Dialogue July-September 2008, Volume 10 No. 1
Membership
of
There are also monitoring structures and human rights structures in Asian
– Pacific Region. Asian – Pacific Region is the largest and various region
of the world. It stretches from basin of Pacific ocean to Middle East, and
includes three most populated countries in the world and more than one half of
its population. The region is a cradle of the largest religions and cultures.
Today, it is the most dynamic region in economic sense. And together with it,
the region faces strong violation of human rights including discrimination of
vulnerable groups, armed conflicts and internal movement of citizens,
exploitation of children,
human
traffic. In some countries of the region, the national calamity is corruption.
Unlike other regions of the world, Asian – Pacific Region has no
intergovernmental structures, for example, regional court, committees and other
appropriate institutions which would realize protection and monitoring of human
rights. But over the last years, the progress is achieved here, expression of
which is establishment of national institutions of human rights. These
institutes are associated within the framework of Asian – Pacific Forum.
It was established in 1996 on the basis of membership of organization supporting
formation and strengthening of national institutes of human rights in countries
of the region. Headquarters of the Forum is
Membership in the Forum gives possibility to cooperate on the regional
basis due to wide range of services including trainings, increasing of potential
of the Forum’s members, exchange of workers and etc. The Forum achieved
noticeable successes in protection of individual rights and vulnerable groups in
the region. The Forum renders to its members practical assistance in protection,
monitoring and cooperation in human rights. Clients of the Forum are governments
and organizations of civilian sector. Taking of decisions is a prerogative of
the Forum Council, which includes representatives from every full member.
Executive board of the Forum is its secretariat. The Forum organizes
seminars and trainings, as well as assists development of jurisprudence in the
region through council of lawyers. Another activity of the Forum is representing
of recommendations and program for increasing of potential in certain matters on
request of separate member countries. The Forum receives financial support from
The circumstances that all its publications are issued in English
language assist availability of information base of the Center. The list of
documents is wide enough and includes national legislation, judicial materials,
reports extracts from newspapers articles, books and etc. The Center publishes a
lot of researches of human rights problems
iv. Moreover, every three months the
Center publishes magazine v. Training programs
on human rights for countries of South Asia and East Asian region are realized
regularly, for example, in
Its own role in the field of human rights protection is fulfilled by «Initiative
of Commonwealth for human rights» - independent international non-governmental
organization, mandate of which provides practical realization of human rights in
Commonwealth countries. It was founded in 1987 by several associations of
Commonwealth, which believed that member countries give not enough consideration
to the problem. «Initiative» was accredited under Commonwealth, and since 2002
has status of observer in Economic and Social Council of UN. The purpose of «Initiative»
is assistance to understanding of importance of Harar declaration, General
Declaration of human rights and other recognized instruments for human rights,
as well as appropriate domestic legislation. «Initiative» represents to each
summit Commonwealth reports on state of matters in the filed of human rights and
freedom, as well as publishes a lot of factual materials on abuses. These
materials are sent to secretariat, governments of member states and organization
of civil sector. Work of «Initiative» is some kind of accelerant for activity
of Commonwealth countries in the filed of human rights.
Significant event for Commonwealth was inclusion of 13 member countries
including
Appealing to Commonwealth countries, General Secretary noticed that
community successfully has developed mechanism of relation with these their
member countries, which permanently or seriously break principles of
Commonwealth. Member countries which will break these principles will be
excluded from the Council, concluded D. MacKinnon, and their membership will be
stopped. It concerns cases of illegal overthrow of governments.
Summarizing the above stated, it should be noted the following:
Participation of Asian Commonwealth countries in international organizations for
human rights should be recognized as positive fact. Possibility and mouthpiece
for discussion of current problems, analysis of trends, more objective appraisal
of general situation in the field of human rights appeared. Together with it,
absence of organization with jurisdiction in this field considerably reduces
level of protection of human rights.
References:
i Statement
by Mr. Ahmed Saleem, President of Human Rights Commission of
ii Seventh
Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institution 11th -13th November
2002, New
iii Regional
Workshop on Human Trafficking and National Human Rights Institutions:
Cooperating to End Impunity for Traffickers and to Secure Justice for Trafficked
People.
iv Human
Rights National Commission for the Review of the Working of the Constitution in
November 2000: Abolition of Death Penalty, SAHRDC’s submission to the National
Commission for the Review of the Working of the Constitution in November 2000;
Jamu and Kashmir Assembly Elections 2002. Democracy and Peace: The inextricable
link, 2004; Impact of War on Terrorism on the Human Rights Situation in
v Human
Rights Features // Quarterly Journal of the Asia Pacific Human Rights Network (A
Joint initiative of SAHRDC and HRDC).
vi Formed
in 1981. In 1982, African Charter of human and nationalities rights was accepted
in
vii See:
Permanent
viii Human
rights suffer from shortage of action, not legislation. 14 March 2007.
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