The Vice-Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Nurkholis, today called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support a UN investigation into business and human rights violations in Burma. Mr. Nurkholis made his statement as a member of the experts panel at regional civil society’s first Public Hearing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Rights in ASEAN held in Jakarta today.

After six months of massacre happened in Bangkok, Thailand-May 2010.
Have we forgotten this massacre and the unanswered justice to the 91 deaths? Those protestors or pro democracy supporters who were forced to confess and being imprisoned. Those who were charged imprison by Lese Majesty law due to their political views?
 
Have ASEAN activists / communities forgot the vibrant democratic space that we used to enjoy in Bangkok for the last 18 years?
 

The First International Conference on Human Rights in Southeast Asia organized by the Southeast Asian Human Rights Scholars’ Network (SEAHRN) was successfully conducted on 14 and 15 October 2010. The Conference opened with a keynote address delivered by Dr Surin Pitsuwan. Dr Surin spoke of how human rights were at different stages of evolution in the region. In ASEAN many countries still see the individual in the context of the community and thus individual human rights as a concept has yet to be fully embraced.

The First International Conference on Human Rights in Southeast Asia will be held on October 14 and 15, 2010 at the Royal River Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Thailand's Representative to the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) comments: "This conference on human rights in Southeast Asia is historic as it challenges the existing norms in Southeast Asia. And it does this by providing a platform to contribute to righting the wrongs."