Regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Asian and Pacific region.

1994/48. Regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Asian and Pacific region

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling that the General Assembly, in its resolutions 41/153 of 4 December 1986, 43/140 of 8 December 1988 and 45/168 of 18 December 1990, affirmed the value of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Asian and Pacific region, Recalling also its own resolutions 1988/73 of 10 March 1988, 1989/50 of 7 March 1989, 1990/71 of 7 March 1990, 1991/28 of 5 March 1991, 1992/40 of 28 February 1992 and 1993/57 of 9 March 1993, Recalling further that the World Conference on Human Rights, in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (A/CONF.157/23), emphasized that regional arrangements played a fundamental role in promoting and protecting human rights, Taking note of resolution 45/2 adopted by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on 5 April 1989, Bearing in mind that intergovernmental arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights have been established in other regions, Welcoming the joint communiqué of the twenty-sixth Association of South-East Asian Nations Ministerial Meeting held at Singapore on 23 and 24 July 1993, at which it was agreed that, in support of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Association should consider the establishment of an appropriate regional mechanism on human rights; and welcoming also the holding of the Association of South-East Asian Nations Colloquium on Human Rights at Manila on 16 and 17 January 1994, the first in a series of workshops to be organized by the ASEAN Institute of Strategic and International Studies, intended, inter alia, to lead and facilitate the process of developing a subregional human rights body for the promotion and protection of human rights in the ASEAN countries, Recognizing the valuable contribution that independent national institutions can make in the field of human rights to the concept of regional arrangements, Recognizing also that non-governmental organizations involved in the field of human rights have a valuable role in this process, Recalling the contribution made by the second Workshop for the Asia and Pacific Region on Human Rights Issues, held at Jakarta from 26 to 28 January 1993, particularly its Chairman's concluding remarks, Welcoming the decision of the Government of the Republic of Korea to host an Asia-Pacific regional meeting on human rights at Seoul in 1994,

1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/1994/40) and the progress achieved in the implementation of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/57 of 9 March 1993;

2. Encourages all States members and associate members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and other parties to make full use of the depositary centre of that Commission, and requests the Secretary-General to maintain a continuing flow of human rights materials to its library;

3. Also encourages the United Nations development agencies in the Asian and Pacific region to coordinate with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and other United Nations agencies in their efforts to promote the human rights dimension in their activities;

4. Welcomes the regional workshops on various human rights issues which have been held in the Asian and Pacific region, namely the Seminar on National, Local and Regional Arrangements for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Asian Region, held at Colombo from 21 June to 2 July 1982, the first Workshop for the Asia and Pacific Region on Human Rights, held at manila, from 7 to 11 May 1990, and the second Workshop for the Asia and Pacific Region on Human Rights Issues, held at Jakarta from 26 to 28 January 1993, all of which focused on national institutions and regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights;

5. Also welcomes the establishment of national commissions for human rights by the Governments of India and Indonesia, and the decisions concerning and the preparatory steps being taken towards the establishment of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights by the Governments of Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Thailand;

6. Endorses the decision of the Government of the Republic of Korea to host an Asia-Pacific regional meeting in 1994 at Seoul on the region's consultative mechanism;

7. Requests the Secretary-General to facilitate the realization of the decision of the Government of the Republic of Korea to hold that regional meeting under the regular budget for advisory services and technical assistance;

8. Encourages all States in the Asian and Pacific region to consider further the establishment of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, taking into account the various approaches and mechanisms identified in the Chairman's concluding remarks at the second Asia-Pacific workshop held at Jakarta;

9. Appeals to all Governments in the Asian and Pacific region to consider making use of the possibility offered by the United Nations to organize, under the programme of advisory services and technical assistance. for the promotion and protection of human rights, information and/or training courses at the national or regional level for appropriate government personnel on the application of international human rights standards and the experience of relevant national and international organs;

10. Requests the Secretary-General to give adequate attention to the countries in the Asian and Pacific region as regards benefiting from all the activities under the programme of advisory services and technical assistance in the field of human rights, particularly in the light of interest in the region in developing national institutions and regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights;

11. Appeals to the Secretary-General to make more resources available for the strengthening or the establishment of regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights under the programme of advisory services and technical assistance of the Centre for Human Rights;

12. Encourages States in the Asian and Pacific region to request assistance for such purposes as regional and sub-regional workshops, seminars and information exchanges designed to strengthen regional cooperation for the promotion and protection of human rights;

13. Also encourages all States in the Asian and Pacific region to consider ratifying and acceding to international human rights instruments adopted within the framework of the United Nations system, with the aim of universal acceptance;

14. Requests the Secretary-General to consult the States in the Asian and Pacific region on the widest possible basis in the implementation of the present resolution;

15. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Commission at its fifty-first session a further report incorporating information on the progress achieved in the implementation of the present resolution;

16. Decides to continue its consideration of the question at its fifty-first session under the agenda item entitled "Further promotion and encouragement of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the question of the programme and methods of work of the Commission".

56th meeting
4 March 1994
[Adopted by a roll-call vote of 45 to 1,
with 7 abstentions. See chap. XI.]