Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-137-2009 June 17, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SOUTH KOREA: Prosecutor deprives defendants of opportunity to fair trial It is well known that the Republic of Korea has achieved rapid economic growth within a relatively short period of time. What is less well known however, is the corruption […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-135-2009 June 16, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Registers on entry and leaving of internally displaced persons needs to be created urgently to prevent forced disappearances Every day 20 to 30 young persons are taken away and their whereabouts are unknown, a leading human rights organisation […]

Prime Minister Hun Sen is utilising much of the country’s electronic media to assert his leadership of the country and send out messages to his people through his public speeches at different functions. Now and again in such speeches he rebukes his critics and makes disparaging remarks and even or threats against them. At times, […]

Over the recent months, a human rights NGO, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), has been making arrangements to hold a public forum for concerned officials and residents of Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh to discuss the issue of the eviction of these residents without just compensation. The Municipality of Phnom Penh has […]

Dear Friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from a Group of Concerned Tamils of Sri Lanka. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from a Group of forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Tuesday, June 9th 2009 We appeal to all concerned to attend to the pressing needs of […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-133-2009 June 9, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: The need to set aside the blatantly wrong conviction of Anthony Fernando With the retirement of the former chief justice, Sarath Nanda Silva, the opportunity has arisen for the correction of a blatantly illegal and unjust judgment relating […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, Thailand (SERC) on submission of ILO complaint regarding systematic discrimination against Burmese Migrants in Thailand. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation, Thailand (SERC) forwarded by the Asian […]

(Fr. Tissa Balisuriya, chairperson of the Centre for Society & Religion, Sri Lanka, has sent to the AHRC an open letter which he has written and which was published earlier by the Sunday Island with a request to give some publicity to the letter. We are publishing the entirety of the letter together with a […]

Cambodian society was under communist rule for some 15 years before the international community helped it to embrace liberal, pluralistic democracy with rule of law and respect for human rights at the beginning the 1990s. It has in many ways become an open society where people can enjoy property rights, freedom of enterprise in a […]

The targeted killing of members of the Ahmadi community, a minority sect of Islam, is continuing in the Punjab province. In the latest incident, Mian Laiq Ahmad, 54, a well known Ahmadi trader in Faisalabad, an industrial area of Punjab province, was attacked on May 28, by three armed men whilst sitting in his car. […]

Sixty-two children have died of malnutrition in Khalwa Block of Khandwa district since May 2008. They were all from the Korku community, a tribe about which the outside world knows very little. There have been many malnutrition related deaths in the tribal communities in India in different states including Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. […]

The investigation into the assault on journalist Poddala Jayantha took a new turn when the police arrested and interrogated another journalist who provided the initial information about Mr. Jayantha’s abduction. Journalists groups accused the Sri Lankan police of covering up the real culprits of the abduction and the serious assault on Mr. Jayantha. Mr. Bennet […]

When the 67-page PowerPoint presentation containing the list of 105 names of persons, including lawyers, union leaders, religious leaders, human rights and political activists, appeared in public after having been reportedly leaked by a military source, what immediately came to mind was that the reaction and implications were reminiscent of the recent past: victims and their organisation […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-125-2009 June 2, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Journalist attacked – a civil society organisation threatened and a provocative campaign against freedom of expression continues Poddala Jayantha was abducted yesterday (June 1), and was later found with head and leg injuries. He is now undergoing treatment […]

Very recently the Cambodian authorities spurned the recommendations made by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights following its review of Cambodia’s implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). When asked about the recommendations, Cheam Yeap, a Member of Parliament from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, who usually […]

A recent announcement of the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agency (ISI) stated that the Taliban are taking shelter in the Gilgit and Baltistan areas. They are a disputed part of Jammu & Kashmir, according to the United Nation Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolutions of 13th August, 1948, and of 5th January 1949. […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-123-2009 May 29, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission INDIA: Hard-won ration cards for bereaved parents: a sign of change or pure political posturing? On 3 April 2009, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), through its Hunger Alert Programme, reported the death of sixty-two children in Khalwa Block of […]

Since the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) first reported on the torture of Mr. Fazal Abbas and his family by police earlier this month, details of escalating brutality have continued to become public, particularly in the case of Abbas’ brother-in-law, Mr Shafiq Dogar. The events are horrifying enough on their own, but when one imagines […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-121-2009 May 27, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: A few tests to measure the love for the country Mahinda Rajapakse, the president of Sri Lanka in his now famous speech to parliament stated that now there are only two kinds of Sri Lankans in the country; […]

A member of parliament and representative of the opposition, Dayasiri Jayasekara, was assaulted by a group of supporters of the ruling party when he attempted to erect a facilitation board for the president and the commanders of the three armed forces. He is now undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Colombo and is reported […]