Civil society organisations continue to plead to the UN officials to stop the human rights violations in Tibet. They sent a letter on 19 March to the UN Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures Gay McDougall to “express concern” in a statement over the present human rights violations in Tibet and seek a [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA presented, along with seven other NGOs, a statement on the Review, Rationalization and Improvement of Mandates: Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar. Although the mandate was established 16 years ago, the statement notes that there have been similarities in the recent reports, such as a “lack of cooperation on the [ Read more ]

Ten non-governmental organisations, including FORUM-ASIA, presented a statement calling on the Chinese government to stop the "merciless repression" on Tibet, on 14 March 2008 at the 7th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The statement also addresses the council to encourage the government to strengthen its relation with the envoys of the Dalai Lama. [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA presented, along with four other NGOs, a statement in an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar on 13 March at the 7th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The joint statement expressed “regret” that “his efforts have brought very little improvements to the human rights [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA presented, along with two other NGOs, a statement in an interactive dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 7 March at the 7th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The statement expresses the three organisations’ regret at the slow pace of establishment of a regional human rights mechanism in Asia. [ Read more ]

Eight non-governmental organisations presented their joint statement in the interactive dialogue with Hina Jilani, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders (HRDs), at the 7th session of the UN Human Right Council in Geneva. The organisations expressed their concerns over the risks human rights defenders in Asia face [ Read more ]

With other eight non-governmental organisations, FORUM-ASIA submitted a statement on discrimination based on work and descent on 20 February, to the UN Human Rights Council, for its Seventh regular session. The final report submitted by the UN experts on the issue under the former UN human rights body “lacks a forum for its consideration and [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA submitted a statement titled “Killings and Disappearances in Sri Lanka” on 20 February, to the UN Human Rights Council, for its Seventh regular session. The statement calls for the end of the present crisis in the country, urging the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to establish a “field presence at [ Read more ]

The civil society representatives gathered in Jakarta for the conference “The Role of ASEAN Civil Society in Supporting Security, Human Rights and Democracy in Burma” issued the “Jakarta Declaration on Burma” on 7 March. The declaration calls on governments and peoples of ASEAN to reject the constitutional referendum announced by the military junta.  A civil [ Read more ]

The 12th General Election in Malaysia on 8 March resulted in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s  loss of its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969. Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), a FORUM-ASIA member, issued a statement on 10 March saying that “the election was still far from a clean and fair one”, and urging [ Read more ]