Executive Summary On August 9 and 10, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) conducted the Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19: Addressing the Crisis in Southeast Asia, which was graced by over 75 participants from the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of [ Read more ]

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc throughout Southeast Asia. The health crisis has also catalysed the rise of authoritarianism, the over-securitisation of societies, and systemic efforts to suppress democracy, human rights, and fundamental freedoms in the region. Hence, it is critical to activate, strengthen and protect spaces and mechanisms for civil society to defend human rights [ Read more ]

From 2001-2020, SUARAM, our member from Malaysia, documented only three cases where actions were taken against police officers responsible for deaths in custody. With 12 deaths in custody recorded this year alone, SUARAM is having a call to action so that the IPCMC ensure cases of deaths in custody stop! The need to create an [ Read more ]

Date: 9 August 2021 Time: 1 – 4 PM (GMT+7) Platforms: Zoom, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Registration: bit.ly/FApandemicconference1 The impact of COVID-19 has severely hindered the fulfilment of human rights in the Asian region. Join us in a two-part online event where we discuss the trend of human rights violations and shrinking civic spaces in Asia [ Read more ]

(3 July 2021, Bangkok) ‒ The Government of Malaysia must end its intimidation of artists and human rights defenders and protect the freedom of expression, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) said in a statement today. On 2 July 2021, filmmaker Anna Har and cartoonist Amin Landak were questioned over an animated [ Read more ]

Pusat KOMAS, our member from Malaysia, has developed a series of short films to demonstrate the situations of discrimination that migrants suffer in the country. “Are migrants not human? Do we put ourselves in their situation? Come and watch the short film “Jaguh Rasis di Kampung” in collaboration with Pusat KOMAS and HAS Production to [ Read more ]

In conjunction with International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM, our member from Malaysia, launched a cartoon competition focusing on campaigning against torture of young people. The cartoon competition will launch the Malaysian Youth Action against Torture campaign and the theme of the competition is ‘Youth against Torture’. The cartoon [ Read more ]

Pusat Komas, our member from Malaysia, has launched a virtual run campaign for social cohesion and national unity, Race to Equality, in conjunction with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21st March 2021. The objective of the run is: To permeate past NGO/CSO networks and have ordinary citizens be proponents of [ Read more ]

April 26, 2021 The Association for Prevention of Torture (APT), Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) in Malaysia, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) and Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) in Thailand are launching a three and a half year cooperation, to foster national and regional synergies to prevent incommunicado detention and forced confession in the three [ Read more ]

(Bangkok, 24 March 2021) – Attempts to intimidate Malaysian lawyer and human rights defender (HRD) Charles Hector for his work amount to harassment with the ultimate aim of silencing the people he represents, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Front Line Defenders said in a joint statement today. Human rights lawyer [ Read more ]