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SINGAPORE: Despite its impressive economic
development, Singapore fails to meet international standards for
political and human rights and there are concerns about the
independence of its judiciary, an association of lawyers said.
The International Bar
Association’s Human Rights Institute identified a number of areas
in which Singapore fell far short of international norms, said the
association’s executive director Mark Ellis.
“In particular, democratic
debate and media comment are extremely restricted and government
officials have initiated numerous successful defamation suits
against both political and media critics,” he said in a statement
released late Tuesday in London.
The group has published a 72-page
report on the issue, several months after the IBA held its annual
convention in Singapore. The association represents 30,000 lawyers
globally.
“Singapore cannot continue to
claim that civil and political rights must take a back seat to
economic rights, as its economic development is now of the highest
order,” the report said, calling human rights universal and
indivisible.
The IBA’s rights institute
“strongly encourages Singapore to engage with the international
community in a more constructive manner, and to take steps to
implement international standards of human rights throughout
Singapore.”
--AFP
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