This week Just Asia begins with India, where two young men were lynched on the suspicion of being child abductors. Niloptal Das and Abhijeet Nath were artists based in Goa, who had come to Assam to celebrate the Bohag Bihu festival and do some sight-seeing. A mob stopped their SUV at night, believing a child to be in the car, fuelled by various rumours doing the rounds on social media regarding child abductors. The two youth’s repeated entreaties of innocence fell on deaf ears, and they were beaten to death.
Next, more than six years after Nepal enacted the Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability Act of 2011, the law is hardly implemented, and caste based discrimination continues in different parts of the country. Just Asia speaks to Mr. Rem Bahadur Bishwokarma, Chairperson of the Jagaran Media Center, regarding the situation of the Dalits, as well as the post-constitution period and the question of implementation of the Caste Based Discrimination Act.
Moving to Indonesia, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has documented numerous cases of torture and ill-treatment conducted by the police over the past year. Even after 20 years of having ratified the International Convention against Torture, torture remains widespread in the country. Until today, the Indonesian police are still the most frequent perpetrators of torture. Torture is primarily committed to obtain confessions from suspects or even witnesses. Ratification of the torture convention has not brought the necessary regulations and accountability to investigate and prosecute complaints of torture.
Next, the gaining of ECOSOC status with the United Nations by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation is a significant advance made in the foundation’s pursuit of advocacy on issues of human rights, peace and the overall wellbeing of humanity, said Basil Fernando, director of policy and program development at the AHRC. Right Livelihood Award Laureates around the world have been working on various human rights issues on a daily basis, resulting in a cumulative amount of work. According to Fernando, the ECOSOC forum will
provide the Laureates opportunities to participate in the activities of the UN Forums, and influence the extent of their work.
Finally, the Urgent Appeals Weekly features two cases from Indonesia and the Philippines.
The bulletin can be watched online at www.alrc.asia/justasia and AHRC TV YouTube. We welcome both human rights feeds to be considered for weekly news bulletin, and your suggestions to improve our news channel. Please write to news@ahrc.asia. You can also watch our Weekly Roundup on Facebook.
