The Founding of AHRC
The idea of setting up the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) was put forward by the “Asian Lawyers for Justice and Human Rights” consultation held in October 1983. The consultation was organized by the International Affairs desk of the Christian Conference of Asia. It involved about 40 participants from 12 Asian countries, including judges, lawyers, law academics, human rights activists and church leaders. In the consultation, participants raised serious concerns about the consistent and systematic violations of human rights in Asian countries, especially of women, the poor and disadvantaged. The participants made the following observations about human rights in Asia:
1) In most Asian countries repression had become an integral part of the state policy and apparatus. Basic human rights were being denied on the pretext of “national security ideology”, or sometimes so-called development. Abject poverty confronted the vast majority of women, men and children in Asia.
2) The rapid militarisation of Asian societies due to increased social tension and internal armed conflicts was profound and resulted in greater repression.
3) The erosion of the rule of law in Asia had resulted in the
denial of avenues for redress. The executive had steadily encroached on the powers of the legislature and also those of the judiciary. There was an increase in the numbers of decrees, proclamations, martial law orders and regulations. Judicial functions were being usurped by specially constituted tribunals and summary military courts.
At the same time, the governments of the region had repeatedly rejected any initiative to establish any form of regional intergovernmental human rights mechanisms.1 To address the worsening situation in Asia, there was a compelling need for various groups, especially jurists and human rights advocates, to become involved in the regional struggle for human rights.
The setting up of AHRC was particularly valuable in three ways. First, it provided a regional human rights mechanism within Asia. Secondly, it represented an important initiative on the part of Asian people to take responsibility for dealing with our own problems rather than only relying on international and Western bodies. Thirdly, it provided a means — in some instances — of countering the arguments of certain governments that the investigations carried out by Western organizations were not credible as they failed to recognize the Asian perspective. The Commission, by fulfilling all three of these functions, was seen to add an important new dimension to the struggle for human rights within Asia.
After the consultation in October 1983, the Christian Conference of Asia International Affairs desk took charge of doing the preparatory work for setting up AHRC and ALRC. A preparatory group met in May 1984 to work out the operational details. After completion of the preparatory work the members of the Executive Committee of AHRC/ALRC met in Tokyo in December of 1984 for the inauguration. The Executive Committee was composed of prominent jurists and advocates in the region, such as Senator Jose W. Diokno from the Philippines and Justice P.N. Bhagwati from India. Finally, in April of 1986, AHRC and ALRC were registered in Hong Kong and established a joint secretariat.
In 1987 and 1988, AHRC organized several fact-finding missions to investigate human rights violations in the region, such as the fact-finding mission to Singapore after the arrest and detention of a group of social activists in 1987. Two consultations were held by ALRC, one on emergency regulations in Asia, another on the situation of Asian fishermen. However, in 1989 and 1990, because of a lack of staff, AHRC and ALRC could not carry out their normal functions.
At the end of 1990, the work of AHRC and ALRC was reactivated under limited staff and resources. From 1991 to 1994, AHRC brought out newsletters and some booklets to arouse concerns on human rights violations and issues in Asian countries. Campaigns and fact-finding missions were organized to arouse regional and international concern on the human rights violations in countries, such as Burma and Cambodia. In 1993, the AHRC initiated a process to draft an Asian human rights charter, which reflected the desire and the aspirations of Asian people for human rights, involving various local NGOs and individuals dedicated to human rights struggles in Asian countries.
Since the second half of 1994, the work of AHRC and ALRC has been revived, with the recruitment of Basil Fernando as the Executive Director, and a gradual increase in the number of staff.
The changes that then took place were based on certain assumptions about the situation in Asia. ASEAN had developed as a separate economic and political block. The ASEAN conception of development left little room for the concerns of the poor. The political ideology was one national security laws, which in essence meant suspension of democratic governance and limiting of the rule of law. The internal situation in many countries had become so controlled that it was essential for human rights groups to find ways for solidarity with other groups in Asia in order to defend basic rights. The situation was even worse in South Asian countries, where immense poverty and authoritarian government were rampant. The result was large-scale extra-judicial killings and civil wars. In South Asia too the local human rights groups were very much repressed and there was a need for a regional group take over many functions of support to local groups.
Meanwhile, one very important factor had great potential to help to develop support for the human rights movement: tremendous developments in communications. Most human rights solidarity work was conducted at snail speed by ordinary mail and sometimes by fax. Fax was rather expensive too, given the limited budgets of NGOs. Hong Kong offered the advantage of electronic mail facilities, particularly email, as a less costly means of communication with a very great speed. AHRC was determined to put this to maximum use and to find ways to overcome the difficulties arising from it. AHRC is today very much a product of this decision.
Greater speed in communication meant greater proximity to our partners in various part of Asia. Such proximity gives rise to many new demands from those who are victims of human rights violations. If an organization is unable to deal with this it loses usefulness to the partners. To respond adequately, AHRC needed regular staff attending to various tasks, and constant intellectual alertness to reconsider its strategies. AHRC has tried its best to achieve these things.
One very important way to keep in contact with local groups is to bring them together from time to time. Since 1995 AHRC has conducted over 50 consultations with participants from the region, and has participated in many more, as well as in monitoring and fact-finding missions. The lessons from these experiences have been shared with much larger audiences through direct circulation of materials, and through the media. This large number of consultations has helped AHRC build a big network of persons throughout the region who have come in direct contact with each other. This group forms the basis of our local work, and with its help the network can be expanded through various communication facilities.
Principles Guiding AHRC Programmes
- A victims-directed approach must be combined with structural reforms needed to prevent human rights abuse and to promote rights;
- Protest work must be combined with a community-based approach. In this, building of a support base among religious groups will be given priority;
- A UN-directed approach must be combined with regional and country-based human rights promotional activities;
- Human rights promotion must be combined with promotion of democracy and the rule of law;
- Poverty eradication, gender equality, caste, indigenous peoples’ and minorities’ rights must be brought into all programmes.
AHRC Objectives
- Protect and promote human rights by monitoring, investigation, advocacy, and solidarity actions;
- Work towards social equality, with particular emphasis on social groups who have suffered discrimination in the past, such as women and children and minorities, including Dalits;
- Develop a speedy communication system using modern communication techniques to encourage quicker actions to protect human rights, redress wrongs and prevent violations in future;
- Develop appropriate modes of human rights education and especially promote the folk school approach;
- Promote appropriate legal and administrative reforms, particularly judicial and police reforms;
- Develop close links with the victims of human rights violations to promote solidarity with victims, to preserve the memory of the victims and to organize significant commemorations linking large sections of people for the purpose of eliminating human rights violations;
- Participate in peace making, reconciliation, conflict resolution, truth commissions and international tribunals;
- Develop cultural and religious programmes for the promotion of human rights;
- Encourage ratification of UN instruments and development of local legislation, law enforcement and judicial practices in keeping with such instruments, and assist the formation and functioning of national human rights commissions;
- Promote the United Nations, particularly its human rights agencies, and assist organisations and persons in Asia to utilize these agencies for better promotion and protection of human rights in Asia;
- Work towards the development of regional human rights mechanisms and encourage people’s participation in this process by promoting the Asian Human Rights Charter.
