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Interactive Dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva, 15 March 2007

Joint Statement delivered by Mr. Rukshan Fernando on behalf of FORUM-ASIA, Pax Romana-ICMICA/MIIC, International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), in cooperation with INFORM, Law and Society Trust (LST) and Rights Now

FORUM-ASIA, Pax Romana and IMADR welcome the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights contained in document (A/HRC/4/49). We especially thank the High Commissioner for her focus on the strengthened country engagements, which include supporting UN country teams through Human Rights Advisors and providing technical cooperation and advisory services to National Human Rights Institutions in the Asian region.

We also would like to take this opportunity to thank the Civil Society Unit of the OHCHR which has provided useful practical assistance and services for NGOs which do not have physical access to the OHCHR Headquarters in Geneva. In particular, many national and regional NGOs in Asia have benefited a lot from the regular and timely information service in terms of our planning and participation in the work of the Human Rights Council despite geographical distance and challenges.

We note that there are only two sub-regional OHCHR offices in Asia – Bangkok office for Southeast Asia and Suva for the Pacific– which covers less than 20% of the population in the Asia region. In this regard, we urge the High Commissioner to give a priority to setting up the sub-regional offices in South and Northeast Asia with a view to providing better assistance and services, which include protection of human rights defenders who are working under difficult situation or threats.

Meanwhile, we welcome the decision of the Council to hold the 15th Annual Workshop on Regional Arrangements in the Asia-Pacific Region. Asia is the only region which does not have a regional level of human rights protection mechanism. In this regard, we urge Asian governments in cooperation with the OHCHR to take special measures at the forthcoming workshop to speed up the process toward the establishment of such a mechanism.
Madame High Commissioner,

We appreciate the extensive work done by the OHCHR in Nepal which can be a model for other countries in conflict. We support the assessment of the High Commissioner on the situation in Nepal contained in document (A/HRC/4/97), and in this regard we strongly urge the government of Nepal to ensure the extension of the OHCHR’s mandate for two more years.

With regard to Sri Lanka, we affirm the High Commissioner’s recognition of the deteriorating human rights situation and the need to establish a robust and forward looking human rights mechanism and establish an OHCHR office. In this regard, we would be interested to whether the High Commissioner could undertake a visit to Sri Lanka, to explore modalities for such a course of action.

In the opening statement to the 4th session, the High Commissioner stressed that “armed conflict, whether internal or international, inevitably increases the threats to life and the vulnerability of civilians.” The 2005 World Summit specifically mentioned that the responsibility to protect civilian population falls within State obligations. It would be helpful to hear what initiatives have been and could be undertaken by the OHCHR to assist the Sri Lankan government to fulfil this responsibility.

Threats and intimidations to victims and witnesses remains a major obstacle in addressing impunity in Sri Lanka. While welcoming the commitment of the government of Sri Lanka to establish a victim and witness protection program, we would also be interested to know how the OHCHR could support the establishment of such a program as soon as possible, in line with international standards.

The Human Rights Council has a mandate to prevent violations and respond to emergencies as set out in paragraph 5 of the Resolution establishing the Council. We expect the Human Rights Council to live up to this mandate, and take effective action to address the grave human rights and humanitarian crisis in the region including Sri Lanka.