12th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights (ASEMHRS12)

The 12th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights took place on 27-29 June 2012 in Seoul, Korea, and addressed the topic of “Human Rights and Information and Communication Technology”.

In recent years, the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has led to the emergence of a global ‘information society’, impacting on the lives of a significant proportion of the world’s population. This seminar sought to examine these impacts, both negative and positive, from a human rights stand point, by bringing together over 100 government officials and members of civil society from across Asia and Europe to share specific experiences and best practice.

The discussions took place in four closed Working Groups, each focusing on one of four core topic areas:

1. Freedom of Expression
2. The Right to Privacy
3. The ‘Digital Divide’
4. The Right to Cultural Enjoyment on the Internet

For a more detailed overview please see the Seminar’s Publication.

There was no open call for participation in this seminar. In order to ensure balanced participation across all ASEF members, invitations to participate are sent by the co-organisers according to the following invitation arrangement:

• From the 16 Asian countries: two civil society participants and one official representative each
• From the 27 EU countries: one civil society participant and one official representative each
• From Australia, New Zealand and Russia: two civil society participants and one official representative each
• From the EU and the ASEAN Secretariat: one official representative each

As with all seminars in this series, a brief outline of key messages and recommendations to government was published approximately one week after the event. This was followed by the full seminar report approximately one month after the event.

This seminar series was co-organised by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (delegated by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). The 12th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights was hosted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

For more information about the seminar series, please see the Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights programme page.

Publication: 12th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights – “Human Rights and Information and Communication Technology”