42nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 4: General Debate on human rights situations that require the Council’s attention
Oral Statement Delivered by Ahmed Adam
On behalf of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Tuesday, 17 September 2019
Mr. President, FORUM-ASIA calls for the Council’s attention on the human rights situations in several Asian countries.
We call on the Council to take urgent steps to address the human rights crisis in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir following the wide-ranging restrictions on communications, free movement, press freedom, and peaceful assembly, as well as arbitrary detention of thousands including children without any charge. We are deeply concerned by numerous reports of torture by security forces, lack of access to life-saving medication and other emergency services, night raids and mass detentions, sexual violence, loss of religious freedoms and obstruction or delaying of habeas corpus petitions of hundreds of people detained since the imposition of these restrictions on 4 August, 2019.
We are further concerned that the long-drawn process to verify the National Register of Citizens in the Indian state of Assam leaves over 1.9 million people at risk of being stateless. We call on India to ensure due process in verifying their status and prevent their deportation or detention.
The Council must pay close attention to the escalating violence and undue restrictions on peaceful protest in Papua and West Papua. We call on Indonesia to ensure the right of freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and access to the internet, and to protect the rights of human rights defenders such as Veronica Koman, legal aid and human rights organisations, media and others reporting on protests in Papua and West Papua to conduct their legitimate work.
We remain concerned over the thousands of deaths and complete impunity in the Philippine government’s ongoing ‘war on drugs’; the killings of human rights defenders; and increasing restrictions on civil society. We call on the Philippines to cooperate with the OHCHR on the report mandated by the Council at HRC 41, and to prevent and address all forms of reprisals against those cooperating with the UN. We urge the Council to take all appropriate steps to ensure justice and accountability and to prevent further violations.
Thank you.
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