There have been more than 46 million cases, including more than 1.2 million deaths across the world[i] (up to 31 October 2020) since the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The continued prevalence of this global health emergency worldwide has been an unprecedented occurrence in recent [ Read more ]
19 December 2020 Today marks one year since the Government of the Maldives arbitrarily shut down the longest serving human rights group in the country, the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) and arbitrarily confiscated all of its funds. Since then, the Government has not reversed any of its unconstitutional actions related to the dissolution of MDN. [ Read more ]
FORUM-ASIA, in collaboration with ANNI, has released the Paris Principles Week, a campaign that will last all the week from 14 to 20 December 2020 – day on which we celebrated the 27th Anniversary of the Paris Principles – as part of the #HumanRights Month, where we talked about what the Paris Principles are and [ Read more ]
[Joint Statement] Thailand: Strengthen National Human Right Commission before Accreditation Upgrade (Bangkok/Geneva, 16 December 2020) — The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT) should continue to be accredited as ‘B status’[1] in the re-accreditation exercise by the Sub-Committee on Accreditation of Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI-SCA), said the Asian NGO Network [ Read more ]
Human rights defenders continue fighting for rights amid mounting challenges (Bangkok, 9 December 2020) — The COVID-19 pandemic has put human rights defenders further at risks, especially in countries where they are vilified for carrying out their legitimate work, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) said in conjunction with the International Human [ Read more ]
In response to Hong Kong’s sentencing of pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam yesterday, Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, FORUM-ASIA Executive Director said: Hong Kong should immediately and unconditionally release pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam. The continuing judicial harassment against them constitutes an immense violation of their fundamental rights to [ Read more ]
23 November 2020 We, the undersigned 10 human rights organizations, call on the Myanmar authorities to immediately end criminal proceedings against student activists and other individuals charged in relation to recent peaceful protest activities. We call on the Myanmar authorities to immediately and unconditionally release those detained for simply exercising their human rights. Authorities [ Read more ]
(Jakarta, 18 November 2020) ‒ The use of violence by police to disperse yesterday’s protest by the pro-democracy movement is unjustified, and fails to meet the international human rights standards Thailand has committed itself to, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), said in a statement today. Thai police, yesterday, dispersed pro-democracy movement [ Read more ]