Handa Center staff Jessie Brunner presenting at the 2016 Summer Institute.
In partnership with the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN, the Handa Center co-hosts the Annual Summer Institute in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, now entering its tenth year. The program is developed in close participation with Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ human rights bodies: the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, and the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers.
Commissioners and representatives of these bodies form the bulk of the participants in the Summer Institute, which includes seminars, panels, and workshops that bring together academics and practitioners from across the region to discuss timely, critical human rights topics. Past focus areas have included human trafficking, vulnerable populations, business and human rights, and internal conflict.
Previous Institutes
In 2015, the Insitute's theme was Preventing Slavery and Trafficking in Persons in ASEAN. The Summer Institute gathered key experts and practitioners dedicated to combatting trafficking, as well as representatives of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, and the ASEAN Secretariat.
The theme for 2016 was the human rights impacts of the ASEAN Economic Community and the upcoming 2017 Summer Institute will focus on Trade, Investment, and Human Rights in the ASEAN Economic Community.
