The Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers, its regional partners, and their national network members have agreed on a list of topics as the starting point in the development of a draft Framework Instrument. They have called on governments to act swiftly in appointing representatives to the ASEAN Committee to Implement the Declaration on the [ Read more ]

People’s Watch, a human rights organisation in India, along with other human rights campaigners embarked on a 10-day march for long-overdue justice for victims of the Special Task Force in the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu who endured illegal detention, torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, disappearances and humiliation in the state-sanctioned hunt for the [ Read more ]

The Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), a FORUM-ASIA member in Timor Leste, claims that the establishment of a military court in the country has little legal basis. In a press release issued on 25 April, they said: “What standard of justice would be applied in a separate legal forum adjudicating cases of armed forces misconduct?” [ Read more ]

Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta announced he would grant presidential pardons to more than 80 convicted criminals. The Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), a FORUM-ASIA member in the country, warns that his decision may “lead to the further entrenching of a culture of impunity”. The previous week saw Timor Leste rejoice at the safe return [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA has urged Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to suspend the recent blanket order issued by the Supreme Court confirming the death penalty sentences of 100 Afghan prisoners on Wednesday, 16 April, 2008. FORUM-ASIA believes that this not only violates the right to a fair trial, but it also believes that the death penalty is a [ Read more ]

Civil society organisations have called for the dissolution of the Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship saying it does not reflect the principles of justice and was instead designed to eliminate judicial processes for the perpetrators of crimes from the Indonesian military, which committed crimes against humanity and violations of human rights in Timor [ Read more ]

Last week, two important events concerning human rights (and politics) in the Philippines were under way. First is the Supreme Court deliberation on the motion for reconsideration filed by the Senate. Second is the Universal Periodic Review of the human rights record of the Philippines being undertaken by the Human Rights Council of the United [ Read more ]

SUARAM, a FORUM-ASIA member in Malaysia, has expressed alarm at the Malaysian government’s refusal to renew the publication permit of Tamil-language paper Makkal Osai, saying the decision was highly arbitrary and in disregard of press freedom. SUARAM, a FORUM-ASIA member in Malaysia, is alarmed by the Home Ministry's refusal to renew the publication permit of Tamil-language paper [ Read more ]

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The People's Forum for the UPR, a coalition of more than 150 Indian civil society groups and human rights defenders, expressed disappointment at the half-truths and obfuscations in the responses of the Government of India to critical comments and questions from members and observers of the Human Rights Council. The People's Forum for the UPR, [ Read more ]