Statement

The existence of independent and strong media is a prerequisite for the working of a free and just society that governs itself by the rule of law. The role of media in establishing such a society is to act as the eyes and ears of the people, forming the collective conscience of the nation. After […]

It was officially announced yesterday, December 5, that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao where the November 23 massacre took place, under the State of Martial Law. President Macapagal-Arroyo signed the Proclamation, No. 1959, placing the province’s 36 Municipalities, except the areas previously identified as having been occupied by Moro […]

It is evident by recent events that the state intelligence agencies remain above the law and are spending more time and resources on monitoring freedom of expression rather than doing their professional duties. In a recent incident the house of a journalist, Mr. Kamran Shafi, was attacked in late night hours with small arms fire. […]

The Indian media often report with contempt the killing and maiming of the citizens by non-state actors. The limited debate in the country upon the issue is centred on the illegitimacy of violence used by the terrorists, insurgents and armed resistance movements, and is highly polarised. Except for the effort of a few publications like […]

A Study of Police Torture in Sri Lanka by Morten Koch Andersen and Basil Fernando The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you about the publication of a new book on the failing judicial systems and the issue of the endemic torture practiced at police stations in Sri Lanka. This study is a result […]

(“We don’t care about it, we don’t know about it” – the Acting Head of the Provincial Police)     As it has been widely reported, 57 people-including two human rights lawyers and 30 journalists – were slaughtered on November 23 in Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao. While much of the stories and worldwide […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-233-2009 November 27, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission NEPAL: The DPKO must repatriate Major Basnet to Nepal to stand trial Major Niranjan Basnet is an officer of the Nepal Army against whom there is an arrest warrant pending in Nepal. The warrant is issued by the Kavre District […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-234-2009 November 27, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PAKISTAN: Another Ahmadi academic is killed by Muslim fundamentalists On November 26, 2009 Mr. Rana Salim, a well known educationalist of Sanghir district, Sindh province, was shot dead. Mr. Salim and his wife ran the prestigious New Life public school, […]

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) condemn the execution of two human rights lawyers, Concepcion Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo, along with 55 others in the November 23, 2009 massacre in Maguindanao province of the Philippines. condemn government failure to investigate the murders of more that […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-PUB-006-2009 November 26, 2009 A Publication by the Independent Citizens’ Fact-Finding Report to the Nation forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission INDIA: Democracy ‘Encountered’: Rights’ Violations in Manipur Manipur, a state in the north-east of India is often in news for all the wrong reasons. The irony, unfortunately, is that there […]

The women of Pakistan bear the brunt of poor governance, military strife, and the corruption of the social, political and economic systems which surround them. W omen make up 49% of the population of Pakistan, yet they are continuously marginalized and discriminated against by the middle class and feudal societies, and through political and social […]

“The theory or the claim made by the leaders of the movements or the icons, from political or social organisations, does not carry conviction to conclude that the demolition that was carried out by the karsevaks [soldiers] spontaneously out of sheer anger or emotions. The mode of assault, the small number of karsewaks who carried out the demolition and […]

Today the world celebrates International Child Rights Day. While declarations and promises are made to guarantee safe living conditions for children, little is known about an estimated 70,000 bonded child labourers working in ‘rat mines’ of Meghalaya state in India. The Impulse NGO Network, an independent human rights organisation working in Shillong, Meghalaya, estimates that […]

In recent days police in Thailand arrested and charged another person over causing a decline in the stock market by spreading rumours through the Internet about the king’s health. According to news reports, Tassaporn Ratawongsa, 42, a radiologist at the Thonburi Hospital was arrested on 18 November 2009 and charged under section 14 of the […]

It may have a recently-restored judiciary and an elected government that claims a strong interest in the rule of law, but Pakistan is seeing little progress in the hundreds of missing person’s cases still pending. Pakistanis continue to be regularly ‘disappeared’ after arrest. With the police force exposed as increasingly negligent and corrupt, the responsibility […]

E.M. Parvati died yesterday. Parvati was a resident of Belgachhia Bhagar, a municipal dumping ground of Howrah in West Bengal. The doctor who examined Parvati’s body certified that the cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis aggravated by severe malnourishment and anaemia. Parvati is not the first person in her family to die in this manner. […]

Bangladesh’s Minister for Home Affairs Ms. Sahara Khatun has reportedly said that “no ‘crossfire’ killing [has] occurred since her party has assumed office” in January this year while she was speaking to the media yesterday, 17 November 2009. The minister made this statement on the same day when a Division Bench of the High Court […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-224-2009 November 16, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission INDIA: Civil society demands “food security to all” On November 9 2009, a number of human rights activists working on right to food issues in fourteen districts came to Jaipur, Rajasthan in order to discuss the current food insecurity as […]

The Sri Lankan government today issued emergency regulations to be operative from midnight tonight (November 16, 2009) which makes the services relating to oil, electricity, harbor and water resources essential services. This gazette notification means that any action taken by the trade unions for the improvement of wages and working conditions within these essential service […]

The employees in the Sri Lanka Ports Development Authority complained of death threats while engaged in a work-to-rule action for the improvement of wages. These employees have complained that for four years there has been no improvement of wages, although living costs have been rising steadily and significantly. Yesterday, the 11th November, they successfully completed […]