Statement

Cambodia acceded to the Convention against (CAT) in 1992. Its criminal law, adopted in the same year, has succinctly criminalised torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees and punishes any public agent who violates this right with one to five years in prison. Torture and other forms of ill-treatment have […]

On the International day for the elimination of torture the special consideration of the extremely harsh conditions prevailing in Sri Lanka relating to the observance of human rights needs to be stressed. Abductions, forced disappearances, killing of persons after arrest, torture and other gross abuses of human rights are accompanied by the failure of the […]

In recent months, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has heard of more and more cases of torture by state officials in Thailand. The majority of these cases are from the south and northeast. The fact that the two regions are at the opposite ends of the country and yet the practices bear many resemblances […]

Torture victims in the Philippines have suffered from the physical and mental pain inflicted on them by those who have mercilessly tortured them and have suffered a second time from the lack of a law criminalising torture. For years, torture victims in the country have been waiting for redress and a legal tool they can […]

The sentence meted out to the five police officers of Banjansari District Police Station found guilty of having tortured Roni Ronaldo to death on 20th November 2006, serves as evidence of Indonesia’s flawed legislation regarding torture. In fact, torture is still not criminalized, and no adequate punishment is provided by the Indonesian law. If an […]

The serious collapse of the rule of law in Sri Lanka is accompanied by the collapse of the policing system, the degeneration of the prosecuting system under the Attorney General’s Department and the problems of the judicial system. The first two statements of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) have already pointed out […]

The adoption of on the President’s text is an important achievement. We thank Ambassador de Alba and congratulate him on his untiring efforts over the last year to bring the Council to this point. Without him the Council could not be where it is today. We also pay tribute to the Facilitators and many others […]

Earlier the Asian Human Rights Commission shared the Open Letter written to the Acting President and the Dean of the School of Law of the City University regarding the participation of the Chief Justice, Sarath Silva of Sri Lanka, in a conference entitled “Hong Kong Basic Law: the First Ten years and its future”. In […]

The statements made by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India at the 5th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions appeared as if the NHRC is confused about its own mandate. The NHRC is a human rights monitoring institution constituted by an Act of Parliament, ‘The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993’. The […]

June 17, 2007, was bad day for journalists in Pakistan as one was shot dead and another was arrested by the law enforcement agencies and has been missing since then. His whereabouts are not known and his parents fear that he has been killed by the military. According to the reports received, Mr. Abdul Lateef […]

The shooting of the villagers in Pasuruan Rajawali Nusantara Corporation (RNC), having links with the Indonesian Naval Forces – Navy’s Eastern Fleet in Surabaya, cultivated a disputed land in Alas Tlogo Village, Lekok, Pasuruan, East Java. The villagers had been claiming the traditional ownership of the land for sometime. On 30 May 2007, RNC started […]

According to an article in The Nation newspaper of June 12, the attorney general of Thailand has proposed to increase the powers of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the justice ministry so that the department could overrule the public prosecutor in cases where the latter decides not to go to court on the […]

In recent weeks the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received many detailed and worrying reports about the in Burma. Gangs of thugs, apparently most under the direction of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a mass-organising body, have been used to attack human rights defenders going about their business and persons holding prayer […]

Mr. Nisar Khokhar, a correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) along with a local newspaper journalist was stopped from entering the district of Dera Bugti, Balochistan province where the Pakistan Army has been conducting military operations since 2001. Mr. Khokhar was assigned to investigate a report of seven women who were arrested at the […]

The President refuses to meet with the UN Special Representative to the Secretary General On Human Rights Defenders. The refusal by president of Indonesia, Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to meet with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, Ms. Hina Jilani is very much to be regretted. This incident coming in […]

Joint Oral Intervention by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), and Migrants Rights International and Pax Romana, at the 5th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, during the Interactive […]

Hundreds of political activists and ordinary citizens have been arrested in Pakistan in an attempt to prevent people from participating in a welcoming rally in honour of the Chief Justice Mr. Iftekhar Choudhray who is scheduled to visit Faisalabad, an industrial city in Punjab province, on June 16, 2007. The Chief Justice of Pakistan is […]

President Mahinda Rajapakse will be attending meetings in Geneva in an attempt to discuss serious allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka including abductions, forced disappearances, torture, the forced expulsion of almost 400 Tamils from Colombo, problems of a few hundred thousand internally displaced persons and the general breakdown of the rule of law […]

On June 1st the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) submitted its first Interim Report to the President of Sri Lanka. The report contained the observations and concerns of the IIGEP about the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquiry into Alleged Serious Violations of Human Rights (The Presidential Commission). Among other things […]

The following is a statement delivered on behalf of the Asian Legal Resource Centre supported by the Law society and Trust, Sri Lanka at 5th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. June 11th 2007 – 5th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. Oral Intervention of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, Hong Kong supported […]