34th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 4: Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention – General Debate Oral Statement Delivered by John Samuel On behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Wednesday, 15 March 2017 Mr President, FORUM-ASIA draws the Council’s attention to several deteriorating human rights [ Read more ]

Date: 3 March 2017 Time: 13:00 – 14:00 Venue: Room XXI, Palais Des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland Across the world, well-established principles and standards fundamental to maintaining a safe and enabling environment for civil society are being questioned and threatened in mature and consolidated democracies. In both the global North and global South, governments with vibrant [ Read more ]

Human Rights Council Thirty-fourth session Agenda item 3 Submitted on 21 February 2017 Although freedoms of expression, association and assembly are guaranteed in the Constitution of India, human rights defenders (HRDs) have faced incidents of killings, disappearances, harassments, arrests, and threats for exercising these freedoms. The government’s efforts to end this has been inadequate. A [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA’s member Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) published its 2016 Annual Report, focusing on the main human rights challenges and issues addressed, as well as the key activities undertaken by the organisation over the course of 2016. ‘Human rights are inherent, inalienable, interdependent, and indivisible, meaning they cannot be granted or taken away by none; [ Read more ]

(Bangkok/Kathmandu, 11 January 2017) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) strongly condemns the systematic crackdown on civil society organisations by abusing provisions of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA, 2010) by the Ministry of Home Affairs of India (MHA), and calls for the immediate withdrawal of all the cancellation orders. A [ Read more ]

(Bangkok/Kathmandu, 13 December 2016) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) strongly condemns the permanent cancellation of the license of the Lawyers’ Collective by means of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA, 2010) by the Ministry of Home Affairs of India, and calls for the immediate withdrawal of the cancellation order. The [ Read more ]

  Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) Odhikar The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT) Joint Press Release Khurram Parvez still illegally detained, despite High Court order for his release   Bangkok-Dhaka-Geneva-Paris-Quezon City, [ Read more ]

To, Justice (Retd.) H.L. Dattu, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, India. Subject – Intervene Urgently in FCRA Non-Renewal of Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns, End Systematic Attacks on HRDs and Ensure Freedom of Association in India Respected Chairperson of the Indian NHRC, We, the human rights defenders from 24 countries gathered in [ Read more ]

(Bangkok/Kathmandu, 15 November 2016) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) strongly condemns the cancellation of the license of the Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC) under the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) of 2010, and urges the Ministry of Home Affairs of India to withdraw the cancellation order immediately. On [ Read more ]

(Bangkok/Kathmandu, 4 November 2016) – The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is deeply concerned over the Government of India’s decision to black out NDTV India, a leading Hindi language news channel, for a day. With an unprecedented decision, the inter-ministerial committee of the Union Ministry of Information Broadcasting (IB Ministry) ordered to [ Read more ]