Thailand: Respect free speech and right to peaceful assembly (Jakarta, 13 August 2020) ‒ The Government of Thailand should end its intimidation and judicial harassment of pro-democracy activists, and respect the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, said Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Asia Democracy Network (ADN) in a [ Read more ]

JOINT STATEMENT Civil Society Organizations Call for the Draft Law on Public Order to be Immediately Discarded Phnom Penh, 13 August 2020 – We, the undersigned national and international organizations and communities, call on the Royal Government of Cambodia (“RGC”) to immediately discard the repressive draft Law on Public Order and uphold its obligations under international human rights law. The draft law [ Read more ]

Civil Society Groups Welcome Irene Khan as the New Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression The undersigned civil society organisations congratulate and welcome Irene Khan to her new role as Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We take this opportunity to express our strong support [ Read more ]

Media Alert For Immediate Release 30 July 2020 Cambodia: Appeal Court set to rule on Southeast Asia’s first transboundary class action into human rights abuses Will the Thai courts uphold Business and Human Rights standards as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and The National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights? [ Read more ]

Sri Lanka: Human Rights Under Attack Lawyers, Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Arrested, Threatened, Intimidated 29 July 2020: The Sri Lankan government should end the targeted arrests, intimidation and threats against the lives and physical security of lawyers, activists, human rights defenders and journalists, 10 international human rights organizations said today. A campaign of fear [ Read more ]

HRC44: Joint NGO full written end of session statement The 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council began with China’s imposition of legislation severely undermining rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. Within days, there were reports of hundreds of arrests, some for crimes that didn’t even exist previously. We welcome efforts this session by [ Read more ]

44th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Oral Statement Delivered by Ahmed Adam On behalf of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Tuesday, 14 July 2020 Madam President, FORUM-ASIA welcomes the Special Rapporteur’s update. [ Read more ]

20 July 2020 We, the undersigned 27 civil society organisations, are deeply concerned with the introduction of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. We call on the Governments of China and Hong Kong to repeal this law, which severely clamps down on the rights of the Hong Kong people. A year after protests against [ Read more ]

Joint Oral Statement[1]: 44th session of the Human Rights Council Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Delivered by Budi Tjahjono 10 July 2020 Thank you, Madam President. As the Special Rapporteur’s report demonstrates,[2] the space for Sri Lankan civil society is rapidly [ Read more ]

44th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises Oral Statement Delivered by Ahmed Adam On behalf of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Friday, 10 July 2020   Madam President, [ Read more ]