30th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff and the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances Joint oral statement by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Pax Romana, [ Read more ]

Blogging in South Asia can be a dangerous enterprise. In the last year, 4 bloggers have been killed in Bangladesh, while a number of others have been targeted across the region in various ways simply for expressing their views online. Both state and non-state actors share responsibility for this climate of fear and intimidation. A [ Read more ]

(Geneva, 17 September 2015) – Yesterday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released the long-awaited Report of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) on Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka and the Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). OISL investigated alleged gross violations and abuses [ Read more ]

The side event  at the 30th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council – “Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka” – will address the issue of enforced and involuntary disappearances in Sri Lanka. Enforced and involuntary disappearances are one of the major human rights challenges in transitional justice processes in Sri Lanka.  Mr. Luciano Andres [ Read more ]

To: Ambassadors of UN Human Rights Council Member States Subject: Open Letter on Sri Lanka Dear Excellencies, The dissolution of Sri Lanka’s Parliament on Saturday and the announcement of fresh Parliamentary elections has renewed international attention on the country. We take this opportunity to note that the ongoing 29th session of the UN Human Rights [ Read more ]

Freedom of expression was heavily suppressed under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Journalists, media personnel, freedom of expression advocates and human rights defenders, as well as their families, lived and carried out their work under threats of death, serious injury, arrest, interrogation, intimidation and being discredited publicly. In the period described in this report, at least [ Read more ]

There were obstacles and threats to Freedom of Association and many obstructions to Freedom of Assembly under the rule of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. During the 8th January 2015 elections, President Rajapakse was unseated by the current President Maithripala Sirisena. Since then the freedom of assembly and association has seen some improvement, however, challenges still [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA, together with Bytes for All, Association for Progressive Communications, Global Partners Digital, the Internet Democracy Project, KontraS and ICT Watch, recently organised a regional consultation on “Expression, Opinion and Religious Freedoms in Asia” on 3-5 June 2015, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Over 140 people, comprised of experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion [ Read more ]

28th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council Oral Statement Delivered by R Iniyan Ilango on behalf of Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Thursday, 5 March 2015 Thank you Mr. President. The High Commissioner’s Annual report notes the creation of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) as tasked by this [ Read more ]