Statement

On January 23, 2008 the Board of Directors of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) announced that it was granting its 3rd Asian Human Rights Defender Award jointly to Mr. Muneer Malik, former President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, and his successor, Choudhry Aitezaz Ahsan. A short while later, Mr. Baseer Naveed, a […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-097-2008 April 17, 2008 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Evolution of the falsifier’s role of the Attorney General’s Department AG backs government – government backs the AG and no one is backing the rule of law Today (April 17, 2008), a news item appeared reporting that the […]

The eleven-member International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) consisted of representatives from India, France, Indonesia, the United States, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Canada, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, abandoned their efforts to assist the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Violations of Human Rights. They were convinced, after a […]

After nearly two years, the Office of the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (Moleo) has resolved to “close and terminate” the investigation they were conducting into the complaint against policemen who threatened, arrested, detained and filed false charges against eight workers in September 2006. In dismissing the complaint, the Ombudsman’s graft prevention control officer, Danilo […]

The brutal attacks on April 9, 2008, in Karachi claimed the lives of 14 persons including a child. Six persons were burned alive of which four persons were lawyers and the other two their two women clients. 19 lawyers are reportedly missing who are feared to be abducted, tortured and killed. More than 70 offices […]

Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Lawyers Without Borders/Canada (LWB/C) call on the Government of Pakistan to immediately provide effective protection to Pakistan lawyers and to prevent future and punish past attacks on them. LRWC, ALRC and LWB/C repeat the call on the new government of Pakistan to act […]

The news that 54 persons died in the back of a truck as they were being transported to work illegally in Thailand on 10 April 2008 has again drawn global attention to the desperate conditions in Burma from which thousands escape daily in search of means of livelihood elsewhere, and the dangers that invariably lie […]

According to reports from Karachi seven charred bodies have been recovered yesterday, the 9th April, 2008. Among them were the bodies of five lawyers including two women. In total 11 persons were killed during the violence.  These attacks are the result of a fresh unleashing of violence against the lawyer’s movement which is demanding a […]

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has started the first session of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) from yesterday. India is among the 16 states that will be reviewed during this session. The session will end on 18th April. India will be reviewed tomorrow. The review session is held in Geneva. The UPR is […]

In recognition of the horrific violations of the rights of its people in its recent past and in order to prevent any recurrence of such violations, Cambodia, by virtue of the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 that put an end to the war, has undertaken, among other things, to “ensure respect for and observance of […]

The Sinhala and Tamil New Year used to be a time of recreation and relaxation for all the communities of Sri Lanka, more or less like Christmas time in the west, or Chinese New Year for the Chinese. However, this year the 11th to the 13th April New Year holidays will be accompanied with sad […]

We reproduce below a letter written by an Attorney-at-Law, Mr. W.J. Basil Fernando, on behalf of Ms. Padma Wickramaratna, the widow of Gerald Perera. This letter sums up the grounds on which an appeal may be lodged against this judgement. The letter was addressed to the Deputy Solicitor General, Mr. Shavindra Fernando who prosecuted the […]

A week ago, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an urgent appeal on the 27 March 2008 night time assault on a Rangoon street of 57-year-old human rights defender U Myint Aye, who had to receive stitches for an injury to his head caused by being hit from behind. So far there have been […]

What if some one says that and asks you to disprove it?  Or, if a whole society or even a large part of it begins to believe in fact that two and two is five.  This may be dismissed by some as pure fantasy.  However, in many matters regarding society, particularly in matters relating to […]

Thirty nine (39) persons, mostly young people, remain missing after arrest during ; their whereabouts are unknown to their families. The state intelligence agencies are still operative in arbitrarily arresting people, keeping them in custody for several months and torturing them to confess their involvement in crimes against the state. After the general elections of […]

Gerarld Perera was a torture victim recognized by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.  Attorney General filed action against 6 police officers for the torture of Gerald Perera.  A week before Gerald Perera was to give evidence before court , he was assassinated while travelling by bus.  The purpose of this assassination was to prevent […]

The Pakistan Rangers, a Pakistan army’s organization, has severely beaten and abused a professor of Karachi on the question of his identity. Dr. Riaz Ahmed, Assistant professor of  Applied Chemistry department of University of Karachi,  was maltreated and beaten with fists and boots and dragged up to two meters by the officials of Pakistan Rangers […]

The announcement by the IIGEP of the ending of their involvement in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Alleged Serious Violations of Human Rights came yesterday (31st March). A day later, the Jaffna-based University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR J) issued a report naming the perpetrators of the killings of the […]

According to recent press reports about 79 persons, both from the political arena and law enforcement agencies were killed in Karachi, Sindh province, during this month alone (March), when the assemblies of the different provinces are under the process of their installations. The media is terming these killings as ‘target killings’ which started just after […]

Between 22 and 27 March, two dead bodies were kept at the Kolkata Police Mortuary waiting for an inquest. The two persons, Mr. Paran Molla and Mr. Mohammad Shamim, reportedly died while in the custody of the state government authorities in West Bengal. Paran died at Kasipur Police Station and Mohammad at the Presidency Central […]