UN human rights chief to visit Maldives and Bali from 22 to 28 November

GENEVA (20 November 2011) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday starts a week-long visit to Asia, beginning in the Maldives where she will address both regional and national issues before proceeding to Bali, Indonesia where she will attend a number of events and meetings relating to human rights in the ASEAN region.

In the MALDIVES, where she will be from 22-24 November, the UN human rights chief is scheduled to meet President Mohamed Nasheed, senior ministers, political party leaders, the judiciary, National Human Rights Comission and civil society.

It is the first-ever visit by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Maldives, which is currently chairing the regional group of eight South Asian countries, SAARC.

Pillay will also meet with some of the country’s leading women, including ministers, judges and parliamentarians, as well as judges from a wide range of the Maldives courts, including the Supreme Court.

The High Commissioner will give a keynote address on issues relating to countries in transition to the Maldives parliament, the People’s Majlis, on 24 November. On the previous day, she will give a public lecture on the subject of the need for a South Asian regional human rights body.

Navi Pillay will hold a press conference at the UN building in the Maldives capital Malé on Thursday 24 November 2011 at 17:45

For media inquiries on the Maldives leg of the High Commissioner’s visit to Asia, please contact Anna Senga at (+960) 3343263 / anna.senga@undp.org

In BALI, where she will be from 25-28 November, the High Commissioner will meet for the first time with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). AICHR, which was established in 2009, is the first regional human rights body of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. She will also meet with some members of the other regional human rights body, the ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC).

On 27 November, Pillay will attend a key annual meeting of regional civil society organisations, where she will deliver an address and hold an extended dialogue with participants. She will also meet with representatives of National Human Rights Institutions from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, to hear their views on human rights trends and issues in the region.

For more information on the Bali leg of the High Commissioner’s visit to Asia, please contact Nukila Evanty at (+62) 812 197 1123 / evanty@un.org

Learn more about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/HighCommissioner.aspx

For more information on the UN Human Rights office mandate and work: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx

For more information on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/AsiaRegionIndex.aspx

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