One of our main activities is organising and hosting Luncheon Briefings on pertinent topics of EU-Asia relations. Beginning with an informal lunch, the Briefings usually last for 1.5 hours, including questions.

Attendees include EIAS members and other interested parties.

Experts wishing to discuss a possible topic for a Lucheon Briefing are invited to contact EIAS Direct Dr Willem van der Geest.

Indonesia - Human Rights in Aceh in the Post-Tsunami context
17 March 2005, EIAS, Brussels

Speaker: Mr. Hendra Budian, Vice-Director, Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute, Indonesia
Chair: Mr. Dick Gupwell, Secretary-General, European Institute for Asian Studies, Brussels

The province of Aceh, in the north-western tip of Indonesia, has been the scene of a decades-long separatist struggle between the Free-Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian armed forces. In addition to claiming thousand of lives the conflict has been the source of grave human rights violations.

In December 2004 Aceh was devastated by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. More than 140,000 people in the province have lost their lives and thousands are still struggling to regain their livelihoods.

An Acehnese lawyer, Hendra Budian has been working on human rights issues in the troubled province for several years. In addition to being Vice-Director of the Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute, he is also Programme Director of Aceh's Judicial Monitoring Institute, Co-ordinator of the Human Rights Documentation Unit in Aceh and an active member of the Acehnese Civil Society Task Force.

Hendra Budian has been active in creating a Working Group which monitors human rights violations in the Aceh region, in civilian training of peace and human rights issues and on setting up the Saree School for Human Rights and Peace, which is the center for human rights training of Acehnese. After the tsunami hit, he set up the Relief Aid Center, which is the focal point for humanitarian assistance in Aceh.

Hendra Budian was invited to Brussels by INFID to attend a meeting of the European Parliament's Development Committee. He is en-route to Geneva where he will attend the 61st Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights as a member of the Indonesian delegation.

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