Canadian Partners

• Geospatial/SALASAN Consulting Inc
• Four Worlds Development International Inc
• International Centre for Child Rights and Development

Regional Partners

• ASEAN Working Group for a Human Rights Mechanism
• The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP)
• Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development
• Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers

Geospatial/SALASAN Consulting Inc

http://www.salasan.com

Geospatial Salasan provides management and consulting services to a national and international clientele from its head office in Victoria, Canada. Since 1982, the company has completed over 400 projects around the world in education, land administration and agriculture, gender equality, human rights, and legal development. The company maintains overseas offices in Cambodia and Thailand.

Four Worlds Development International Inc

http://www.4worlds.org

Four Directions International is a Canadian owned and operated Aboriginal company with more than thirty years of experience in people - centered development work in North and South America, Central and West Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the former Soviet Union. The primary focus of Four Worlds and Four Directions' work is capacity building of people and organizations for social and economic development at the community level.

International Centre for Child Rights and Development

http://www.iicrd.org/

ICRD is a Canadian leader in community-based, national, regional and international applications of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). These applications are unique in that they provide a "culturally grounded" approach to children's rights that build on children's natural resiliency (strengths) as well as the strengths of families, communities, and culture.

ASEAN Working Group for a Human Rights Mechanism

http://www.aseanhrmech.org

The Working Group is an informal coalition of individuals and groups within the region who are working with government institutions and NGOs in the field of human rights.

It is organized into national working groups in ASEAN states which are composed of representatives of government institutions, parliamentary human rights committees, the academe and NGOs. It has recently been mandated by ASEAN to assist in implementing its Vientiane Action Program which includes:

1. Taking stock of existing human rights mechanisms and equivalent bodies;
2. Establishing a network among existing human rights mechanisms;
3. Promoting education and public awareness on human rights;
4. Elaborating an ASEAN instrument for the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers; and
5. Establishing an ASEAN commission on the promotion and protection of the rights of women and children.

Contacts

The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP)

http://www.no-trafficking.org

The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) was established in June 2000 to facilitate a stronger and more coordinated response to human trafficking, in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and beyond. UNIAP is managed by a headquarters in Bangkok, with country project offices in the capitals of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.  The seven UNIAP offices have a combined staff of approximately 30.  While UNIAP is a UN inter-agency project, UNIAP receives financial support from its own bilateral and multilateral funding and not from UN agencies, allowing it to retain a neutral position within the UN that serves all UN agencies, governments, and NGOs equally.  It is the only inter-agency coordinating body on human trafficking of its kind within the United Nations system.

As a core function, UNIAP coordinates the policy and operational response to human trafficking within the GMS in collaboration with the its key stakeholders:

• Government agencies: GMS governments at central and local levels;
• United Nations: UN and international implementing agencies such as ILO, IOM, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNODC, UNFPA, and others; and
• NGOs: Local and international non-government organizations (Save the Children, Oxfam, ECPAT, World Vision, the Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project - ARTIP, and many local NGOs).

Contacts

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development

http://www.forum-asia.org

FORUM-ASIA has since its foundation strived to empower people by advocating social justice, sustainable human development, participatory democracy, gender equality, peace and human security through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organizations in the region.

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) is a membership-based regional human rights organization in Asia and presently, it has 42 member organizations in 16 countries in Asia. It was founded following a consultation among human rights and development NGOs in Asia held in Manila in December 1991. Its regional Secretariat has been located in Bangkok, Thailand since 1994.

FORUM-Asia's mission is to promote and protect human rights for all. Its thematic programs relate to :

• Human rights defenders;
• Democratization and the rule of law;
• Peace and counter-terrorism;
• Globalization and economic, social and, cultural rights;
• The right to development;
• Anti-discrimination and vulnerable groups including children and migrant workers; and
• Women's rights and gender issues.
• Its capacity building program aims at strengthening the competencies of its member organizations in promoting and protecting human rights.

Contacts

Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers

http://www.workersconnection.org/

The Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers comprises trade unions, human rights and migrant rights non-governmental organisations, and migrant worker associations. It is aimed at supporting the development of a rights-based framework for the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers, in line with ASEAN's Vientiane Action Plan.

The Task Force welcomes the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers as an important step forward to protect the human and labour rights of migrant workers within the ASEAN region. The Taskforce is proposing an ASEAN Framework on Migrant Workers which focuses on implementing Core Labor Rights, Terms of Employment, and specific rights related to migrant workers and their families. The Task Force views that migrant labor is not a commodity but concerns human beings and human activity. From this perspective, migrant workers are seen as human beings with rights and dignity.

The Task Force calls on ASEAN to uphold and implement the highest standards in labor rights including decent work and occupational health and safety standards, equal pay for equal work, freedom of association/right to form and join trade unions and associations, social security based on non-discrimination and gender equality principles.