Statement

The Cambodian government¡¦s drive for the all out development and beautification of urban centres has created one of the most serious problems for its people. This particular problem is widely known as land grabbing. It is characterized by the grabbing of the land belonging to the poor and weak with unjust or no compensation, by […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  March 18, 2009  ALRC-STM-002-2009 A Statement by the Asian Legal Resource Centre ASIA: The region to benefit from the High Commissioner’s visit The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) appreciates the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Navanethem Pillay to Nepal and India. During her first official visit to […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned to find two cases this month in Pakistan’s Punjab province that have targeted the Ahmadi minority sect. In one incident fifteen men in Sargodha district have been charged for attending a place of worship that resembles a mosque, after a complaint was lodged by a radical local religious […]

Clearly demonstrating the iron will of the people of Pakistan to return to the rule of law and reassert the independence of the judiciary the people took to the streets, lead by the great movement of the lawyers and ready for the long haul. The announcement today by the prime minister to reinstate the deposed […]

The law enforcement community in Pakistan has been shamed once more by an incident in which three officers arrested a boy, beat and raped him in custody, and distributed a video of the rape. A year later the boy is still in remand and the policemen have not been charged.  According to the national manager […]

For a government that came into power promising to champion the rights of lawyers and restore the independence of the judiciary, the cabinet of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has done a dramatic about-turn.  A day into the latest campaign by Pakistani lawyers and activitists, the Punjab government has been […]

The government’s announcement that permission from the Ministry of Defence is required for all functions to be conducted with the participation of the general public, and that the approval of the nearest police station must be obtained for all public functions to be conducted on a regional level, will have disastrous effects on the rule […]

Cambodia’s constitution which the Constituent Assembly issued from the UN-organised election had adopted in 1993 has established an institution of direct democracy called National Congress. This is the congress of people where, according to Article 147 of the Constitution, Cambodians meet their rulers “to be directly informed of various matters of national interest” and “to […]

A core element in any judicial function is impartiality. The common saying is that judges need not only to be impartial but need to be seen to be impartial. Over the centuries codes of conduct have been developed which places limits on the judicial officers contacts so as to ensure that parties to cases before […]

“All kinds of gambling shall be absolutely prohibited everywhere in the Kingdom of Cambodia, except when authorized by the government”, says Article 1 of the Law on the Prohibition of Gambling of 1996. This prohibition is after all not absolute, and the government had successively given licences to gambling and betting establishments to operate in […]

It was reported on Sunday, March 8 that according to the Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the arrested director of the independent news agency Prachatai is entitled to make a complaint if she feels that the police action against her was unjustified. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has already condemned in the strongest […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-053-2009  March 9, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PHILIPPINES: “Guilt by relation” renders due process meaningless On March 4, 20-year-old Rebelyn Pitao, the daughter of a rebel leader in Mindanao, was reported to have been forcibly abducted by unknown armed men, from a passenger motorcycle she was riding […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-052-2009  March 8, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PAKISTAN: Conditions for women are more precarious on International Women’s Day 2009 Much more political space has been given to women’s issues in Pakistan in recent years. The Musharraf administration passed the Women’s Protection Bill (amending the repressive Zinna and […]

According to an announcement issued today on the website of Prachatai, one of the few independent and outspoken media outlets operating in Thailand,  “On March 6, at 3 pm, seven police officers visited Prachatai office in Bangkok, showing a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai Director. She is charged with the […]

Bhagalpur, a district in Bihar state, has once again shot into notoriety for public violence. Yesterday, a mob lynched three persons at Ratanpur Bazar area of Bhagalpur. The victims of this violence belong to two rival extortion syndicates of the locality, who fired at each other to settle a dispute. A woman was injured during […]

A fundamental rights petition has been filed by two lawyers against the Inspector General of Police and 12 other police officers. This petition will be argued before the Supreme Court today (5th March) by a group of senior lawyers lead by Mr. Faiz Musthapha.  The Petitioners are H.T. Amitha Ariyaratne and H.R.D.G. Mendis, a husband […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-048-2009  March 04, 2009 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PAKISTAN: Order an honour killing – become a minister The Asian Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned to discover that a man accused of ordering an honour killing last year in a tribal court – and who is still openly pursuing the […]

In 1991 two accords were concluded to end the war that had ravaged Cambodia for so many years. These accords assigned the UN to keep the peace, organize the election of a new government and administer Cambodia for some 18 months, in 1992 and 1993, for all these purposes.  The UN presence then gave birth […]

Several events which have taken place in recent weeks remind us of the deepening of the crises in the region. In Bangladesh, in The Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) 55 officers, Seven civilians including two officer’s wives, were killed by lower ranking officers. Five other senior officers are still missing. Those who were killed include the Major […]

The reports that appeared yesterday in the Indian media quoting ‘informed sources’ that the Tamil Nadu state police has decided not to produce detainees in courts exposes the extent to which the justice institutions have broken down in India. According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 it is the statutory duty of […]