FOCUS

Focus
Asia-PacificNewsletter of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center (HURIGHTS OSAKA)

December 2019 Vol. 98

Editorial

Contents
ACHR and Housing Rights in Asia
This article discusses the development of aregional non-governmental organization as
its responds to the situation of the informal
settlers in Asia.
- Somsook Boonyabancha, Thomas Kerrand Brenda Pérez-Castro
Page 2AICHR: Ten Years of Promoting and Protecting
Human Rights in ASEAN
This is a review of the first ten years ofexistence of an international human rights
mechanism in Southeast Asia.
- Yuyun Wahyuningrum
Page 6
Nepalese Children in Japan: Facing a Great
Opportunity or an Uncertain Future?
This is a discussion on the situation of
Nepalese children in Japan whose future in
the country depends to a large extent on
their Japanese education.
- Dinesh Prasad Joshi Ratala
Page 9Time to act: Governments as catalysts forbusiness respect for human rights
This article consist of remarks by Asako
Okai, UNDP Assistant Administrator andDirector of the Crisis Bureau, at the 2019
UN Forum on Business and Human Rights
held in Geneva in November 2019 and ashort introduction of UNDP’s Business andHuman Rights (B+HR) Asian regional
program.
- UNDP
Page 12

Regional Human Rights WorkWork at the level of a region such as Asia and/or the Pacific is an
essential component of the structure of human rights protection,
promotion and realization. Complementarity of work at theinternational, regional, subregional, national and local levels
defines this structure.
For a non-governmental organization (the Asian Coalition on
Housing Rights), regional work facilitates networking among“communities, cities and countries” that makes all its membergroups “in the region [become] part of a movement, work with full
support and full access to a region-wide pool of community experts
and support professionals, and part of an international network thatprovides inspiration and a powerful political leverage that proves
what people can do by themselves.”
For a subregional inter-governmental institution (ASEAN
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights), “not only the
ASEAN member-states’ political will to take the necessary
measures is needed but also the participation of all stakeholders”
for its work to become meaningful.
Regional work is effective when it involves, and has impact on,
people, their institutions and communities.

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FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

ACHR and Housing Rights in Asia
Somsook Boonyabancha, Thomas Kerr and Brenda Pérez-CastroOf the 2.3 billion people
now living in Asia's towns
and cities, almost a quarter still
reside in slums. Despite theundeniable increase in average
incomes and consumption andthe fast transformation of Asiancityscapes, supplying enoughaffordable, accessible anddecent housing remains one of
the biggest challenges of theregion. The local, national andtransnational real estate markets
have been a key driver ofoverall economic growth but
have also fostered speculation
around land and housing,produced oversupply in highend segments and shortage inthe most deprived sectors,
deepening the already criticalsocio-spatial inequalities of theregion.

Due to the lack of any legal,
accessible and affordable
housing, millions of ordinary,
hard-working urban families
continue to make their own
shelter as best they can on
dangerous, leftover land, without
access to clean water supply,
electricity, sanitation, drainage
or other urban amenities. Mostof the resulting informal
settlements will eventually faceeviction, whether it is bydemolition squads, or by thepowerful market forces that
determine how urban land isused. Half a billion people will
eventually be pushed out, likely
with no compensation and noalternative housing.

quality and affordability havebeen at the core of the work of
the Asian Coalition for Housing
Rights (ACHR) from its
beginnings in 1988. In the past
thirty-one years, more than one
hundred groups in nineteen
countries in Asia have been
active in the coalition,
accumulating a wide range ofexperiences, knowledge,
lessons learned, andachievements. From fighting
evictions to developing a
regional model of communitydriven, city-wide slum
upgrading, ACHR’s work aims at
realizing the right to adequate
housing using Asia’s greatest
resource: its people.

The Asian Coalition for Housing
RightsFighting evictions

In parallel, the systematic
retreat of the state from direct
housing provision has resulted
in feeble budgets and subsidies,and the deregulation of land
and housing markets fitting theneeds and interests of private
sector developers. National
housing authorities that wereoriginally set up with a mandate
to house the poor, focus now on
those “market segments” that
can afford formal credits andmass-produced housing
products, defeating the purposeof the public resources invested.
The human right to housing has
become a commodity
unaffordable for the poor andmost vulnerable inhabitants.

Issues of eviction, access toland, environmental risk, shelter

ACHR first came together as aregional coalition of people andgroups in Seoul at a time whenFounding members of ACHR at the Asian People's Dialogue,
Seoul, Korea, June 1989

2

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFIC
huge evictions were taking
place as the city prepared tohost the 1988 Winter Olympics.
ACHR's activities in this period
included organizing fact-finding
missions, anti-eviction
campaigns, eviction monitoring,
advocacy, meetings to link
activists and urban poor groups,
organizing poor community
groups and advising them about
the laws which relate to theirhousing rights. All the groups
that came together for the firsttime in this new coalition wered e e p l y c o n c e r n e d by t h eevictions taking place around
Asia, and by the huge numbersof poor people being excluded
from their cities.
Exploring solutions to eviction
before they actually take place
During evictions, communities
have few options but to resist
and confront. By then, it is toolate to explore alternative
options or to facilitate a morereasoned dialogue. As activists,
we quickly began to see that nomatter how much wedenounced and fought
evictions; we never won thelarger war. For every single
eviction case we helped to stopor slow down, there were athousand other slums andsquatter settlements whose datewith the demolition squad wascoming, a thousand other city
development plans andgovernment slum clearance
policies being drafted thatwould cause new waves ofevictions and housing rights
confrontations.
In this stage of ACHR's work,
we began to look at a variety ofways in which housing rights
conflicts could be addressed
before any eviction took place.

DECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

The Model House Exhibition, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 1997

As the groups in the coalition
faced evictions, they also foundproactive ways to deal withthem. The numerous experiencesin slum upgrading, accessing
housing finance, collaboratingwith other stakeholders,collecting information about
informal settlements, developing
community networks andstarting community savings andcredit, among others, created acommon pool of alternative
solutions, which could beborrowed and transferred. This
stage of the ACHR's work
strengthened and multiplied thelinks between ACHR members,
and furthered the sharing of
knowledge, mutual assistanceand joint advocacy among all
the groups. This approachmaterialized in the Training andAdvisory Program (TAP)1 andbecame one of the coalition's
key tools for facilitating mutual
learning and support.
Showing how poor communities
themselves can deliver solutions
Year after year, communities
kept hearing the same excuses3from governments: there is noavailable land for housing or
resources for subsidies or loans
to the poor. Due to lack ofimagination or blatanteconomic interest, in their
aspiration to become the local
Singapore, most governments in
Asia saw only the alternative ofbuilding new tall blocks of flats
for everyone. However, thoseformal systems of housing
delivery have been unable tokeep up with the demand for
secure, affordable andaccessible housing.
At the same time, the poor
communities on their own
manage to find land, makesome kind of shelter, earnenough to survive and bring up
their families - even though allthat miraculous survival often
takes place in inhumanconditions. For most groups in
the ACHR coalition, this is themost interesting aspect of ourwork – the tremendous
creativity, energy and capacity
to survive among the urban
poor is an enormous
development force which can

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFIC
be channeled into solving
housing problems at the real
scale.
In this third stage of ACHR's
work, we decided to develop
the regional support systems
that poor communities required
to deliver their own solutions
and propose them to theirg ove r n m e n t s a n d b r o a d e rsocieties. Many activities had to
do with building the capacity todevelop such solutions
c o l l a b o r a t ive l y, i n c l u d i n gcommunity savings and credit(as a tool to develop people's
own funds and their abilities tomanage finance collectively),building networks which linkpoor communities within cities
and within countries (tostrengthen their mutual learninga n d c o l l e c t ive b a r g a i n i n g
power) and supporting some of
the first community-driven
housing and settlement
upgrading activities. A numberof ground-breaking housing and

DECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98
community upgrading projects
were implemented by poor
communities in different
countries, and these projects
began to show new kinds ofp e o p l e ' s s o l u t i o n s . Th e
increasing linkages between
groups and countries, which
ACHR continued to facilitate,
made the learning from thesescattered projects zoom aroundthe region quickly andpowerfully.
Slum upgrading: from scatteredpilot projects to city-wide andcommunity-driven development
Those scattered people-driven
pilot projects started to scale up
through the regional promotion
and support of a citywide andpeople-driven slum upgrading
movement in Asia. Under thisapproach — which we refer toas the people’s process —organized networks of poor
communities at the city scale
survey all the settlements in the

Chawanad Luansang, a young Thai community architect, facilitating acommunity housing layout design workshop at the Poo Poh Community inPattani, Thailand, March 2007. Note the coffee cup that represents theplanned mosque of the community.

4

city, manage their savings andrevolving city funds, develop
plans for upgrading all thesettlements, negotiate for land
and infrastructure, develop theirlayout planning and design theiraffordable housing types atcitywide scale.
Since 2008,
with support from ACHR's
ACCA Program (Asian Coalition
for Community Action),2 thisapproach reached groups in two
h u n d r e d fi f t e e n c i t i e s i nnineteen countries. In only five
years, the local groups andnetworks developed their own
citywide and people-driven
upgrading process, incollaboration with their local
governments. 2,021
communities implemented
small upgrading projects andone hundred forty-six housing
projects for about 10,280
families were built by thosesame communities.
R e fl e c t i n g o n s c a l e : f r o mcommunities’ action to
structural change
After the impressive growth of
our coalition during the ACCA
program (finalized in 2014), atime for reflection has beennecessary. As a network, we
continue to support thestrengthening of local
community networks andpartnerships and keep our
regional learning and mutual
inspiration active. We have also
undertaken a significant amountof research and documentation
initiatives, aiming at valuing anddisseminating the existingknowledge of communities andgroups in our network on
critical issues for their own
d e ve l o p m e n t s u ch a s t h edefinition and measurement ofpoverty lines and food security,
the status and impact of

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

community finance systems infive countries and innovations
on housing policies.3 We havealso joined global initiatives
seeking to find pathways tourban equality4 and promoting
collective housing5 around theworld.
Realizing Housing Rights
through City-wide, Communityled Development
ACHR’s learnings from the last
three decades of direct workwith poor communities
contribute optimistically torealizing the right to housing for
all in Asia. While the formal
recognition of a right is a usefullegal tool, it does notnecessarily translate into its full
realization, nor does itchallenge the structural
conditions of power disbalanceand poverty. ACHR’s approachhas proven its potential tosuccessfully realize the right tohousing at the scale of the need,due to some essential
characteristics of its modus
operandi:a. It is based on a proactive,
pragmatic relationship withstate actors
In a context of shrinking civilsociety space, community-led
development is a highly
pragmatic, solutions-oriented
approach that recognizes theneed for negotiation and fairpartnerships with all
stakeholders in the city,
particularly the local
governments. The community
process builds a strong senseof self-reliance but recognizes
that state actors still remain
the key-holders to legality,
access to secure land tenure
and finance.

The ACHR/KNOW research-action team, Nakhon Sawan, Thailand,
January 2019b. It is cost-effective andsocially appropriate
Community-led design,
construction
andmanagement of housing
projects and finance systems
ensure the affordability andadequacy of the product of
the housing process.
c. It breaks the isolation
Because of the links between
communities, cities andcountries which ACHR has
built and continues to build,
all the groups in the region
are part of a movement, workwith full support and fullaccess to a region-wide poolof community experts andsupport professionals, andpart of an international
network that provides
inspiration and a powerfulpolitical leverage that proves
what people can do bythemselves.
d. It is truly empoweringand builds democracy from
below

When poor communities
work together as networks,
understand, discuss andprioritize their problems,develop plans and bringsolutions and resources to thenegotiation table, they aretaking ownership of an issue
which has been taken up byothers (governments,
development organizations,human rights groups oractivists) on their behalf. Thevery people whose housing
rights are at stake become thesolution-makers. They createa profound shift in social
perception and politicalpower, from being passive
receptors or constituencies, toactive agents of theirdevelopment. In the processof housing development,
communities exercise theircitizenship.
Challenges and Future Work
The ongoing people’s processes
in different cities of the region
have lived through periods ofgreat accomplishments, as well(Continued on page 14)

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FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

AICHR: Ten Years of Promoting and Protecting
Human Rights in ASEAN
Yuyun WahyuningrumW

hen the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations(ASEAN) was formed in 1967 byfive founding states (Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines,
S i n g a p o r e a n d Th a i l a n d )through the ASEAN Declaration,
later known as the Bangkok
Declaration, human rights were
not mentioned as one of its
raison d’etre. In fact, the focusof the Bangkok Declaration was
to agree among member-states—in response to the post-cold
war context—to prevent
disputes from developing into
violent conflicts and to findcommon solution to them.
Twenty six years later, duringt h e Tw e n t y - S i x t h A S E A N
Ministerial Meeting in
Singapore (23-24 July 1993),
the ASEAN Foreign Ministers
welcomed the international
consensus achieved during theWorld Conference on Human
Rights held in Vienna in June
1993 and "reaffirmed ASEAN’s
commitment to and respect forhuman rights and fundamental
freedoms as set out in the
Vienna Declaration."1 They also“emphasized that the promotion
and protection of human rights
should not be politicized.” TheA S E A N Fo r e i g n M i n i s t e r s“agreed that ASEAN should also
consider the establishment of an
appropriate regional
mechanism on human rights.”2

However, ASEAN had beenslow in fulfilling its commitment
to develop a regional
mechanism on human rights.
The 1997 Asian financial crisis
provided an avenue for ASEAN
member-states to revisit theirstrategy for regional integration.
Some of ASEAN’s founding
members —Indonesia, Thailand
and the Philippines — proposeda new strategy to restore theconfidence of the foreign
investors by incorporating somevalues such as human rights,
democracy and the rule of law
as a promise toward the path toprosperity under the ASEAN
regionalism project.
By agreeing to embrace humanrights, ASEAN introduced a newface of the grouping thatpromised to be morepredictable, participatory andaccountable, among others.
Accordingly, the period of 2007
to 2017 witnessed theproliferation of human rights
institutions and instruments,
such as the establishment of theA S E A N I n t e r g ove r n m e n t a lCommission on Human Rights(AICHR) in 2009 and theASEAN Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of theRights of Women and Children(ACWC) in 2010, and theadoption of the ASEAN Human
Rights Declaration (AHRD) in2012, the Declaration on
Violence against Women andViolence against Children in

6

ASEAN (DEVAWC) in 2013, theASEAN Convention against
T r a f fi c k i n g i n P e r s o n s ,especially Women and Children(ACTIP) in 2015, and theASEAN Consensus on the
Promotion and Protection of theRights of Migrant Workers in
2017.3This chronological accountshows that in the course of forty
years since its establishment,
ASEAN has shifted from nondiscussion on human rights toengagement with human rights
in its own term and pace.
It is interesting that ASEAN’schanging position on humanrights occurs in the context ofdiffering perceptions on humanrights of its member-states.
Some still view human rights as
instrument of powerfulcountries in obtaining favorable
trade and international
cooperation arrangements,
while others perceive humanrights as a threat to nationalsovereignty.
Not only perception abouthuman rights, the record of
ratifications of international
human rights instruments is also
varied among ASEAN memberstates, as shown in Table 1.
AICHRThe AICHR was established in2009 with the primary objective

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

Table 1. Ratified international human rights instruments
Country

ICCPR4

ICESR

CAT

CERD

Brunei

CEDAW

CRC

x

x

CED

CRPD
x

Cambodia

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Indonesia

x

x

x

x

x

x

signedx

Lao PDR

x

x

x

x

x

x

signedx

Malaysiaxxx

Myanmar

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Philippines

x

x

x

x

Singapore
Thailand

x

x

x

x

x

x

Vietnam

x

x

x

x

x

x

to promote and protect humanrights. AICHR has been
criticized for having too muchpromotion of human rights andless on their protection.
AICHR has the mandate, tomention a few, (a) to encourage
A S E A N m e m b e r- s t a t e s t oconsider acceding to andratifying international
instruments related to humanrights, (b) to develop an ASEAN
Cooperation Framework forhuman rights, (c) to prepare
studies on thematic issues ofhuman rights, (d) to obtain
information from ASEAN
member-states on the promotion
and protection of human rights,(e) to develop common
strategies, approaches andpositions on human rights, (f) topromote capacity-building forgovernment officials and publicawareness of human rights
among the peoples of ASEAN
and, (g) to engage in dialogue
and consultation with other
ASEAN stakeholders.

2019 marks the tenthanniversary of the AICHR inpromoting and protecting
human rights in the region. It
has completed fifty-three study
reports containing important
information on human rights
situations
andrecommendations. In 2018,
under the broad theme ofaccess to justice, thematicstudies were made on legal aid,
right to life (which examined thetreatment of persons who areconvicted with the death
penalty), and juvenile justice(which explored thei n t e r r o g a t i o n p ra c t i c e s o fchildren in conflict with thelaw).5AICHR has also covered issues
related to civil-political rights,
such as the right to nationality,
migration and human rights,t r a f fi c k i n g i n p e r s o n s ,prevention of torture, freedomof opinion and expression,
freedom of religion and belief,right to life, and access tojustice. In the area of economic,
social and cultural rights,

7

signedxx

AICHR has generated discourses
related to right to development,
Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) and human rights, rightto environment, right to waterand sanitation, right toeducation and right to health.
AICHR conducted activities inrelation to the right to peace.
AICHR has also become alearning and informationsharing platform for the ASEAN
member-states on human rights
issues, which was not
imaginable ten years ago. In
terms of engaging stakeholders,
AICHR has dealt with different
groups in society, such as
women, children, youth,
persons with disabilities,
journalists, Chief Justices of thecourts, scholars, members of theprivate sectors, commissionersof national human rights
institutions, officials of ASEAN
governments as well as
members of ASEAN Ministerial
Sectoral Bodies on political andsecurity, economic, and sociocultural matters.6

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

AICHR Representatives

In over a decade, AICHR has
implemented its mandates,
except on obtaining informationfrom ASEAN member-states on
the promotion and protection ofhuman rights (Paragraph 4.10,
AHRD) and providing advisory
services and technicalassistance to member-states,
upon request (Paragraph 4.7).
Responding to this gap, AICHR
has been focusing its work on
providing advice, guidance orrecommendation to the ASEAN
Sectoral Bodies on theimplementation of the AHRD.
The recommendations serve as
the language of human rights forcooperation and action as theyelaborate the state obligations,the indivisibility and interrelatedcharacters of human rights andtheir operationalization.
A c c o r d i n g l y, o n 1 1 - 1 2
November 2019 in Jakarta,
AICHR held a consultation on
the realization of Article 37 of
the AHRD on the right todevelopment. On 8-10
December 2019, AICHR alsoorganized a consultation on theimplementation of Article 23 of
the AHRD related to freedom of
opinion and expression, and on
11-13 December 2019 on the

AICHR Special Meeting

implementation of Article 22 on
the AHRD on freedom of
religion and belief. The latter
two activities were held in Bali.
While AICHR is moving
forward, it should be noted thatthe inability of the AICHR to
conduct fact-finding, monitoringand investigation of humanrights violations cases remains
the challenge in performing its
role on human rights protectionin the subregion. AICHR also
suffers from the lack of
independence of its country
representatives.
Despite the limitations, AICHR
can undertake activities such as“hearing” the stories of victims
and developing a referral system
to address cross-border humanrights issues. Referral is aprocess by which the immediateneeds of a victim are assessed tohelp gain access tocomprehensive and supportive
services provided by various
agencies or organizations which
are not provided by the referring
agency (AICHR).
It is worthwhile to mention thatAICHR was launched in 2009 at
the time of the adoption of a8roadmap for the ASEAN
Community (see Cha-Am HuaHin Declaration 7 ), and wasenvisioned to evolve into an
overarching institution that is
responsible for both protection
and promotion of human rights
and guided by the forwardlooking human rights strategies
and regular review of terms ofreference (TOR) every five years.
In July 2019, the ASEAN Foreign
Ministers assigned the review of
the TOR of AICHR to the Senior
Officials’ Meeting (SOM). In
November 2019, the SOM
reached a consensus to form aPanel of Experts consisting ofrepresentatives from the ten
ASEAN member-states. The
Panel of Experts is expected tostart working in 2020.
AICHR has a long way to go to
become a credible human rights
mechanism in Southeast Asia. To
realize this, not only the ASEAN
member-states’ political will totake the necessary measures isneeded but also theparticipation of all stakeholders
in monitoring the work of
AICHR to inform it of its
performance.
(Continued on page 15)

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

Nepalese Children in Japan: Facing a Great Opportunity or an Uncertain Future?
Dinesh Prasad Joshi RatalaJapan has emerged as a new
popular destination for
Nepalese migrants, who now
constitute the largest South
Asian community in the
country.1 In a span of a decade,the number of Nepalesemigrants in Japan has increasedby over seven folds from 12,286
in 2008 to 88,951 in 2018.2
While Nepalese migrants arefound to reside in all forty-seven
prefectures of the country, they
are heavily concentrated in the
Kanto region (about 60 percent)and mostly in the four
prefectures: Tokyo, Chiba,
Kanagawa and Saitama of theGreater Tokyo metropolitan area
(about 53 percent).3 Based on
visa categories, 43.3 percent
have either a dependent (29.2
percent) or a skilled labor (14.1
percent) visa.
The Nepali restaurant tradegrew rapidly during the
2004-2012 period that
increased the number of
Nepalese chefs or cooks4 under

the skilled labor visa; which
proportionately increased thenumber of spouses as well as
children under the dependent
visa category. From 1,436 in
2008,5 the number of Nepalesechildren increased by about six
folds to 8,3476 in 2018.7
It has been observed8 that the
Nepalese community in Japan
has created a so-called “parallelsociety” that is isolated from
and/or has difficulty integratingwith the host community. In thissituation, a serious question
arises: what is happening to thechildren in the “mini-Nepal” ofJapan?
Education of Nepalese Children a Great Concern
Immigration data on thenumber of registered or
documented Nepalese from theage of 0 to 18 as of 20189 yield
the following results: Table 1
One of the key concerns for
Nepalese parents living

Table 1. Education of Nepalese children (2018)
Age (Years)

Grade level

Number of children

0–5

Early childhood

3,927

6–12

Primary school

1,859

13–15

Lower secondary school

927

16–18

Upper secondary school

1,634

Total

8,347

9

currently in Japan is related tothe education of their children.
A report10 states that Nepalesechildren born and raised inJapan may speak Japanese but
often are unable to speak orwrite in their native tongue. The
following cases highlight theeducational trajectories of the
Nepalese migrant children in
Japan.
Case I:
M. S.,11 now sixteen years old,
was brought to Japan when she
was six months old. While herfather is currently enrolled in a
post-graduate program, hermother completed herundergraduate in Managementfrom a Nepalese college long
before. Her family has a goodsource of income frominvestments in restaurants,
remittance service andagriculture in Japan. M. S.
stayed for four years in a
Japanese nursery school(hoikuen), and completed her
primary school education at the
Global Indian International
School (GIIS) in Edogawa, Tokyo(under the International
Baccalaureate Primary Years
Program [IB-PYP]). She wasthen sent back to Nepal where
she spent two years in two
renowned private boarding
schools in Kathmandu. For thethird year in lower secondary
school, she came back to Japanand was admitted at the Indian

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFIC
International School in Japan(IISJ) in Nishi Ojima, Tokyo,
which has Indian government
authorized curriculum. She iscurrently studying in Grade 11
at the International School of
the Sacred Heart (ISSH) in Hiro,Tokyo, whose curriculum isaccredited by the Japan Councilof International Schools (JCIS)
and the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges (WASC).
She plans to continue her
further studies in the UnitedStates of America in the future.
Case II:
B. K., now twenty years old,
was brought to Japan in May
2016. His father, a cook, andhis mother, not employed, haveno tertiary education. He
studied at the Futaba JuniorHigh School (yakan chugakko)
in Katsushika ward of Tokyo
from April 2018 till September
2019. When he was preparing
for secondary school entrance
examination for Japanese highschool, his teachers praised him
for his good Japanese reading
and writing abilities. However,
due to visa problem, he had togo back to Nepal in September
2019. His lawyer in Japan isworking for his return.
Case III:R. G., now sixteen years old,
was brought to Japan when she
was three years old. Both herparents have secondary school
education. While her father
works as a cook in an Indian
restaurant, her mother works
part-time for a Japanesecompany. She joined the 6th
g r a d e a t To s h i m a W a r d
Ikebukuro Elementary School, apublic school in Toshima ward
in Tokyo in 2015. She spent

DECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98
three years at Nishi Ikebukuro
Junior High School, a public
lower secondary school. Uponher graduation, she entered theDai Yon Syougyou High School,a public business secondary
school located in the sameward. She attends an evenings t u dy - g r o u p ( b e n k y o u k a i )organized by the Non-profit
Organization (NPO) “Toshima
Kodomo Wakuwaku Network”
every Tuesday with other
Nepalese friends pursuing theirstudies at Tokyo Metropolitan
Asuka and Tagara High Schools.
She does not have a clear planabout what she wants to do in
the future.
Case IV:
S. K.C. was born in Nepal andbrought to Kobe city when hewas six months old. While hisfather is a lower secondary
school graduate, his mother has
completed her secondary
school education in Nepal.
When he was three years old,
his family moved from Kobe to
Arakawa in Tokyo. His parents
have two restaurants in Tokyo.
Because the public nurseryschools were full, his parents
resorted to using a more
expensive privately-run childcare facility (recommended by
the city government) while
waiting for public nurseryschool slot.
In a span of a year, he was firsttaken cared of by a Nepalesewoman before subsequently
entering two nursery schools. In
addition, he went to Minerva’s
International Course for six
months where he was taught
English for two hours a week.
He was later admitted to theupper kindergarten of IISJ where10

he studied until the second
grade. In 2013, he entered theEverest International School inJapan (EISJ), which followed the
Nepalese government
authorized curriculum, and is
now an eighth grader there. Hisparents are not sure about hishigher education.
Case V:
S.U. was brought to Japan in2006 when she was three years
old. Her father has completed
technical college education(senmon gakko) in Japan while
her mother has an AssistantEngineer/Overseer degree from
Nepal. She spent four years at anursery school where she felt
discriminated due to her darkskin color and lack of fluent
Japanese language ability.
Thinking that S.U. might beisolated in a Japanese school,
her parents decided to enroll
her in the newly established EISJ
where she studied from Grade 1
until the middle of Grade 7. She
left Japan with her parents in
November 2019 and iscontinuing her studies in a
private school in Kathmandu. In
the future, her parents want her
to pursue further studies in
Nepal.
What can be Inferred fromthese Case Studies?
There are eight importantlessons that can be drawn fromt h e s e c a s e s t u d i e s . Fi r s t ,Nepalese parents who have agood source of income andeducational background areheavily investing in the
education of their kids. Their
hope is to secure a better
education and thus better future
for their children. However,they represent a small fraction

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICof the Nepalese parents inJapan. Second, most Nepaleseparents have the tendency tosend their children to Nepal
during their early childhood tohelp them retain the Nepalese
identity. However, the extent towhich children have well
adapted to the Nepalese society
and culture during their shortstays there in the absence of
their parents is arguable. Third,
early entrance in local schools
leads to better adaptation to theJapanese education system of
the Nepalese children.
H o w e v e r, t h e e x t e n t o fadaptation depends upon
individual ability as well as on
conducive environment in theschool. Fourth, the children who
come to Japan at school age
have to overcome a number ofsocio-cultural obstacles to fit
into the Japanese education
system. This hampers thecontinuous study of many
Nepalese children, and often
results in bad performance atschool. Fifth, some parents
spend limited time with theirfamily, including the children,
owing to their busy work
schedule. Such situation
deprives many children ofparental attention andmonitoring on a regular basis.
Sixth, some parents are still not
sure about their future plans inJapan. They keep on transferring
their kids to different schools
based on information obtained
from social network. Thissituation can possibly ignore
child psychology and delay thelearning process as the children
frequently adjust and adapt to
new environments. Seventh, thefew parents who think that
education in Japan does notmatch their expectations rarely
return their children to Nepal. In
the process, they risk many

DECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98
uncertainties in Japan. Eighth,
NGOs may play a vital role infacilitating the learning processof migrant children but their
number as well as educational
focus is limited.
The kind of education Nepalesech i l d r e n i n J a p a n o b t a i ndepends on their parents’ social
network, level of education andincome, expectation and futuregoals, and degree of familiarity
about the educational system inthe country. These children
would benefit much from theexisting educational resources
provided the family has a clear
future plan in sending them toschool. Lack of such a long-termplan has the potential ofpushing these children into the
web of an uncertain and volatile
future.
Dinesh Prasad Joshi Ratala is a
Ph.D. Candidate in the Human
Security Program, Graduate
School of Arts and Science, The
University of Tokyo.
For further information pleasecontact: Dinesh Joshi, e-mail:dinesh692@hotmail.com.
Endnotes
1 See Shakya, P., Tanaka, M.,
Shibanuma A., and Jimba, M.,“Nepalese migrants in Japan:
What is holding them back ingetting access to healthcare?”
PLoS ONE 13(9), 2018.
Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/
journal.pone.0203645 on 22
November 2019.
2 The Ministry of Justice, Japan(2018). These figures exclude
those who have short-stay visas
for less than 3 months (such as
visitors, diplomats, etc.) and the11

undocumented residents. See EStat, www.e-stat.go.jp/stats e a r c h / fi l e s ?
page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00250012&tstat=0000010180
34&cycle=1&year=20180&mon
th=12040606&tclass1=000001
060399.
3 Ibid.
4 Kharel D., “From Lahures to
Global Cooks: Network
Migration from the Western Hills
of Nepal to Japan,” Social
Science Japan Journal, Vol. 19,
No. 2, 2016, pages 173-192;
Takeshi and Munenori, “日本におけるネパール人移民の動向(Trends of Nepalese Migrants inJapan),” Journal of Immigration
Studies, Vol 13, 2017, Universityof the Ryukyus, pages 23-48.
5 According to the Ministry ofJustice, there were a total of
1,436 Nepalese children (0-4
years: 358, 5-9 years: 304,
10-14 years: 255, and 15-19
years: 519) in Japan in 2008.
6 Aged 0-18, ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Thapa, S., “Diplomatic Practices
in Nepal-Japan Relations: A
comparative Study Based on
Regime Change,” Bulletin paperof the department of Asian and
African Area Studies, vol. 18,
no. 1, 2018, pages 100-106.
Cited in a presentation entitled“Extension of Nepalese Society
in Japan? A recent trend of
migration from Nepal to Japan”
by Tanaka Masako on 23 May
2019 at the Embassy of Japan in
Kathmandu.
9 Ministry of Justice, op cit.
10 Dave Hueston, “Welcome to
To k y o ’s ‘ L i t t l e N e p a l ’ : A
microcosm of Japan’s evolving
identity,” The Japan Times, 30
June
2019,
w w w. j a p a n t i m e s . c o . j p /community/2019/06/30/issues/
welcome-tokyos-little-nepalmicrocosm-japans-evolvingidentity/#.XesvEegzY2w.
11 The names of the Nepalesechildren are in abbreviated form
to protect their privacy.

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

Time to act: Governments as catalysts for business
respect for human rights
Remarks by UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Crisis Bureau, Asako
Okai, at the 2019 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

Madame High Commissioner, distinguished fellow panelists, representatives of member states, ladies
and gentlemen,
It is a great privilege to be here representing the United Nations Development Programme on thisimportant topic.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and human rights are interwoven and inextricably tied
together. Private sector engagement is key to reaching the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda. This rolemust go far beyond its traditional contributions to development such as jobs, and taxes. Clearly, we
are unlikely to make progress unless businesses act responsibly towards people and the planet.
Sustainable development is put in reverse when human rights abuses—including forced labor, sexual
harassment, land grabs, and environmental degradation—go unaddressed.
When businesses decide to drive human rights considerations through their operations, they canempower women, enhance child health and well-being, ensure decent work, and strengthen thefoundations for sustaining peace. This is why the UN Guiding Principles have been expressly
recognized in the 2030 Agenda as a means of implementation of the SDGs.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide us with a principled andpractical means by which the private sector can address human rights risks and impacts, in furtheranceof the objectives of the 2030 Agenda.
UNDP's work
This year UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights submitted to the General Assembly areport on policy coherence in government action. To ensure concerted action and policy coherence, anational action plan on business and human rights will be a platform to ensure coordination between
government functions. These national action plans are a necessary step to create an agreed agenda at
the national, provincial and community levels.
We understand that 22 national action plans have already been adopted and twenty-three more states
have committed to developing one. In the last 3 years, UNDP has been engaged in supporting 6 suchprocesses through our Business and Human Rights in Asia initiative.
Allow me here to congratulate the Royal Thai Government for being the first country in Asia to adopt anational action plan on business and human rights. Our partnership with the Government has
provided deep learning opportunities for UNDP and we are now sharing our lessons learned withother countries in the region. I would like to share five Lessons Learned with you today:
1. Establish the facts: Human rights risks and frequencies vary in different parts of a country. In
order to build a national plan, countries must conduct detailed baseline assessments, including at
the local level, to fully understand the situation on the ground and to plan responses.

12

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

2. Empower national human rights institutions: National human rights institutions are an essential
player in accountability systems and upholding business commitments to human rights. In manycases, NHRIs have actually been the prime movers in National Action Plans as well as in shoring
up protections of human rights defenders. They are also the custodians of data and records onhuman rights issues related to business operations as seen through the excellent work of the
National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh.
3. Participation works: Multi-stakeholder consultation processes result in better quality plans which
are more credible to the public. Plans which invite wider participation engender more buy-infrom stakeholders, as we are seeing in Indonesia.
4. Recognize business leaders as champions of change: Business leaders can advocate for strong
national action plans – they can demand changes in government policy which reflect their own
internal human rights standards - as we saw in Thailand where a large food export firm advocatedstrongly for government action on business and human rights.
5. Be prepared for politics: National action plan processes are inherently political. Sometimes theplans are hotly contested. Commitment from the highest levels of government is thus required forfollow-through and to ensure coherent approaches across ministries and departments. It is
important for us to recognize that national action plan processes are not a sprint, but a marathon.
To sum up, in this regard, we wish to express gratitude to the Government of Sweden for having
accompanied UNDP during the last 2 years and supporting our work on the business and humanrights, rule of law, resilience, and prevention. In particular, it has been excellent to have dedicatedsupport to this work in South and Southeast Asia. I will also have the pleasure to announce later in thissession a new and complementary partnership with the European Union.
With the strong support of these partners, we look forward to continued engagement with the efforts of
ILO, UNICEF, OECD, OHCHR, UNEP, IOM, and UN WOMEN. Working cohesively on the groundacross agencies and civil societies in partnership with governments and business concerned will be
critical in making a difference.
Lastly, I would like to recognize the importance of our partnership with the UN Working Group,
which has been instrumental in guiding us as we develop regional initiatives. On behalf of theWorking Group and UNDP, I would like to invite you to attend the South Asia Regional Forum on
Business and Human Rights which will take place in Kathmandu in 2020.
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today.
(Source: www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/rbap/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2019/
remarksbyasakookaiUNforumBHR.html.)
UNDP Business and Human
Rights: Promoting Responsible
Business Practices in Asia
UNDP’s Business and Human
Rights (B+HR) regional program
works to advance business andhuman rights agenda in Asia.
Th e p r o g r a m f o c u s e s o ntechnical advisory, awarenessraising, and capacity building
support to governments,
businesses, civil society

organizations, and independent
national human rights
institutions. Partnering with anarray of stakeholders including
media professionals, technicalexperts, and human rights
defenders, B+HR Asia strives toensure an effective
implementation of the UN
Guiding Principles on Businessand Human Rights, with aparticular focus on

13

development of national actionplans and remedy provisions.
The ongoing engagements
include advising to thegovernments of India,
Indonesia, Malaysia andThailand. Among other priority
areas are environmental andland rights, sustaining peace,
gender equality, working withhuman rights defenders, andtrade and investment.

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFICDECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98

UNDP B+HR Asia works closelywith the UN Working Group on
Business and Human Rights,
and with other partners, toorganize regional forums, suchas the UN South Asia Forum on
Business and Human Rights andthe Responsible Business andHuman Rights Forum. UNDP isalso piloting their first grantp r o g ra m f o r c iv i l s o c i e t yorganizations in the region to
support human rights defenders.
UNDP’s work with businesses
includes developing due
diligence tools, conducting
training for staff, and supporting
human rights and environmental
impact assessments.

Read more about B+HR Asia:
www.asia-pacific.undp.org/
content/rbap/en/home/
programmes-and-initiatives/
business-and-human-rights.html
Follow B+HR Asia on Twitter:@BizHRAsia_UNDP

Key priority areas for UNDP B+HR Asia
Advisory on National Action
Plans
UNDP convenes leveraging initiatives and provides advisory to
governments on the development of National Action Plans on
Business and Human Rights.
UNDP facilitates forums during
which civil society organizations
and human rights defenders encourage governments to act on
the business and human rights
agenda.

ACHR and Housing Rights in
Asia(Continued from page 5)of moments of stagnation andeven regression. Data collection
and the strengthening of citylevel community and savings
network continue to be key
activities in building andrenovating the political capitaland legitimacy of thecommunities’ work. In somecities, the community networks
and their local support groups
have reached a stage in which
they are involved in local andnational policymaking andcontributing to the design and

Gender Equality

Sustaining Peace

UNDP guides States and businesses on how to integrate
gender perspectives into
UNGPs implementation and toensure the realization of therights of women. UNDP also
supports businesses in conducting human rights impact assessments to prevent genderbased discrimination. UNDP together with the UN Working
Group on Business and Human
Rights published Gender Dimensions to the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights (2019).

UNDP works with businesses to
set up grievance mechanisms
and complaint systems leading
to greater access to justice andeffective remedies. It advocatesthat businesses apply a do-noharm approach when engaging
with conflict-affected communities. UNDP has co-convened aconsultation on the Role ofBusiness in Delivering Peace,
Justice and Reconciliation.

implementation of housing andpoverty reduction programs(Thailand and the Philippines), orin big-scale financial
mechanisms for the poor (SriLanka) or innovative collective
micro-loans schemes (Myanmar).
The renovated links of ACHR
with global movements are also
not casual: the forces behind the
local and national housing crises
are global, and so the need forthe efforts of social movements
fighting through different means
for the realization of the right tohousing.
Soomsook Boonyabancha is a
Thai architect and planner who

14

worked with Thailand’s National
Housing Authority (NHA) from1977 to 1989, with the Urban
Community Development
Office (UCDO) from 1992 to2000 and with the Community
Organizations Development
Institute (CODI) where she was
Director for two terms (eight
years). She is currently advisor
to CODI and the SecretaryGeneral of ACHR.
Thomas Kerr is an Americanarchitect who has worked in
Asia since 1989, first in India
and from 1996 in Bangkok with
ACHR, where he helps
coordinate their Englishlanguage publications. This

FOCUS ASIA-PACIFIC“conversation” would have notbeen possible without Tom’s
admirable documentation
discipline and his valuable
inputs throughout theconceptualization and writing of
this article.
B r e n d a Pe r e z - C a s t r o i s a
Colombian sociologist, urbanistand development practitioner
who has worked for nongovernmental organizations andinternational cooperation
agencies on housing and slum
upgrading in Latin America andAsia. She is currently supporting
research initiatives at the ACHR
Secretariat in Bangkok.

AICHR: Ten Years of Promoting
and Protecting Human Rights in
ASEAN(Continued from page 8)
Yuyun Wahyuningrum is theRepresentative of Indonesia to
the ASEAN Intergovernmental
Commission on Human Rights(AICHR), 2019-2021.
For further information, pleasecontact: Yuyun Wahyuningrum
at wahyuningrum@gmail.com.

Endnotes
1 Paragraph 16, Joint Communique of the Twenty-Sixth
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting Singapore, 23-24 July 1993. Fulltext
availableathttps://asean.org/?static_post=joi
nt-communique-of-the-twenty-si
xth-asean-ministerial-meeting-si
ngapore-23-24-july-1993.
2 Ibid., paragraph 18.
3 These documents are available
at the ASEAN website:
1. ASEAN Human Rights Declaration-

DECEMBER 2019 VOLUME 98
For more information, pleasecontact: Asian Coalition for
Housing Rights, 73 Soi
Sonthiwattana 4, Ladprao 110,
Bangkok 10310, Thailand; ph662 538 0919; fax 662 539
9950; e-mail: achr@achr.net;
www.achr.net..
Endnotes
1 For more information on TAP,
please visit www.achr.net/
upload/downloads/
file_10112019122402.pdf.
2 For more information on
ACCA, please visit
w w w. a c h r. n e t / a c t i v i t i e s de.php?id=1.

https://asean.org/asean-hum
an-rights-declaration/
2. Declaration on Violenceagainst Women and Violence against Children in
ASEAN
https://asean.org/?static_post=declaration-on-the-elimina
tion-of-violence-against-wo
men-in-the-asean-region-4
3. ASEAN Convention against
Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children https://asean.org/asean-conv
ention-against-trafficking-inpersons-especially-women-a
nd-children/
4. ASEAN Consensus on the
Promotion and Protection of
the Rights of Migrant Workers
https://asean.org/?static_post=asean-consensus-protectio
n-promotion-rights-migrantworkers.
4 The acronyms have the following full names:
ICCPR - International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights
ICESR - International Covenant
on Economic, Social andCultural Rights
CAT - Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, In-

15

3

4

5

For academic articles on thesesubjects, visit www.achr.net/
download.php?ic=1.
See www.urban-know.com forour ongoing research-action on
the links between communityled development and urban
equality.
For more information on the
Co-Habitat Network visit
w w w. u r b a m o n d e . o r g / e n /projects/cohabitat-network andread our first report on “whydo we need collective housing
in Asia” http://achr.net/upload/d o w n l o a d s /file_12122019141022.pdf.

human or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
CERD - Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination
CEDAW - Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against
Women
CRC - Convention on the Rightsof the Child
CED - International Convention
for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance
CRPD - Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
5 See ASEAN human rights bodyholds forum on access to justice,https://asean.org/asean-human-ri
ghts-body-holds-forum-access-ju
stice/.
6 See ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial
B
o
d
i
e
s
,
https://asean.org/asean/asean-str
ucture/asean-sectoral-ministerial-bodies/.
7 Cha-am Hua Hin Declaration on
the ASEAN Intergovernmental
Commission on Human Rights,
www.asean.org/wp-content/uploads/images/archive/15thsummit/
Declaration-AICHR.pdf.

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