Think Centre
14 December 2016 11:03 am

Singapore

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.thinkcentre.org

Tel: (65) 9479 1906 Fax: (65) 6425 0709

About:

Established in 1999, Think Centre is an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Singapore. It aims to examine, advocate and raise awareness on civil society issues related to political development, democracy, rule of law and human rights. In the last decade and a half, Think Centre has been instrumental in initiating and facilitating local civil society’s involvement in human rights awareness and promotion.

Areas of work:

• Our work takes place at several levels i.e. Singapore, Southeast Asia region i.e. ASEAN, and where relevant also at the international level:
• Promotion and protection of human rights,
• Freedom of expression (FoE), freedom assembly and association (FoAA),
• Right to life (anti-death penalty advocacy), and
• Labour rights, rights of migrant workers and their families.

Main lines of work:

Promote awareness of various issues and concerns through traditional above and below the line media and more recently, new media (Think Centre and TFAMW). Building a network of like-minded groups in Singapore to collaborate on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), joint advocacy efforts and where possible, in supporting each other’s work. Networking on the death penalty issue at all possible levels i.e. Singapore/regional/international. Engaging ASEAN Governments in relevant ASEAN processes especially those relating to human rights and migrant labour.

One key area Think Centre works on at the national level since 2010 is nurturing the engagement between local civil society organisations (CSOs) with the UPR process, by levelling the space and providing a safe platform for the work on the stakeholders’ report as a collective and encouraging the development of a sustainable monitoring process. This was done in collaboration and with support from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) in Bangkok. Through this process, we aim to connect CSOs in Singapore to UNOHCHR, to raise awareness, collaborating on human rights training (e.g. understanding the UPR process, relevance of treaty bodies, and engaging United Nations Special Procedures complaint mechanisms),
and the promotion of mutual respect to empower all to work together.

Regional and international activities:

Think Centre is an active participant of the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN; Think Centre is the national focal point for the SAPA Working Group on ASEAN’s Taskforce on Human Rights; engages the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) at both the regional and national level; Think Centre is the convener and secretariat of the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW), with Mr. Samydorai Sinapan serving as the Convener-Consultant since 2006.

Think Centre is furthermore Co- convener of Singapore Working Group on the Death Penalty, Co-convener of Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) and member of World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Think Centre participates in Bali Democracy Forum and Gwangju Asian Human Rights Forum and connects with Asia Democracy Network (ADN).

Contact Person:

Dr. Adrian Heok Kay Heng (President), adrianheok@gmail. com; Ted Tan Hwee Ming (Executive Secretary), [email protected];  Soe    Min    Than (Treasurer), [email protected]; Sinapan Samydorai (Director of ASEAN Affairs),   [email protected]

Address:

P.O Box 640, Teban Garden Post Office, Singapore 916002 (Mailing address)