Oral Statement Delivered by Ms. Pooja Patel on Behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Thank you, Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA appreciates the High Commissioner’s updates to the Council on her mission to Sri Lanka, as well as her serious efforts to meet with a broad section of victims, civil society representatives, local [ Read more ]

Oral Statement Delivered by Ms. Pooja Patel on Behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Thank you Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA, with its member organizations in Cambodia ADHOC and LICADHO, appreciate the report of the Special Rapporteur (A/HRC/24/36), which takes stock of the implementation of recommendations made in his previous reports to this [ Read more ]

Oral Statement Delivered by Mr. Ahmed Adam on Behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Friday, 20 September 2013 Thank you, Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA notes that the government of Bangladesh made its written responses to recommendations by the UPR Working Group available well in advance in July. While we appreciate Bangladesh’s decision [ Read more ]

Oral Statement Delivered by Ms. Pooja Patel on Behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Tuesday, 17 September 2013 Thank you, Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA remains deeply concerned at the increased involvement of the Sri Lankan military in the civilian administration of the Northern and Eastern provinces.[1] Ongoing military presence has had disruptive [ Read more ]

The UN Human Rights Council will hold its 24th regular session (HRC-24) from 9 to 27 September 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. FORUM-ASIA interventions, statements and events during this session will appear on this page.

As the current General Assembly session draws to a close, the outcome of an inter-governmental process to “strengthen” the treaty bodies remains unclear as negotiations enter a third reading. This is despite the grave challenges facing the treaty body system, which in the words of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has reached its limits [ Read more ]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Male, 22 June 2013) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a regional human rights group with 47 member organisations from 16 countries across Asia, facilitated an international mission to the Maldives from 17 June to the 22 June 2013. The primary objective of the mission is to evaluate [ Read more ]

Human Rights Council Twenty-third session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Written statement* submitted by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status The Secretary-General has received the following written statement, which [ Read more ]

Thank you. The following statement is made on behalf of 77 NGOs. Mr. President, Civil society is deeply concerned by the current attacks on the format of the Working Group report. In this regard, we note with satisfaction the comments made by States earlier this morning on this issue. This document, the Working Group report, [ Read more ]

Thank you Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA and the ESCR-Net Corporate Accountability Working Group (CAWG) welcome the opportunity to address the report of the annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. Having participated in the first Forum, a joint letter of CSOs working collaboratively through ESCR-Net’s CAWG was sent to the UN Working Group on the issue [ Read more ]