Statement

Mr. Rasool Bux Mengal, joint secretary of Baloch Nationalist Movement (BNM), was abducted on August 23, 2009 by plain-clothed men on a double cabin and had since been missing. On August 31, Mr. Mengal’s body, with his identity card around his neck, was at a remote location. The wounds on the body suggest the victim’s […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) for the International Day on Enforced Disappearances. They urge Thai government comprehensive action taken against enforced disappearances to the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is saddened, disappointed and shocked but not surprised at the judgment of the High Court of Colombo in sentencing J.S. Tisssainayagam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for a simple piece of writing which he had done and which was interpreted as aiding and abetting terrorism. The AHRC is not […]

When he was made National Police Commissioner some six months ago, Nath Savoeun, set out to welcome criticism from the public of his police force whose image had been badly tarnished by his predecessor due to arbitrary arrests, brutality towards the weak and poor, and impunity for the rich and powerful. In a meeting soon […]

On 25 August, 2009 the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh issued a landmark ruling on extra-judicial penalties in the name of arbitration. The Court ordered the government, law-enforcing agents and local governments to take immediate measures. These measures are against issuance or execution of extrajudicial penalties such as beating and caning […]

On 12 August, seven-year-old Juni Kumari was found missing from her home in the village of Ghagni in the state of Bihar, India. On 15 August, her body was found abandoned in a sugarcane field near her village. Juni’s mother recovered the girl’s body. Her head had been shaven and sandalwood paste applied to her […]

On 13 August, 2009 the Chief Officer of Women and Child Development Department in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh visited Spandan, a human rights group working on right to food. Since the children died of malnutrition in 2008 (for more details on this, please refer to previous Hunger Alert), the local administration started a new project to […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-175-2009 August 21, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PHILIPPINES: Exposing witnesses to risk is systemically entrenched, not a mere ‘lack of funds’ “Lack of funds” is what Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera, head of the government’s Witness Protection Programme (WPP), described as the reasons why witnesses to extrajudicial […]

Journalists of the military-torn province of Balochistan are facing direct threats from law enforcement agencies, particularly from the Frontier Constabulary (FC), a paramilitary force operating against nationalists demanding constitutional autonomy. On August 18, 2009, the Daily Asaap, the most widely circulated Urdu-language newspaper of Balochistan province, was forced to cease its publication after receiving threats […]

In an interview posted on the website of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Thailand, the commission’s new chairwoman, Amara Pongsapich, has effectively promised to make the national rights institution meaningless and irrelevant, other than as an obstacle to human rights. Throughout the process of selecting and appointing the new commission’s seven members, who […]

On the occasion of the death of Kim Dae-jung, the former president of South Korea, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) registers its appreciation of the life and the work of this great leader who lead his people from the rule under brutal militarism to democracy. Modern South Korea owes an eternal debt to Kim […]

While the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the development that the proposed law on torture is nearing its approval following the bicameral session of the Senate and the House of Representatives it must also be said that they, the lawmakers, have for over two decades frustrated numerous torture victims in their attempts to obtain […]

Lately there has been a hectic time within the Cambodian judiciary with the actual and planned retirement and appointments of many judges and prosecutors. The government has retired and replaced half of the members, two ex-officio and two appointed, of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy (SCM), the supreme judicial body responsible for the nomination […]

India will celebrate its 62nd year of independence tomorrow. While politicians and national leaders celebrate the Independence Day, delivering speeches and attending dinners, they will have to struggle to explain why often men and women in the country lose their life each year in encounters with the law enforcement agencies. The policy makers of the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has closely followed the trial of democracy party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and three other persons in Burma, and has earlier pointed to the defects that marred the process from its inception in May 2009 (AHRC-UAC-060-2009). It shares the heavy frustration and disappointment felt worldwide over the […]

Another member of the Ahmediyya community, Rana Ata-ul Karim (36) was killed on 6 August 2009 in Multan, Pakistan. He was murdered simply for being an Ahmedi, a minority sect of Islam. Mr Karim, a well educated agriculturist, left his home for a few minutes in the afternoon and returned to find that his wife […]

On 29 July, 2009 the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) announced in a media release that the Government of Bangladesh had decided to withdraw 35 temporary camps, three infantry battalions and a brigade of the armed forces, deployed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), in the south-eastern part of the country. On 7 August, a […]

Recently, a Rattanakiri provincial court judge, Thor Saran, made a recommendation to a human rights NGO, ADHOC, to remove its prominent human rights defender named Pen Bonnar from the province where he had been working for some ten years. Judge Thor Saran said Pen Bonnar and his colleague, Chhay Ty, were under investigation for incitement […]

Last June the Cambodian government ignored the jurisdiction of the nomination and discipline of judges and prosecutors of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy (SCM) when it bypassed this SCM and got the King, who is chairman of this supreme judicial council, to retire and replace half of the eight SCM members. The retired members […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-164-2009 August 04, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission BANGLADESH: Bangladesh should be careful about the Judiciary’s independence The Government of Bangladesh issued a notification on July 30, 2009 that the country’s President had forced the retirement of two Judges — Mr. Abdul Gafur, the District and Sessions Judge of […]