Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC), a FORUM-ASIA member in Nepal, published its Human Rights Yearbook 2009 in February this year. They noted that the year 2008 "began with the uncertainty hovering over the CA elections (Nepalese Constituent Assembly election)": 156 were killed and 352 abducted from the first day of the year to the election [ Read more ]

Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), a FORUM-ASIA member in Timor Leste, published a statement in February 2009, posing questions on the recent trials on defamation. Are journalists accountable for it or their employers? Do these trials limit press freedom? In a case, they said, "the press as an institution has been found guilty by the [ Read more ]

The Asian NGOs Network on National Institutions (ANNI) submitted reports to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights on 25 February 2009. Their reports are parallel to the meeting of the Sub-Committee, which will be held from 26-30 March 2009 in Geneva, [ Read more ]

Civil society members of the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers gathered in Bangkok on 20 February 2009 to develop its "Framework Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers". The framework is to be submitted to the labour ministers of ASEAN in May, when they gather for the ASEAN Senior [ Read more ]

Over 1,000 activists gathered from Southeast Asia and beyond to participate in the ASEAN Peoples' Forum in Bangkok, from 20 to 22 February 2009. At the end of the forum, participants presented a statement to the ASEAN government leaders, urging them to establish a human rights body with "teeth". Over 1,000 activists gathered from Southeast [ Read more ]

Civil society organisations are stressing the need for independence and effectiveness of the recently touted ASEAN Human Rights Body so that it can be a credible and realistic mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights.  PRESS RELEASE ASEAN must ensure independence and effectiveness of its Human Rights Body for it to be credible [ Read more ]

ASEAN’s response over the Rohingya boat people issue last month casts doubt over its seriousness to put people at the centre of its community building efforts, said the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). (Bangkok, 19 February 2009) – ASEAN’s response over the Rohingya boat people issue last month casts doubt over its [ Read more ]

Ten UN experts on human rights issues have released the statement below on 9 January, expressing their concerns over the "deteriorating human rights situation" in Sri Lanka. The government replied to the statement on the next day, saying that the experts "do not seem to realise that death and wanton destruction are serious" (For their [ Read more ]

The South Korean ambassador to the Philippines last year recommended the Philippine government to stop investigation on Filipino workers' deaths in South Korean companies in the country. As his letter was disclosed by a newspaper this month, civil society organisations in South Korea, including a FORUM-ASIA member Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS), issued a [ Read more ]

Four civil society organisations, including FORUM-ASIA member Philippines Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), released a report this month on their fact-finding mission conducted in Mindanao, south of the Philippines, in October 2008. Through interviews and discussions with local authorities and the people affected by the conflict between the government of the Philippines and the [ Read more ]