Date: Tuesday, 16 March, 2021
Time: 2 PM – 3 PM (CET) / 8 PM – 9 PM (BKK)
7 PM – 8.30 PM (ICT)/ 1 – 2.30 PM(CET)
Venue: Zoom / Facebook Live and Youtube Live via Minority Rights Group International
Registration: https://bit.ly/3llCCMF
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Speakers:
- Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Alice Wairimu Nderitu, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
- Haroon Baloch, Digital Rights Researcher Bytes for All Pakistan
- Farah Mihlar, Lecturer, University of Exeter & Sri Lanka Minority Rights Campaigner
- Shakuntala Banaji, Professor of Media, Culture & Social Change, LSE
Moderated by Joshua Castellino, Executive Director, Minority Rights Group International
Organised by FORUM-ASIA, Minority Rights Group International, The South Asia Collective, Article 19, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), this UN side event at HRC46 aims to talk about preventing & countering hate speech against minorities in South Asia.
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About the organisers:
- The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is a Bangkok-based regional network of 81 member organisations across 21 Asian countries, with consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and consultative relationship with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. Founded in 1991, FORUM-ASIA works to strengthen movements for human rights and sustainable development through research, advocacy, capacity-development and solidarity actions in Asia and beyond. It has sub-regional offices in Geneva, Jakarta, and Kathmandu. forum-asia.org
- Minority Rights Group International is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) with an international governing Council that meets twice a year. We have consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and observer status with the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. It campaigns worldwide with around 150 partners in over 50 countries to ensure that disadvantaged minorities and indigenous peoples, often the poorest of the poor, can make their voices heard. minorityrights.org
- The South Asia Collective are a group of human rights activists and organisations that dream of a just, caring and peaceful South Asia. They came together in December 2015 to document the condition of the region’s minorities – religious, linguistic, ethnic, caste and gender, among others – hoping this would help in bettering outcomes for South Asia’s many marginalised groups. They call ourselves the South Asia Collective. They have since been able to rally other like-minded groups and platforms to their cause. thesouthasiacollective.org
- Article 19 works for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination. They do this by working on two interlocking freedoms: 1) The Freedom to Know concerts the right to demand and receive information by power-holders for transparency, good governance and sustainable development; 2) the Freedom to Speak concerns everyone’s right to express and disseminate opinions, ideas and information through any means, as well as to disagree with, and question power-holders. ARTICLE 19 speaks with one voice, through courts of law, through global and regional organisations, and through civil society wherever we are present. article19.org
- International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is composed of 60 eminent judges and lawyers from all regions of the world, the International Commission of Jurists promotes and protects human rights through the Rule of Law, by using its unique legal expertise to develop and strengthen national and international justice systems. Established in 1952 and active on the five continents, the ICJ aims to ensure the progressive development and effective implementation of international human rights and international humanitarian law; secure the realization of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights; safeguard the separation of powers; and guarantee the independence of the judiciary and legal profession. icj.org
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) works with 200 member organisations to end torture and ill-treatment, assist victims, and protect human rights defenders at risk wherever they are. Together, OMCT makes up the largest global group actively standing up to torture in over 90 countries. We work to protect the most vulnerable members of our societies, including women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants and other marginalized communities. To achieve this, they advocate with governments to change or implement their laws and policies, we help victims seek justice and strive to hold perpetrators to account. Because torture can never be tolerated, and human dignity is not negotiable. omct.org
