SAARC members must address human rights issues

Experts stress the need to protect region from hunger, unemployment and violence.

ISLAMABAD: Experts at a seminar on Monday expressed concern over widespread and systematic human rights violations in the region.

Subodh Raj Pyakurel, Chairperson Asian Forum for Human Rights & Development (Forum-Asia) Bangkok and Surya Deuja, South Asia Programme Manager Forum-Asia, spoke at the seminar which was titled, “The Need for Inter-Governmental Human Rights Mechanism in South Asia” organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute here on Monday.

Pyakurel said South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries continue to affirm universal principles and values of human rights in a number of international instruments and summit declarations.

The association is obliged to respect those principles, including the right to health, education, food, water and development.

He recognised the need for Saarc to adopt a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach for the elimination of all forms of discrimination, including religious intolerance.

He stressed that Saarc must address pressing multilateral issues that include hunger, unemployment, and violence against women and children including climate change and its impact on the sub-region.

Pyakurel said Association of Southeast Asian Nations Member (Asean) states are leading the way with ground breaking initiative to create an Asean human rights body which could inspire Saarc countries to take initiatives
for the protection and promotion of human rights of South Asian people.

He also shared some of the positive developments during the 16th Saarc summit in Bhutan where establishing a regional human rights mechanism to help states promote and protect rights within their jurisdiction was considered.

Deuja made a presentation on ‘Establishing a Robust Regional Human Rights Mechanism in South Asia’ highlighting the status of human rights situation and Saarc initiatives in this regard.

He said regional mechanism would be helpful in situations when domestic institutions fail to uphold the law, or when they themselves are the violators.

In such a case, it may be necessary to seek redress beyond national boundaries.

Discussing the experiences from the existing regional human rights mechanism, he said regional legal frameworks gives  people the possibility of bringing their case in front of a regional body, providing that the country in question is part of this framework and all national remedies have either been exhausted or deemed inefficient. Considering the particular geographical, social and cultural context, the regional mechanism can be more effective than other international mechanism, he added. He gave an overview of the existing regional mechanism in Europe, America, Africa and the new sub-regional human rights body in Asean countries.

He mentioned that Asean charter based human rights body is an inter-governmental integral part of Asean which is consultative in nature and lacks protection mandate. It has ten members from Asean countries for a period of three years.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2010.