The next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans is the advisory opinion of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered in May 2024. Responding to a request from the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, the Tribunal found that greenhouse gas emissions absorbed by the ocean amount to marine pollution under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, and that states are under a strict duty to prevent, reduce and control it in order to protect and preserve the marine environment. READ THE PRESS RELEASE and ADVISORY OPINION

In this issue, we profile DTP Indonesia alumna Ni Putu Candra Dewi, provide information about DTP's programs and upcoming webinars, share reports on recent programs and news from alumni, partners and the region, and calls from the UN for your engagement.

DTP 2025 Annual Report

DTP’s 2025 Annual Report is available here.  In 2025, DTP provided training to 186 human rights defenders across eight programs in Asia and the Pacific.  We know from our alumni the value of this training, and we see it in their decades-long work for human rights across Asia and the Pacific.

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Donate to the Diplomacy Training Program 

We are appealing now for your support to help us fund the training of more human rights defenders - it is an important investment in them, human rights, democracy and peace. Please donate here.

For information about our alumni, click here. If you want to get in contact with any of DTP's alumni, please contact the DTP secretariat at [email protected].

2026: HUMAN RIGHTS AND CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN INDONESIA, AN INDONESIAN DIASPORA FORUM

UNSW Sydney, Australia, 18 June 2026: Held in collaboration with Gerakan Sydney Untuk Bersuara (GUSAR). The event featured Saurlin Siagian (Commissioner of KomnasHAM), Herlambang P. Wiratraman (Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Gadijah Mada), and Gita Putri Damayana.  Drawing on their respective areas of expertise, the speakers examined the challenges facing democratic governance, civic participation, and human rights protection in contemporary Indonesia. READ MORE

2026: BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, THE OECD GUIDELINES, AND NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS

Jakarta, Indonesia, 8-12 May 2026: Held in partnership with INFID and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. Twenty-six participants from across Indonesia gathered in Jakarta to share experiences of business impacts on human rights and the environment, with a focus on the potential of the OECD Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct to bring critical change and accountability. READ MORE

2026: SPECIAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON CHILD RIGHTS AND DIGITAL RIGHTS, WITH DR VICTOR KARUNAN

DTP was pleased to host eminent human rights activist Victor Karunan in late April. Victor shared with us “The Youth Charter: Advancing the 2030 Global Development Agenda”, the outcome of a meeting of more than 170 young delegates representing over 45 countries convened in Malaysia for the Future Action Summit in November.  READ MORE

2026: HUMAN RIGHTS, CLIMATE CHANGE AND BUSINESS IN THE PACIFIC 

Suva, Fiji, 23-27 March, 2026 in partnership with PIANGO, FCOSS and OHCHR-PRO. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development, Professor Surya Deva, was the lead trainer on the program, which hosted 23 participants from 10 countries, including DTP's first-ever participants from Palau and Niue. The program was opened by the Honourable Filimoni Vosarogo, Fiji’s Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, Regional Pacific Representative of the OHCHR Heike Alefsen, and Emeline Siale Ilolahia, Executive Director of PIANGO. READ MORE

2025: HUMAN RIGHTS DAY WORKSHOP ON ENGAGING WITH UN ANTI-TORTURE MECHANISMS

Sydney, Australia, 10 December, in partnership with STARTTS and the Whitlam Institute. Nineteen refugee and migrant community leaders participated in a capacity-building workshop lead by Steven Caruana on Human Rights Day. Read the program report here.

2025: PACIFIC VOICES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

Australia - November 12 - December 3, 2025 in partnership with PIANGO. 15 climate advocates from seven Pacific countries participated in this intense knowledge exchange and capacity building program. They met with academics, climate experts, parliamentarians, government officials and civil society. Australia's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP was special guest speaker at the Closing Reception hosted by DTP’s Chair, Michael do Rozario at Corrs Chambers Westgarth. The program was funded by DFAT’s Australia Awards Fellowships Program. WATCH DEBRIEF VIDEO FROM VANUATU FELLOWS and READ DRAFT REPORT HERE.

2025: BUILDING RESILIENCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY THROUGH CAPACITY BUILDING

2025: 33rd ANNUAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEOPLING PROGRAMMES' DIPLOMACY TRAINING PROGRAM

See program highlights short video VIEW HERE

2025: REGIONAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS EXCHANGE - LEARNING AND TRAINING 2025

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER (HRD) GUIDELINES: A DTP AND FRONT LINE DEFENDERS WEBINAR SERIES

Watch Webinar 1: What are the HRD Guidelines?

BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE OECD GUIDELINES ON RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS CONDUCT AND THE NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS (NCP) WEBINAR SERIES

Watch Webinar 1: Introduction to the Australian NCP

Watch Webinar 2: Promoting Human Rights through the Supply Chain

Watch Webinar 3: Free, Prior and Informed Consent

INDONESIAN ALUMNI WEBINAR SERIES: HUMAN RIGHTS, CLIMATE CHANGE, BUSINESS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: INDONESIA'S FOOD ESTATE IN WEST PAPUA AND ITS IMPACTS 

Watch Webinar 1: Community Impacts of the Food Estate

Watch Webinar 2: Impacts on Community and Climate

Watch Webinar 3: Merauke and Indonesia's Climate Bomb

WEBINAR SERIES - HUMAN RIGHTS, DIGITAL RIGHTS AND AI An Introduction to Governing Digital Rights and Children's Online Rights

WEBINAR SERIES – Ending Impunity for Violators of Human Rights - The Magnitsky Acts and Australia in partnership with STARTTS. WATCH HERE 

HUMAN RIGHTS WEBINAR SERIES - UN Human Rights Accountability Mechanisms in partnership with STARTTS. WATCH HERE

GENOCIDE WEBINAR SERIES - three webinars on Genocide and the Genocide Convention in partnership with STARTTS. WATCH HERE

UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (UNDRIP) WEBINAR SERIES NOW AVAILABLE HERE.

INDIA/KASHMIR Nearly 100 human rights organisations, including FORUM-ASIA, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, issue a joint statement calling for the immediate release of human rights defender Khurram Parvez, arbitrarily detained in India for over four and a half years despite a UN finding that his detention is unlawful. READ MORE

HUMAN RIGHTS Front Line Defenders launches its Global Analysis 2025/26, documenting the killing of at least 358 human rights defenders in 28 countries in 2025, and warns that defenders need stronger international support amid a worsening funding crisis driven by aid cuts. READ MORE

THAILAND FORUM-ASIA calls on Thailand to drop defamation charges against labour rights defender Oranuch "Pee Tai" Phonphinyoo and enact anti-SLAPP legislation. FORUM-ASIA urges diplomatic missions and international observers to attend and monitor Pee Tai's case proceedings. READ MORE

ISRAEL/PALESTINE The Business and Human Rights Centre reports that Microsoft has overhauled its human rights governance following an internal inquiry into the Israeli military's use of Azure. READ MORE

The International Service for Human Rights has responded to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)'s draft General Recommendation on dismantling gender stereotypes. ISHR's comments call for explicit recognition of the heightened risks facing women human rights defenders, and for states to consult with defenders in tackling stereotypes READ MORE

The ILO has succeeded in obtaining an advisory opinion from the ICJ that the 1948 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention safeguards workers' right to strike READ MORE

OHCHR calls for contributions from human rights defenders on the topic of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to inform a thematic report to the 64th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council READ MORE

OHCHR and the University of Peace invite registrations for an E-learning course, “Mainstreaming the Right to Development in Voluntary National Review Reporting”, application deadline 8 August 2026 APPLY HERE

The University of Peace invites registrations for an E-learning course “Operationalising the Right to Development in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals”, application deadline 11 July 2026 APPLY HERE

The theme of the UN Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum for Asia-Pacific this year is Building Resilience, Advancing Rights and will be held in person in Bangkok 15-17 September 2026 as well as live-streamed READ MORE

ARDEA INTERNATIONAL is hosting a webinar on 23 July 2026 which will explore how the European Union's forthcoming Forced Labour Regulation guidelines and risk database will impact Australian companies which place, make available, or export products to the EU READ MORE

INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND BUSINESS are hosting the Global Forum for Responsible Recruitment between 30 June and 1 July 2026. Stakeholders will gather to discuss how geopolitical shifts, economic uncertainty and conflict are straining labour migration governance, and how responsible recruitment practices can adapt to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers in supply chains REGISTER HERE

The UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples invites applications from Indigenous individuals and representatives to support participation in upcoming UN processes. To attend COP31 (Antalya, 9–20 Nov); BHR Forum (Geneva, 23–25 Nov) REGISTER HERE by 28 June

BRAZILIAN INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS, with the support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, has published “UPR: A Practical Guide for Civil Society Coalitions to Engage in Implementation Mechanisms”, a practical tool for national coalitions working within the UPR mechanism READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION: “Collective Voices: Back to Basics” is a series of podcasts of around 20 minutes each, on international labour standards and workers’ rights READ MORE  

Het Actie Fonds (The Action Fund) is seeking grant applications from frontline grassroots movements, including for their Climate Justice Grant program. Grants of up to €2,500 per year per group are available for projects that enable movement building and the development of radical strategies toward climate justice READ MORE

The Lighthouse Global Protection Fund delivers emergency assistance to human rights defenders and civil society organisations operating in high-risk environments worldwide.  Grants are available to eligible groups READ MORE

Tifa invites applications from civil society organisations, grassroots groups, and informal collectives from East and Southeast Asia for the Re-D Fund.  The fund provides microgrants to civil society groups using digital technologies to expand civic participation, advance rights-based reforms, and strengthen organisational resilience in the digital era. Deadline 5 June 2026 READ MORE

DTP acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work, the Bedegal people of the Eora Nation. We recognise their lands were never ceded, and we acknowledge their struggles for recognition and rights and pay our respects to the Elders – past, present – and the youth who are working towards a brighter tomorrow. This continent always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

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