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Featured Web Sites for Human Rights
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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has created and maintained approximately 30 web sites to uphold and defend human rights in the region. An overview of these web sites is provided below. GENERAL WEB SITES Asian Human Rights Commission: <http://www.ahrchk.net> Most of the work undertaken by AHRC can be found on the organisation's primary web page, including urgent appeals, campaigns, statements and news updates. The web site also contains online petitions about human rights issues in Asia that can be signed. The Asian Human Rights Charter with details about the process used in its production is also available. Links to most of the web pages below are accessible from this web page as well. Asian Legal Resource Centre: <http://www.alrc.net> The principal web page of AHRC's sister organisation, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), offers a source of legal information relevant to human rights in the region that includes constitutions, the laws establishing national human rights commissions (NHRCs) and case law on human rights. The web page also provides the oral and written submissions of ALRC to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and links to other useful legal sites. Human Rights Correspondence School: <http://www.hrschool.org> AHRC hopes to foster thinking about the many human rights issues and themes that trouble Asia today. Human rights education courses often produce people who can speak about human rights but frequently do not know how to respond when confronted with an actual human rights problem. AHRC believes that activists must first learn about the problems before trying to solve them, must first learn about the violations of rights before learning which U.N. conventions should be applied. To facilitate this learning process, AHRC has produced a series of modules about specific human rights concerns that include examples of human rights issues and questions to spark discussion based on people's experiences in their own context. Asia Folk School Online: <http://afs.ahrchk.net> The methodology of AHRC's workshops are based on the 19th century Danish folk school model initiated by N. F. S. Grundtvig in which knowledge learned through one's experience is emphasised, in which everyone is simultaneously a teacher and a student. As well as convey information about folk schools, AHRC has sought to bring this educational spirit to the internet through this web site that shares the thoughts of many authors on a variety of topics through essays, poems, drawings, etc. Readers are invited to contribute to the content of this web site by submitting material to Human Rights SOLIDARITY at <editor@hrsolidarity.net>. THEMEATIC WEB SITES Cyberspace Graveyard for Disappeared Persons: <http://www.disappearances.org> AHRC does not want disappearances to disappear from the collective memories of Asia's societies. Thus, it has created this web site to remember as individuals those who have suddenly been taken from their families and friends and to remember disappearances as an important human rights problem. AHRC has chosen to commemorate the disappeared through a graveyard in cyberspace that now contains the names of hundreds of people in several Asian countries. The web site also contains articles, reports and U.N. documents about the topic. Disappearances in Nepal: <http://nepal.disappearances.org> As its name indicates, this web site focuses specifically on disappearances in Nepal and includes a cyber memorial to the country's disappeared and an online petition that invites people's signatures. No Torture: <http://notorture.ahrchk.net> The AHRC has campaigned against the widespread use of torture in Asia for many years. This web site contains AHRC's urgent appeals, statements and press releases related to torture in the region as well as a variety of other materials and resources on the issue-books, reports, posters, etc. Massacres in Asia: <http://massacres.ahrchk.net> Based on a similar rationale as the web site above about disappearances, this web site contains news stories and other documents as well as maps and photographs of the Bindunuwewa massacre of more than 25 Tamils in Sri Lanka in October 2000, the Mae Lamao massacre of at least 21 Burmese migrant workers on the Thai-Burma border in January 2002 and the Gujarat massacre of thousands of Muslims in India that began at the end of February 2002. Like the web site on disappearances, this web site calls for justice and accountability. Permanent People's Tribunal on the Right to Food and the Rule of Law in Asia: <http://www.foodjustice.net> Building on the four years of successful work of the People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarisation in Burma, whose findings are available at <www.foodjustice.net/burma/1996-2000tribunal>, the Permanent People's Tribunal was launched in May 2003 to address issues throughout Asia related to the right to food and to link them with the rule of law. The web site explains the rationale behind this link and updates the findings of the previous tribunal since it concluded its work in 2000. World Conference against Racism: <http://wcar.alrc.net> While the U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 ended long ago, the issue of caste-based discrimination in South Asia and Japan over which AHRC and many others at the conference fought has not. Thus, this web site, which was created to collect materials related to the conference about this form of discrimination based on work and descent, is a platform that continues to be used to contest caste-based discrimination. COUNTRY-SPECIFIC WEB SITES Cambodia Human Rights: <http://cambodia.ahrchk.net> For people concerned about human rights in a specific country, this series of web sites offers a valuable resource. Among the material that is provided on these sites are news stories and other articles, urgent appeals, documents supporting campaigns, reports from legal reform seminars, U.N. submissions, publications that are available, historical information and links to human rights organisations and newspapers in these countries. E-NEWSLETTER WEB SITES
AHRC produces several other e-newsletters that share analysis, commentary and news items that are delivered by e-mail that can also be read at the web sites above. These e-newsletters deal with human rights abuses in specific parts of Asia, are based on a particular human rights theme or are devoted to a spectrum of human rights issues in the region. Those wishing to subscribe can do so online. PUBLICATION WEB SITES article 2: <http://www.article2.org> Books produced by AHRC can be read or ordered online at the publications web site above. Moreover, all of the articles in AHRC's bimonthly publications article 2 and Human Rights SOLIDARITY are available on the internet as well. In addition, the publication Sri Lanka Legal Reform and Human Rights produced jointly with organisations in Sri Lanka-People against Torture, Janasansadaya, SETIK, the Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Kalapaye Api-can also be found at the web site listed. In Protection & Participation, a platform to discuss the common problems of protecting human rights in South Asia, a subregion characterised by weak democracies, impunity and citizens living in fear and silence, is offered. The editors invite readers to contribute articles to these publications by sending them to the address for Human Rights SOLIDARITY at <editor@hrsolidarity.net> and indicating for which publication the article is intended. Posted on 2005-09-30
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Asian Human Rights Commission - Human Rights SOLIDARITY