The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) welcomes the announcement that the Chief Justice has been restored in Pakistan. We hope that the restored judiciary will exhibit its independence and begin to address the plethora of ongoing human rights violations in the country, notably widespread forced disappearances in Balochistan and other provinces and the endemic use of torture, including that taking place in at least 52 army-run torture centres. We urge an immediate judicial inquiry into reports of women being arrested, disappeared and used as sex slaves by the army. The country’s rogue intelligence service, the ISI, must be held accountable for its actions, which are destabilising the country and the region.

The ALRC is gravely concerned by this Council’s inertia concerning the critical situation in Sri Lanka. Given the High Commissioner’s statement that actions by the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, we wonder what more is needed before this Council will act.

The ALRC recalls with sadness that March 12th marked the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of prominent Thai human rights defender Somchai Neelaphaijit. Thailand’s new Prime Minster has promised that progress would be made in this case, but none has been witnessed to date.

Furthermore, the ALRC condemns the police raid on March 6, 2009, on Prachatai, one of the few independent and outspoken media outlets operating in Thailand, and the issuing of an arrest warrant for its director. There can be little room for doubt that this raid is part of systematic actions since the 2006 army coup to intimidate and silence critics, human rights defenders and social activists.

We also condemn the February 8, 2009, raid on the office of the Working Group on Justice for Peace in Pattani, Southern Thailand, as a clear act of intimidation by the military. This raid on an NGO closely followed media statements by the military branding human rights defenders as insurgents. Defenders have come under greater threat over the last year, including from the increased use of lese majeste (insult or injury to the king) prosecutions, used to prevent defenders and the media from reporting any truths critical of the government as well as from threats by the security forces. Defenders also risk detention in re-education camps.

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About the ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia.