Ahrd-V6n2.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER 1 Contents Business and Human Rights Human Rights and Environmental Violations of the POSCO Project in Orissa, India ............................. 4 The Role of NHRIs in Business and Human Rights: the Case of NHRCK ................................. 7 FORUM-ASIA is a membership-based regional Kuala Lumpur Guidelines for a Human Rights human rights organisation committed to the promotion Approach to Economic Policy in Agriculture ................... 8 and protection of all human rights including the right to development. Democratisation ForUm-ASIA was founded in 1991 in manila Advancing Democratic Governance in Asia: and its regional Secretariat has been located in bangkok Challenges and Way Forward ............................................10 since 1994. At present, ForUm-ASIA has 47 member Despite Election, Burma's Sham Constitution organisations across Asia. Guarantees Military Control .............................................12 Taiwan: Violence Overshadows Big Change Head Office in Local Governance ............................................................15 rue de Varembé 1, 2nd Floor, 1202 Geneva, Ultra-Nationalism in Mongolia Switzerland and the LGBT Community ...............................................17 Democratization and the Role of HRDs Regional office in Korea .................................................................................. 19 room 12-01 12th Floor., Times Square building, Freedom of Expression in east Asia: 246 Sukhumvit road, between Soi 12-14, On-line Censorship Rising .................................................22 Klongtoey, Klongtoey, 10110 bangkok, Thailand Country Focus Tel: +66 (0)2 653 2940-1 Fax: +66 (0)2 653 2942 Victims wait for Justice .......................................................26 Disaster Highlights Discrimination of Religious [email protected] • www.forum-asia.org Minorities ............................................................................... 28 Asian Human Rights Human Rights Defenders DEFENDER Gendered Challenges in Defending Human Rights ........................................................................ 29 The Asian Human Rights Defender is the newsletter Irom Sharmila's Hunger Strike issued every four months by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). to Repeal the AFSPA ............................................................33 editors: edgardo P. legaspi • Yap Swee Seng UN Human Rights Council Review 2011 Tailoring the Human Rights Council’s Response Staff contributors: emerlynne Gil • Sejin Kim • to Situations of Violations of Human Rights ..................36 Sohoon lee • Surya deuja Survey on the UN HRC: Guest contributors: cheery Zahau • mary Jane real • Views from the Ground......................................................40 Wonsuk Park 7 Issues to Strengthen the Universal Periodic Review .................................................................... 42 Design and layout: Edgardo Legaspi and Wattana Sahaikaen cover design: Sohoon lee Advocacy On the Rules of Procedure, ASEAN Declaration of This publication is NOT for sale. It is distributed to our Human Rights and the Work Plan of AICHR .................44 members and partners only, and NOT for commercial 8 Points for the APF ............................................................46 purpose. contents of this publication may be freely quoted or reproduced, provided acknowledgement is made. Features Improved Socio-economic Conditions Promote Respect The views expressed in this publication may not for Cultural Rights ...............................................................47 necessarily reflect the position of FORUM-ASIA. Recognizing the Role of Defenders comments and contributions are welcome. in Strengthening and Building a Democracy ..................50 FORUM-ASIA wishes to thank the Swedish International development cooperation Agency (SIDA) for their support for this publication. 2 Vol. 6 No. 2 • december 2010 Message from the Secretariat Greetings from bangkok! I am happy to share with you the latest issue of the Asian Human Rights Defender. The collection of articles for our theme in this issue--building democracries-- aims to reflect the various continuing challenges relating to democratisation in the region. This issue has been a central concern of the organisation when FORUM-ASIA was founded some 20 years ago in 1991, when dictatorships dominated the helms of governments in the region. Today, Asian political systems are very diverse, and most suffer from a democ- racy deficit. These include single-party governments in china, laos, Singapore and Vietnam; monarchies in brunei and bhutan; and the military dictatorship regime in burma. on the other hand, countries with multi-party systems--such as Pakistan, bangladesh, India, Sri lanka, cambodia, malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines--are generally saddled by weak democratic institutions, deeply entrenched corruption and the lack of will to move forward towards genuine democratic reform. Even newly de- mocratised countries such as Nepal, Maldives, Indonesia and Timor Leste are facing serious difficulties in the transition period to restore peace and the rule of law while others are confronted with challenges of non-state actors such as fundamentalist groups and former armed groups. Naturally, attention has been on top-level concerns, rather than on the currents, concerns, forces and ideas that exist in societies. This issue of AHRD presents some of these issues that illustrate how complex democratisation is in practice: beyond ensur- ing free and fair elections (burma), effective and efficient local governance (Taiwan), the role of human rights defenders (Korea), discrimination (mongolia) and freedom of expression. In this context, we have seen it fit to draw attention to these various issues that ac- company democratisation. Organisationally, democratisation will be a central focus of ForUm-ASIA’s advocacies in its next three-year plan. As we begin our 20th year in 2011, we invite our members and partners to continue our reflection to improve our contribution towards democratisation in the region. With the other articles on our other advocacies at FORUM-ASIA, we hope this is- sue would, in one way or another, help you understand our work and mission to build Asian solidarity to promote and protect all human rights for all. Thank you to all our contributors. Yap Swee Seng Executive Director ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER 3 Business and Human Rights Fact Finding Report Human Rights and Environmental Violations of the POSCO Project in Orissa, India on June 22, 2005, the Pohang PoSco project villagers. Protests Iron and Steel company (PoS- co), having taken interest in the on 19 February 2008, a group of After the first fact-finding mis- abundant minerals of Orissa, India, 18 Korean civil society organisations sion, violence took place between signed a MOU (Memorandum of held a press conference in front of the two sides on 21 June, during which Understanding) with the Orissa gov- PoSco headquarters building. They some villagers caused the death of an- ernment to develop a 12 million ton pointed out that PoSco project was other villager who had fought against capacity steel plant, mining project, moving ahead without the villagers' the PoSco project. Since then, the and construction of related social participation and agreement, and police have continuously blocked the overhead capital based-facilities. asked PoSco to respond to this alle- anti-PoSco project villages. No gation. on the same day, the PoSco one, including State government of- As 3,500 out of the total 4,000 countered the group with their own ficials nor PoSco officials, has been acres required for the steel plant is press release. allowed to enter the villages. classsified as public land, PoSco and the Orissa government had as- To verify the counter-arguments on 26January 2010, anti-PoSco sumed that the project could be released by PoSco, Korean civil so- project villagers began raising their launched without any difficulty or ciety conducted the fact-finding mis- voices concerning the visit the of opposition. sion from 26 April to 6 may 2008. Korean President lee myung-bak to They found that the villages opposing the PoSco steel plant project area. Among the three Gram Pachayats the PoSco project did not demand Korean civil society also released a (representative bodies elected by the compensation of the land but wished statement demanding that Korean villagers) of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and to remain on the land on which the enterprises including PoSco should Gadakujang, a portion of the land villagers have been depending on for respect human rights while establish- was expected to be contributed for their livelihood, preserving their tra- ing their investment in India, giving the PoSco project. because of this, ditional way of living. In addition, it particular attention to President Lee's the villagers of Dhinkia started op- was discovered that Khandadhar, the visit to India. posing the PoSco steel plant proj- area targeted for the mining project ect. In November 2007, violence of PoSco, has been confronting se- by 15 may 2010, the villagers broke out between pro- and anti- rious environmental destruction. had continued their protest for four months had to face the violent sub- jugation by the police force who had This is a modifed version of the factfinding mission report of the Korean House of Inter- national Studies (KHIS). The original and full text version, can be downloaded at