Statement

The Constitutional Court decided yesterday that two articles of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration are unconstitutional. They are article 10 of the Act prohibiting assembly and demonstrating before sunrise and after sunset and article 21(2) describing punishment for a person who violates article 10. In its judgement the Constitutional Court left the responsibility to […]

The Pakistan government’s announcement to push ahead with a plan to sell or lease 500,000 acres of farmland to Saudi Arabia has caused widespread outrage at home, raising serious concern over the deterioration of food security and the threat to territorial integrity. Tauqir Ahmad Faiq, regional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the ongoing […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the release of prisoners from jails around Burma during the last week, especially human rights defenders and persons who were detained during and after the protests of August and September 2007, including numbers of persons on whose cases the AHRC has issued urgent appeals. However, it notes with […]

Those Sri Lankans who grew up before 1971 have seen, at least in a limited way, some basic freedoms. None of them were used to midnight knocks on their doors. If they went to a courthouse, they could expect certain treatment that, though imperfect, would be relatively fair. If a policeman arrested them, they could […]

The body of a high-profile Taliban commander, Sher Muhammad Qassab, was found on the roadside at his hometown, Charbagh, Swat valley on Sunday, four days after his widely publicized arrest on September 16. The government had previously announced a head money of Rupees 10 million for his capture. Qassab was the key commander of Taliban […]

The President of Sri Lanka is reported to have instructed the Defense Secretary to verify the facts stated in a newspaper advertised petition published in several papers, signed by 133 persons condemning the death threat to Dr. P. Saravanamuttu who has received the threat by way of a letter that he would be killed if […]

The criminal nexus between Pakistan’s government administration, police and Muslim fundamentalist organizations has once again brought to the limelight in the extra-judicial torture and killing of a Christian boy following a hate campaign against Christians in Jethki village, Sialkot district, Punjab province on September 11. Please refer to our previous AHRC statement: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2224/. The killing of […]

UN Human Rights Council Member-States September 14, 2009 The undersigned human rights organizations have the pleasure of writing to request that, in the upcoming session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which will take place between September 14th and October 2nd, UN Human Rights Council Member-States will both discuss the situation of serious and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the uncontrolled violence against religious minorities in various districts of Punjab province, instigated by fundamentalist Muslim groups and religious leaders who illegally use mosque loud speakers to provoke Muslim folks to attack the settlements of religious minorities. The situation has dramatically worsened after the formation […]

Last week two prominent LTTE leaders, Daya Master and George Master, were released on personal bail by a Magistrate in Colombo after the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) filed a report stating that the inquiries under the Prevention of Terrorism Law were concluded and that there was no evidence to proceed against them under this law. […]

On Sep 2, 2009, Hong Kong SAR government announced that the food allowance in lieu of free food for foreign domestic helpers would be increased from not less than HKD 300 per month to not less than HKD 740 per month. Please see the full text. The statement that announced the freezing of domestic helpers’ wage […]

The state fails to respect UN Human Rights Committee¡¦s request to provide protection to a family of witnesses following the assassination of the husband The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the Sri Lankan government to honour the request made by the Human Rights Committee under its rules of procedure to provide protection to a mother […]

On the 10th September, 2009 the Torture and Custodial Death (Prohibition) Bill, 2009 was placed before parliament. This bill attempts to bring Bangladeshi law in conformity with the international law. This bill has come to the parliament by way of a private member¡¦s bill proposed by Saber Hossain Chowdhury, one of the members for Dhaka […]

While the country faced two unexpected deaths of former presidents this year, which have been commemorated nationwide, the deaths of five men in the process of forcible dispersal by the police which took place in January 20 in Youngsan-4ga, Seoul have been forgotten by the people and are no longer discussed by the media due […]

On September 2, the Asian Legal Resource Centre released a statement calling urgent attention of the UN Human Rights Council to the threat of indiscriminate revenge killings in Balochistan made by Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies. (Please refer to the ALRC statement at: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2205/) That threat was tragically realized on September 6, when the Frontier Constabulary (FC), […]

A recent incident in Balochistan has put a temporary halt to the year-long targeted killings of non-ethnic Baloch teachers in the province. It has also clearly exposed the hand of state agencies in the deaths, and the resulting province-wide unrest. On 22 August two men were captured by residents of Mastung (near Quetta) as they […]

Unlike many other countries, Cambodia is bound to international human rights obligations, including one towards its citizens who wish to participate in the promotion of human rights. Thus, under the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 that ended the conflict in that country, “Cambodia undertakes”, among other things, “to support the right of all (its) citizens […]

On September 7, 2004 human rights defender, reformer and leading civil society activist Munir Said Thalib was killed for his critical views of the government and military in Indonesia. One of Munir’s main achievements was the elucidation of crimes committed by the military in both Indonesia and East Timor. More than ten years after Suharto’s […]

The recent case against Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese junta is internationally well known. The case and the verdict were condemned all over the world as one more demonstration of a completely fake trial merely orchestrated to silence Burma’s opposition leader. She has already been under house arrest for two decades. Aung San […]

A letter came from the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) postmarked Delhi 14 July 2009 was received by the AHRC. It concerned two complaints regarding children who died of malnutrition in Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh in 2007 (for the full text of the letter, please see here). The final conclusion after two year and […]