[Repost] Business and Human Rights in Southeast Asia: A Practitioner’s GuideKit

9 October 2022

31 August 2022

By Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff | The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Southeast and East Asia

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) for Freedom Southeast and East Asia and AmerBON, Advocates have published a GuideKit for Small and Medium Enterprises on Human Rights Compliance regarding the Environment and Labour. The book, written by six human rights experts, contains eight chapters that deals with issues ranging from due diligence and internal assessment to environmental risks and fair recruitment. As the publication is a GuideKit, a self-assessment template, a validation template, and a scoring template are included. Finally, the book describes a process to handle worker’s grievances as well as steps to address issues and concerns raised by external parties.

Edmund Bon Tai Soon and his staff at AmerBON initiated the book. Edmund is a human rights lawyer in Kuala Lumpur, who previously served as Malaysia’s representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). He also chairs the Malaysia National Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, which is part of the Regional Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, which has been a partner of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for decades.

“The GuideKit is a first-of-its-kind regional guide containing essential and practical tools that SMEs can use to meet their Business and Human Rights obligations under the UN Guiding Principles. It simplifies applicable concepts and standards, contains key tools, and provides solutions SMEs can adopt”, writes Dr. Mohd Munir Bin Abdul Majid, the Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC). Le Thi Nam Huong, Head of the Human Rights Division at the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) calls the book “a valuable framework to help enterprises manage human rights risks and address adverse human rights impacts in their business activities. This GuideKit is also an essential reference resource for other stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, labour associations, and environmental groups who work alongside businesses to tackle human rights issues and stand up for fundamental rights policies”.

Thank you to Edmund Bon, his staff, and all writers and contributors for making this book possible. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is honoured to be associated with it.

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[MARUAH] International Criminal Court Review Process in 2021 – Assessing and implementing the experts’ recommendations

13 May 2021

The ICC Review Mechanism

In early 2021 States Parties appointed Ambassador Paul Van Den Ijssel (Netherlands), based in The Hague, and Ambassador Michael Kanu (Sierra Leone), based in New York, as the State party representatives heading the ICC Review Mechanism.  States parties also appointed three regional country focal points: Bangladesh, Chile, and Poland.

The Mechanism is mandated to:

  • Submit a proposal for the categorization of the IER recommendations by 30 April, to the ASP Bureau.
  • Submit a proposed action plan to the Bureau by 30 June. The proposed action plan should:

–   Allocate the IER recommendations to the relevant court organs and ASP thematic focal points, facilitations, and working groups for their considerations. The Mechanism is expected to deal with the rest of the recommendations;

–   Prioritize the IER recommendations; and

–   Set deadlines for the consideration of the IER recommendations.

  • Regularly brief States Parties on its progress and submit a report on the review process to the ASP ahead of the 20th session of the Assembly of States Parties.

Proposal for the categorization of the IER recommendations

On 29 April 2021, the ICC Review Mechanism submitted its “Proposal for the categorization of the IER recommendations and remaining review issues” to the ASP Bureau, together with an Introductory note.

The Review Mechanism also published the Comments on categorization submitted by:

Background

A review of the ICC’s performance for a strengthened Court and Rome Statute System

In 2018 the Rome Statute celebrated its 20th anniversary. States Parties, Court officials, civil society and other key stakeholders reflected then on the achievements and the challenges of the ICC and the Rome Statute system. The ICC’s own shortcomings had become evident: limited success of the Prosecution in the courtroom, with a low conviction rate, taking into account the number of cases investigated; limited impact in the countries concerned; lack of an adequate level of cooperation; among others.That triggered discussions on steps to strengthen the Courtand the Rome Statute system.

In 2019, this led to the launch of a review of the functioning of the court’s and the Rome Statute system.

For more information, please visit https://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/review-icc-and-rome-statute-system.

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38th Session of the Universal Periodic Review – Review of Singapore [Wed 12 May 3 – 6.30pm (SG time)]

9 May 2021

The Review of Singapore will be broadcast live at http://webtv.un.org/.

Please click here to add a reminder to watch the review live on UN Web TV.

What is the Universal Periodic Review?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. 

As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed. The ultimate aim of this mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.

Please click here for more information on the UPR.

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