Open Letter

You will be familiar with the case of Somchai Neelaphaijit, the human rights lawyer who was forcibly disappeared in Bangkok on the night of 12 March 2004 after he had publicly alleged that five of his clients were tortured. The Criminal Court, former prime minister and head of the Council for National Security have all […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 7, 2007 AHRC-OL-009-2007 An Open Letter to the Editor of The Nation by the Asian Human Rights Commission The Editor The Nation 44 Moo 10 Bang Na-Trat KM 4.5 Bang Na, Bangkok 10260  THAILAND Fax: +662 751 4446 Dear Sir THAILAND: Denial of reality won’t restore human rights The Asian Human […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to hear that the interim prime minister of Thailand, General Surayud Chulanont, on 23 February 2007 ordered the setting up of a “special committee to prosecute violations of human rights and extrajudicial killings” from 2001 to 2006, under the Ministry of Justice. We expect that the special […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you to seek your intervention into the case of a human rights defender wrongly detained on fabricated charges by the police in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, India. Gopen Sharma has been held in prison since February 8 on frivolous and fabricated charges. His repeated bail […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you in response to reports in the Bangkok daily newspapers that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has offered to assist the government of Thailand in reforming its police force. As you will be aware, police reform has been a subject of debate […]

I refer to the complaint made by Dr. Lenin Raghuvansi [please refer to your case number 5840/24/97-98] of a well planned assassination attempt on his life. The attempt was on 18.02.1998. He has given detailed information that his house was surrounded by police officers from Ramnagar police station in an attempt to assassinate him the […]

January 23, 2007 AHRC-OL-004-2007 An Open Letter to the chief of the Philippine National Police by the Asian Human Rights Commission General Oscar Calderon Chief Philippine National Police (PNP) Camp General Rafael Crame Quezon City PHILIPPINES Tel: +63 2 726 4361/4366/8763 Fax: +63 2724 8763 Email: bluetree73@gmail.com Dear General Calderon PHILIPPINES: Retract statement justifying killing & […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you regarding the press release issued by the Philippine Information Agency on January 12 entitled, “PNP clarifies case of Herman Baria before Asian Human Rights Commission”. The press release consisted entirely of remarks by Police Chief Superintendent Geary L. Barias denying any wrongdoing by his subordinates […]

 the Sunday Leader issueThe Editor Sunday Leader Newspaper Leader Publications (Pvt) Ltd. 98, Ward Place, Colombo 7 Sri LankaFax : +94-75-365891 – email : editor@thesundayleader.lk Dear Sir, The short summary of the letter I sent to you on January 1, 2007 published in your paper on January 7, amounts sadly to a very crude distortion of […]

(Sunday Leader December 31, 2006) I am writing this to clarify misinformation contained in an article entitled ‘Targeting CBK and LTTE’s southern gift’, by Dilrukshi Handunnetti, which appeared in your newspaper on December 31, 2006. This article contains misinformation on two issues: regarding the allegation made by the AHRC against Chandrika Kumaratunga (CBK) to UNESCO […]

In a feature entitled Review Essay – Targeting the NGO sector, The Island December 22, 2006, I found the following reference. “The Chairman of the seminar was a lawyer who I knew as a member of the organization which published Christian Worker. But that day, he had been presiding at the seminar in his incarnation […]

Koichiro Matsuura  Director-General United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation 7, place de Fontenoy  75352 Paris 07 SP  France Fax: +33 (0)1 45 67 16 90 E-mail: bpi@unesco.org Dear Mr. Matsuura, SRI LANKA: Further information on our initial complaint of October 26, 2006 to the former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga’s appointment as We refer to […]

A newspaper item appeared yesterday in the Daily Mirror (December 21, 2006) reporting that a press release from your office stated: “…that the Human Rights Organization based in Hong Kong, is a small organization representing the LTTE as a habit and that the charges against her appointment, were made by it (sic).” Since it is […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing in response to your December 5 statement in which you expressed your support for an illegal sale of 115 hectares of public land in Bokeo district, Ratanakiri province, Cambodia. You will recall that the concerned land, which belongs to the 840 indigenous villagers of Chrung and Kachok […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you to seek your intervention regarding the attempts of a village head in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh to block the construction of a school for poor local children because of his caste discrimination. According to our local partner, the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you concerning the closure of the Mast FM 103 radio station in Balakot, North West Frontier Province, in response to your letter of 6 November 2006 (Ref. No. F-10-4[109] Gen-2006) informing us that “the matter is closed”. We beg to differ. You will recall that the […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 10, 2006 AHRC-OL-064-2006 An Open Letter to the interim prime minister of Thailand by the Asian Human Rights Commission General Surayud Chulanont Interim Prime Minister Government House Pitsanulok Road, Dusit District Bangkok 10300 THAILAND Fax: +662 282 8631/ 280 1589/ 629 8213 Dear General Surayud THAILAND: Serious questions about “blacklists” demand […]

We are writing to you today to express our outrage at the total failure of the authorities in Pakistan to investigate, prosecute, try and punish the perpetrators of the brutal revenge killing of a social activist’s son in Karachi two years ago. On 8 November 2004, Faraz Ahmed Naveed, a 21-year-old philosophy student at the […]

We are writing to you regarding the position you have taken, as reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer on November 4, 2006, following the Philippines’ election on November 2, 2006, as a member of the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The Philippines received the most votes in the election, gaining 188 out of 192 […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 3, 2006 AHRC-OL-061-2006 An Open Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights by the Asian Human Rights Commission Louise Arbour High Commissioner UN High Commission on Human Rights OHCHR-UNOG 8-14 Avenue de la Paix 1211 Geneva 10 SWITZERLAND Fax:  +41 22 917-9006 Dear Ms. Arbour THAILAND: UN role needed […]