting Nation: Gendered Violence in South Asia; Notes on the Postcolonial Present (2012). Chatterji was a Member, Drafting Committee on Minimum Standards, Second World Congress on Psychosocial Restitution (2010), in Bogotá, Colombia.
Mr. Mihir Desai, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Desai is a human rights lawyer practicing in the Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court of India. Desai has focused on issues of: socioeconomic zones, security legislation, torture, and sexual assault and rape, and cases of survivors of the Gujarat massacre of 2002. Desai was co-editor of Combat Law, a human rights magazine, and is the author of various publications, and co-editor of the book Women and Law (1999).
Mr. Babloo Loitongbom, Human Rights Alert, Manipur, India
Loitongbom is a human rights defender, working in the northeastern state of India, Manipur. His work focuses on securing justice for victims of violence by state and non-state actors.
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About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia.