CHRP, SC host UN-OHCHR justiciability workshop
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) organized a 3-day "Sub-regional Workshop for Judges and Lawyers on the Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC) in South East Asia", on November 3-5, 2004, here in Manila. The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) was the host agency with the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) of the Supreme Court and the Philippine ASEAN Law Association (ALA) as co-sponsors of the event.
Participants of the workshop were judges and lawyers from South East Asian states like Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. While representatives of specialized agencies, international and regional intergovernmental organizations, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) for Asia and the Pacific, and non-government organization as observers.
UN-OHCHR aimed that the workshop will jumpstart the creation of a network of judges and lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region to share jurisprudence in ESC rights cases in order for them to use relevant cases for their own judicial making. OHCHR also hoped to develop a database containing national cases on ESC rights, for the access of interested people.
This workshop is the third of the series of sub-regional workshops on ESC rights justiciability held in New Delhi, India and Ulaanbaatar , Mongolia in 2000 and 2004 respectively. UN-OHCHR looks forward to having a similar workshop for the Pacific area in 2005.
