The 12th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights was co-organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (delegated by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.  The 12th edition focused on "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 examined these impacts, both negative and positive, from a human rights stand point, and brought together over 100 government officials and members of civil society from across Asia and Europe to share specific experiences and best practice.   The discussions had four closed Working Groups, each focusing on one of four core topic areas: Freedom of Expression The Right to Privacy The ‘Digital Divide’ The Right to Cultural Enjoyment on the Internet   

Budapest, Hungary: Hungary, upon the consultation with ASEM partners, intends to launch the initiative of an ASEM Sustainable Development Dialogue by hosting the first event of the sequence of seminars in Budapest on 20-22 June, 2012 focusing on the ‘Role of Water in Sustainable Regional Development Strategies’.   Water emerged as a key environmental and development priority on the Hungarian EU Presidency’s agenda, therefore Hungary wishes to emphasize on the importance of the issue of water and would like to see it to be included with greater focus to the future agenda of ASEM cooperation as well. Hungary believes that the proposed event in Budapest could highlight the importance of water as an overarching issue through several different areas of interregional cooperation from regional connectivity, economic integration, through disaster preparedness and management, climate change and environment, water management and food security including the accessibility of drinking water, to even poverty reduction. Sharing experiences and best practices in this regard between macro-regional development strategies such as the Danube Region Strategy and the Greater Mekong Subregion shall provide additional benefits and hopefully significantly enrich interregional co-operation, not only among these two subregional development initiatives, but at the same time other regions and river-valleys…

Senior Officials from Asia and ASEM Coordinators will convene in Islamabad.

Singapore:  Entitled, "National, Regional and International Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and Response", leaders from Asia and Europe will come together to discuss ways to improve nuclear safety.  The Seminar will be hosted by the Republic of Singapore.   Background In spite of the setbacks to the nuclear industry and the negative effect on public confidence caused by the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the fundamental reasons that drive countries to explore nuclear energy have not changed. Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, strong economic growth and a rising population will continue to push up demand for energy. The lack of viable alternative energy sources and the climate change concerns faced by many countries render it difficult for them to reject the option of nuclear energy. Many countries will proceed with their nuclear energy plans. Steps will therefore have to be taken to improve nuclear safety at all levels to ensure public health and confidence.   Objectives The main purposes of the ASEM Seminar on Nuclear Safety are to initiate discussions on nuclear safety within ASEM, and to foster Asia-Europe capacity-building and cooperation in this area. We propose to focus on the theme of “National, Regional and International Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and Response”, in order to…

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia -- The 4th ASEM Environment Ministers' Meeting will focus on "Sustainable Water and Forest Management".   Water and forest are the most important resources of our globe which are dwindling in reserves even more due to climate change and unsound human activities.The availability and access to clean water is increasingly threatened by overuse, misuse and pollution, while forests have been cut and burnt at unprecedented scale. In recent years, estimates for deforestation and forest degradation were shown to account for 20-25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.   The Meeting would provide the member countries timely opportunity to exchange views on appropriate policies and best practices encourage and facilitate further cooperation and raise public awareness of scarcity of water and forests.