Asian Human Rights Commission

(AHRC) is pleased to witness growing awareness of human rights in Asia on this International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, 2000. Regrettably, burgeoning demands for recognition of human rights in the region have not lead to a corresponding growth in implementation: throughout most of Asia respect for human rights remains low and in a number of countries glaring violations persist. Victims’ rights to competent judicial, administrative or legislative remedies have not been respected in most countries and only partially in others. Most Asian states confine respect for human rights-whether civil and political rights or economic, social and cultural rights-to mere declarations and take virtually no steps towards enforcement. Often they obstruct domestic and international efforts to develop effective remedies. AHRC makes the following observations on particular issues.

Dalits

The semihuman conditions of the nearly 200 million Dalits in India and Nepal remain a central human rights concern for Asia. Forced into employment that destroys their human dignity, for the lowest pay and under very harsh conditions, or as bonded labourers, they are deprived of the right to own land, are denied the right to real education and health and are constantly subjected to torture and degrading treatment. Dalit women are frequently raped and exposed to other atrocities, including mutilation and murder, as punishment for attempts to assert their rights. Hostile authorities have failed to enforce constitutional safeguards and other forms of legal protection, such as the Prevention of Atrocities Act. Meanwhile, Brahmin-backed militants are increasingly agitating for restoration of the Hindu social order in which the caste system was the central component. Even the limited concessions earlier won by Dalits are now under serious threat. External assistance is subject to severe restrictions, such as those applied to religious missions, under various pretexts. While world opinion has moved further against this slaverylike and apartheid-like practice, some Indian government spokespersons have attempted to obstruct its discussion at the World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance to be held in August 2001. Regardless, the time has come for both South Asian and world opinion to take a bolder position for the abolition of this heinous practice.

Police, Judiciary and Democratisation

Abuses in many Asian policing systems are closely connected to political control. In almost all South Asian States, civic organisations have expressed serious concerns about the increasing influence that politicians have over the police. Most common are complaints that the police seem unable to prevent abuse of electoral processes. The police-perceived as being manipulated by politicians-have lost public confidence, and their more professional sections have become demoralised, realising that their integrity and impartiality is not respected by the State. The police also face a major setback when merged with the military. Because of past or present armed conflicts, the police in several countries have taken on military functions under national and public security laws and other emergency legislation; civilian policing suffers and even its memory may be lost, such as in former socialist countries. Recent attempts at democratisation in Cambodia have not yet led to the separation of military and police functions. In Burma, the police are subordinate to the armed forces. In several parts of Pakistan and India, religious fundamentalist groups have acquired influence over the police to directly or indirectly support militant activities. In other places, the police engage in counterinsurgency operations and are endowed with extra-ordinary powers that change their policing mentality.

The judiciary in several countries has also come under public criticism. The Malaysian judiciary has experienced much local and international condemna-tion in the wake of the Anwar Ibrahim case and other politically motivated legal action. In Singapore too, there is no possibility of challenging the executive on any matter of political sensitivity. The authorities in both these countries still speak of ‘Asian values’-a synonym for control of social dialogue by the executive-as opposed to human rights. In Pakistan, the judiciary has long been under attack by the executive. Since the military takeover, its credibility has suffered further as it is in no position to uphold the constitutional order. In Cambodia, although the Constitution recognises separation of powers, in practice, there is none. Only provincial courts and appellate courts exist with very limited authority; meanwhile, the Supreme Court remains dysfunctional. A more vigorous exercise of jurisdiction over fundamental rights available to the judiciary under the Constitution-and expansion of these constitutional powers-is needed. In other former socialist countries, such as China, Vietnam and Laos, problems in the judiciary are also closely linked to the non-recognition of the separation of powers.

Sri Lanka’s degenerating police and judicial systems are of special concern. Deprived many powers by emergency regulations and other special legislation, the Sri Lankan judiciary’s ability to intervene on important human rights issues has been greatly reduced. At times, even the disposal of dead bodies has been allowed without reference to the judiciary. This Oct. 25 young men were massacred at a rehabilitation detention centre. The National Human Rights Commission’s preliminary report states that 60 armed policemen were present at the time and that they shot two detainees trying to escape their attackers. Clearly, the massacre was carried out in connivance with the policemen present who were acting under instructions from higher officers. While amounting to a crime against humanity, the incident has been investigated as though purely a question of individual murders, and the burden of proof has been shifted to the survivors. The State is obliged to conduct proper criminal investigations and take prompt action to prosecute offenders. However, judging from the Sri Lankan government’s treatment of more than 30,000 cases of disappearance between 1988-1992, and thousands more thereafter, no satisfactory prosecutions are likely for reasons of ‘insufficient evidence.’ AHRC has on several occasions pointed out that this dismissal highlights the failure of criminal investiga-tions in Sri Lanka: perpetrators of grave human rights abuses now act with assurance that no serious inquiries will follow. A sophisticated system exists to protect the perpetrators while none exists for the victims, making a mockery of justice and human rights.

The denial of justice and abuse of police power in Sri Lanka is often justified by reference to the ongoing civil war and human rights abuses committed by insurgents of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, under no circumstances can the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, such as the October massacre and the disappearance campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s that continue up to the present day, be justified. Unless a serious attempt is made to change Sri Lanka’s existing situation, the trend is towards far worse abuses in the future. AHRC has drawn the attention of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, other U.N. bodies and the international community to this situation. AHRC renews its call for the U.N. high commissioner to establish a mission in Sri Lanka to monitor human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.

Political and military forces have also played a crucial role in instigating violence in Indonesia. This year relatives and former associates of victims of the 1965-1966 mass purges of alleged communists that brought former President Suharto to power started uncovering mass graves from that period. Evidence from these sites must now become part of formal investigations by the National Human Rights Commission, which earlier was unable to prosecute the perpetrators due to legal limitations. Relatives of victims have demonstrated that the Indonesian people must expedite the process for judicial, police and military reforms through their calls for an international tribunal to examine these violations. The timely establishment of an international tribunal or similar agency could bring an atmosphere of reconciliation to Indonesia and restore people’s confidence in the justice system. It may also help defuse escalating crises in some areas of Indonesia: ongoing disappearances and other human rights violations in Aceh, for instance, have been recognised by Indonesia’s leadership and the international community, but little has been done to curb the violence. The U.N. high commissioner’s office was also very slow in responding to AHRC’s call for intervention to protect the lives of people in the Maluku Islands during clashes this year. International support for judicial, police and military reforms in Indonesia will remain a key concern in the next few years. Reformers will face strong resistance from yet powerful agencies in the military. However, an independent judiciary with the power to act on military and police violations of human rights will be particularly essential for Indonesia’s democratisation.

Torture

Human rights groups in many Asian countries report on widespread torture and inhuman and degrading punishment. Police investigations are invariably directed towards obtaining confessions, largely due to the absence of advanced criminal investigation systems and age-old habits favouring tough methods. Confessions are used as evidence despite common knowledge that in many instances they are not given voluntarily. LICAHDO, a leading Cambodian human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO), reports that more than 25 percent of cases before the courts in the country rely on confessions obtained through the use of physical or mental pressure. Although South Asian laws of evidence prevent the admission of confessions during criminal trials, for special regulations, such as prevention of terrorism laws, however, exceptions are made. In a legal culture where the abuse of police power is the norm, such admissions create suspicion oft a fair trial itself. There have been attempts in India to make only confessions to superior police officers admissible as evidence, but this would have disastrous effects. Few Asian countries provide safeguards for the accused, such as making videos of police interviews and allowing lawyers to be present throughout inquiries.

In Burma, not only do prisoners lack any safeguards-widespread torture and inhuman treatment are believed to occur in military intelligence detention centres and prisons-but also people in areas of the country subject to counterinsurgency operations are constantly exposed to cruel and inhuman treatment by the security forces. Reports indicate that people from communities in these regions are tortured and abused when arbitrarily detained, when conscripted into forced relocation and labour programmes and when entire populations are perceived as obstacles to military objectives.

Refugees

South Asia has the world’s fourth largest concentration of refugees-a rough estimate is 2.5 million people. Most are from Afghanistan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Burma. The main South Asian recipient countries are Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Thailand also houses hundreds of thousands of people from Burma. In addition, there is an estimated 5 million internally displaced people. Although no South Asian States are signatories to the U.N. Convention on Refugees, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) has offices in almost all of these countries, but these offices only deal with refugees as defined under the convention, constituting a small fraction of the total number of displaced people. Most asylum-seekers and displaced people in South Asia depend on local NGOs and charitable organisations for protection and relief.

Despite the complementary roles played by UNHCR and NGOs, the two sides have failed to develop a good working relationship. The major cause of friction is the UNHCR’s bureaucratic approach towards refugee determination, which applies an outdated definition of refugees and individual status determination procedure, resulting in about 60 percent of asylum-seekers being rejected. In South Asia, where masses of people are being evicted by ethnic violence and governments are failing to protect basic rights, this procedure has proved patently inadequate. However, UNHCR has rebuffed all attempts to make the determination process more responsive. UNHCR offices generally function on limited information without adequate staff for independent research and investigation, tending to depend on the media and government sources. Even when engaging investigators or interpreters, they usually select people close to governments.

From 1993 to 1996, against the advice of NGOs, the UNHCR office in India agreed to interview Sri Lankan Tamil refugees on board the vessels on which they were arriving with a view to ‘voluntary’ repatriation. Conditions in the Indian-run refugee camps had been made so inhospitable that the refugees had no option but to agree to return. Again, in 1993-1994, despite reports that Bangladeshi officials were forcibly repatriating Rohingya Muslim refugees from Burma, UNHCR continued to certify the repatriation as voluntary. NGOs reported that UNHCR withheld relevant information from the refugees about the registration process that was used for repatriation. UNHCR is also averse to democratising refugee camp management systems and has failed to integrate women, who make up the majority of the refugees, into policymaking and management systems for relief and rehabilitation. On the whole, NGOs have found UNHCR reluctant to cooperate on issues of protection and rehabilitation and willing only to enlist their support in the delivery of food, housing and health services. For this reason, the much-advertised UNHCR Partnership-in-Action Programme has failed in South Asia.

Food

Food is the most fundamental human right. Without food, there is no life; and without sufficient food, humans are denied the dignity to pursue other rights that make life worthwhile. The right to food is reaffirmed in Article 25(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Yet in Asia, many people are suffering food shortages and creeping malnutrition due, not to natural disaster or accident, but because of man-made conditions. While death from starvation caused by wars and famine are newsworthy, chronic malnutrition does not grab headlines, although it affects more people. In India alone, more than 200 million people are undernourished-approximately 22 percent of the population. In addition, more than 50 percent of Cambodia’s children are stunted by malnutrition, and more than 40 percent of mothers are underweight and suffer from anaemia. In Nepal, approximately four out of five people do not have proper sanitation, and nearly half of the population does not have access to safe drinking water, contributing to the high level of malnutrition there. Similarly, available statistics suggest almost 60 percent of lactating mothers and children in rural Sri Lanka are malnourished.

When wars and emergencies strike, pregnant women, nursing mothers and small children face the greatest risk of malnutrition and mortality. While chronic malnutrition can lead to death, it may result among lactating mothers in the retardation of the physical and mental growth of their children. Leaders taking their countries along the path of militarisation have done so at the expense of their peoples’ rights to food and good health. Similarly, where society has not taken effective steps to transform or eliminate ingrained discriminatory practices, like the caste system in India and Nepal, the denial of food, water and related facilities will continue.

Reports of a looming food crisis in Burma precipitated the creation of the People’s Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarisation in Burma, which convened in 1998. Comprising three prominent members of Asia’s human rights movement, the tribunal found that pervasive militarist policies that place demands of the State and armed forces before the rights of the people are causing hunger in Burma. Farmers are denied the right to work freely with their produce compulsorily procured without adequate compensation; people are compelled to work without compensation on government projects, denying them time to earn an income for themselves; food is destroyed or extorted; and communities are displaced by counterinsurgency operations: in short, people are going hungry. In March, the People’s Tribunal presented its findings to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). In spite of its comprehensive recommendations to the government of Burma and international community, conditions remain unchanged. The army continues to pursue policies and practices that ensure its primacy over the needs of the people. The People’s Tribunal is of the opinion that in failing to fulfil its obligation to guarantee the food security of its citizens the government of Burma may be subject to action under international law. AHRC urges the international community to examine this issue seriously.

Education and Health

Across Asia, the enjoyment of the right to education is characterised by marked disparities. While highly sophisticated education systems have become available to a few, most have no access to such facilities; indeed, a small group has enormous advantages over others. In some countries, chronic shortages of teachers, particularly in rural areas, are stimulated by very low wages. The low pay of teachers is not merely an economic concern; it also contributes to their loss of status. A lack of infrastructure too is contributing to declining literacy. Even in countries that earlier achieved high literacy rates, growing numbers of children are not attending school. High levels of unemployment among graduates in certain countries have created apathy and have provoked questions about the relevance of present-day education systems. In many places, education systems are not only failing to meet the needs of students and families but are simultaneously reinforcing negative ideologies: narrow nationalism, militarism and gender stereotypes. Negativistic indoctrination diminishes the overall culture of human rights and contributes to the culture of abuse. Asian societies do not need education systems that teach children to justify human rights violations, or at least passively accept them, as a means to maintain authoritarian controls. Education must reinforce a positive culture of human rights through creative methodologies and civic participation.

Modern medical facilities have become available in most Asian countries. However, costs are so high that only a very small number of people have access to them. Some countries, like Cambodia and Burma, have virtually no facilities. An AHRC study in Cambodia revealed frightening levels of medical neglect and a lack of access to even the most basic medical facilities. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has ranked Burma’s health system second to the worst in the world, worst for the inequitable sharing of costs between the government and its citizens with users contributing almost 90 percent of the meagre funds for resources. The military government also ignores the escalating AIDS epidemic. A senior representative recently stated that AIDS does not exist in Burma as traditional morals protect the people from ‘foreign’ diseases. Such attitudes in the face of this deepening crisis are a concern for the Asian region as a whole, particularly in India, China and Cambodia. Many government agencies are reluctant to seriously develop anti-AIDS programmes as full recognition of the crisis will demand the provision of necessary resources to combat it effectively. The preventive aspects of health deserving a prominent place in educational campaigns have also receded to the background of Asia’s health care systems, giving instead an emphasis on curative measures linked to privatisa-tion. While ignorance and stigmatisation prevent future victims from taking preventive measures, governments find it easier to simply bypass the issues through lip service rather than a genuine commitment.

Trade Unions

Asia’s governments persistently undermine trade union rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights-even States that have ratified the covenant. Many discourage the forming of unions while trade unions in China, Vietnam and Laos require state authorisation and so become mechanisms for authoritarian control rather than representing workers’ interests. In Burma, trade unions are prohibited. By contrast, in Singapore and Malaysia, the control of trade unions is more subtle and is part of broader social engineering. The impoverishment and exploitation of Asia’s workers are byproducts of export-oriented industrialisation (EOI) strategies.

Restrictions on unions are especially severe in export processing zones, sometimes called ‘free trade zones,’ where collective bargaining may threaten government strategies to attract foreign investment. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) reports that India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have created such zones to entice transnational corporations through the comparative advantage of their cheap labour-similarly in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Vietnam. The confederation notes that, in addition to receiving low wages, workers in these zones suffer poor working conditions and other abusive practices and policies. Sexual harassment, prohibitions on maternity leave and disincentives to marry are prevalent in work forces comprised primarily of women in these zones as well.

Workers standing up for their rights commonly face repression, such as imprisonment or assassination in Nepal and violent confrontations with the police during demonstrations in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Anti-terrorist emergency regulations and national security laws are invoked against workers demanding their basic rights. In several countries, strikebreakers are frequently used to attack workers on the picket line. Overall, the confederation says that ‘administrative barriers, excessive costs [and] slow proceedings’ create barriers for workers seeking recognition of unions in Asia.

Women

The right to work is structurally denied to the majority of Asian women, who have little or no choice of employment or its working conditions. For hundreds of thousands of women, working in richer people’s homes is among the few ways of earning an income. Many young girls are sent to do domestic labour under a system of debt bondage as payment for loans taken out by their parents. The live-in domestic work system institutionalises feudal and slavelike relationships in which the servant is totally dependent on the master or mistress and in which there is no limit to the hours of work, no provision for leisure time, inadequate sustenance and a total lack of privacy. Domestic workers from Katmandu to Manila are subjected to physical and verbal abuse and sexual harassment, both in employers’ residences and on the streets. They are sometimes kept locked up, are subjected to inhuman treatment and punishment, are often underpaid or not paid at all and are made to do all kinds of degrading work. Migrant domestic workers, whether inside or outside of their own countries-often exploited by recruiting agents charging exorbitant fees and working hand in hand with corrupt government officials-are disadvantaged both by discriminating laws and state policies as well as by being socially isolated. Domestic workers generally have no recourse to remedial procedures because the abuses committed against them occur in private homes and are difficult to document. Above all, the laws do not protect them from repercussions by employers, agents and corrupt officials.

Women’s complaints of domestic violence and physical and sexual abuse are still not taken seriously in Asian societies that consider domestic matters private. Child marriage is the cruellest traditional form of repression against young girls, perpetuating the low status of Asian women that is still widely practised in South Asia. Brides as young as 9 are burdened with heavy household chores and are beaten by in-laws and husbands angered by slight lapses; some harassed girls end their lives. Pregnancy at a young age also affects the child in the womb: 75 percent of underage mothers give birth to underweight infants. Meanwhile, in many Asian traditions, women, especially poor, isolated widows and divorcees not under a male guardian, are blamed for misfortunes. Witch-hunting persists to this day and has claimed many lives, particularly in some parts of India where hundreds of women accused of witchcraft throughout the last decade have been murdered.

The treatment of women in Afghanistan is of special concern. In the name of religion, the rights of women in the country are violated every minute of the day; their every movement curtailed. Afghan women are beaten and stoned in public for not wearing appropriate clothes, such as silent shoes to prevent them from being heard. One woman was recently beaten to death for accidentally exposing her arm while she was driving; another was stoned to death for trying to leave the country with a man who was not a family member. Denied the right to work or even to go out in public without a male relative, women there have been forced out of their jobs and ordered to stay at home. Women in Afghanistan without male relatives or husbands are either starving to death or are begging on the street.

East Timor

The emergence of East Timor is a bright event in Asia’s human rights struggle. After a long period of colonial occupation and extreme repression in which the lives of about 250,000 people were lost, the East Timorese have decided to regain their nation and be a people in their own right. The Indonesian military’s initially violent reaction to the East Timorese people’s determination for independence did not deter their love of freedom. Now they are defining their own destiny and paving the way for the creation of the political, social and economic structures of their country which is currently under the administration of the U.N. Transitional Authority for East Timor (UNTAET). The people are enjoying a moment of freedom, living without the fear to which they were accustomed under the colonial powers. The nation-building task lies ahead, however, and the East Timorese understand that this is a job they must essentially do themselves. The international community should respect their will and support them in this historic hour as they construct their nation from ruins. The example they will set in dealing with the crimes committed against them will be a salutary lesson for others facing similar repression.

The Right to Peace

The Asian Human Rights Charter, which was declared in Kwangju, Korea, in 1998 and sponsored by AHRC, recognises the right to peace. The right to peace implies the right to resolve internal conflicts via peaceful means. States are obliged to act with restraint towards all movements and people seeking solutions to the problems besetting them. In Asia, governments bear primary responsibility for their historic use and abuse of force to crush perceived challenges to their authority rather than attempting dialogue towards acceptable outcomes respecting human rights and a democratic framework. However, all movements and people fighting for their rights are also obliged to respect the rights of others, particularly civilian populations. In many instances, crimes against humanity and war crimes are perpetrated both by governments and insurgents. In parts of Asia experiencing armed conflict, widespread murder, systematic torture and gross human rights violations have become common. Both governments and their opponents owe a duty to their societies and the international community to seek peaceful conflict resolution via dialogue. Where governments or insurgents violate international law and commit war crimes or crimes against humanity, the means must exist to bring them before tribunals. In many Asian countries, penal codes do not recognise crimes against humanity. AHRC calls upon all Asian governments to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which will make it possible to bring all violators to justice and to take legislative action on crimes against humanity.

Asian Regional Human Rights Mechanism

Human rights in the region will receive a boost when governments cooperate to develop an Asian mechanism for implementing human rights across national boundaries. A regional human rights commission and an Asian human rights court similar to European models would greatly contribute to a wholesome concept of ‘Asian-ness’ and Asian solidarity to protect and promote human rights. There is already widespread debate on the need for a regional mechanism. The time is ripe to pursue this goal with greater seriousness and make it practically possible. While agreement on such a mechanism is the work of governments, its content will depend heavily on the participation of civil society. If human rights are to become something real in Asian countries, much improvement is needed. AHRC earnestly hopes that the coming year will see greater determination towards this aim both from governments and the people of the region.