Statement

“There is anarchy and everyone is taking the law into his own hands” said the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)]. He is right! So what is the state government, led by the CPI (M), going to do about it, in West Bengal? The state has witnessed a massacre sponsored […]

On 30 March 1997, Sam Rainsy who is now the leader of Cambodia’s opposition party, organised and led a peaceful demonstration in front of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh. The rally was called to protest the corrupt judiciary, which then, as is now was under the control of the dominant Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).  […]

The last few weeks have seen the use of the powers of the Attorney General’s Department to freeze the accounts of a person associated with a leading newspaper which turned hostile to the government. Also during the last few days a former minister who had been vocal against the regime, which he served, accusing it […]

In recent weeks the Asian Human Rights Commission commented on two major violations of human rights from Pakistan. One was the severing of a young man’s penis by police officers in Larkana district, Sindh Province. It was a senseless and irrational act done within police station premises with the participation of several officers. Even after […]

AS-055-2007 March 18, 2007 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission THAILAND: The real thinking behind the coup–“What do the people know?” Last Monday, a week before the six-month anniversary of the September 19 military coup in Thailand, the March 12 edition of Matichon newspaper contained a lengthy interview with General Suchinda Kraprayoon, who […]

Unity in diversity is the catchphrase often used in reference to India. People of various cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds united to form a nation.  However, today India is a strange twist of this paradigm. In the state of West Bengal people get murdered by state agents while in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, state agents get killed […]

It appears that the enormous public support that the ‘non-functional’ Chief Justice Mr. Iftekhar Mohammad Choudry is receiving throughout the country has obviously surprised and shaken the regime of General Musharaff. The situation that has blown up has been described by observers as “… the country’s most bitter judicial crisis ever.” Justice Choudry was made […]

These are sad times for Thailand. Amid all the confusion and uncertainty at the national level, the violence in the south has gone from bad to worse with the killing of nine minivan passengers on March 14. The incident has rightly shocked the nation and has been widely condemned. At such times special attention is […]

The central and state governments of India ruling 1.2 billion people in the world’s largest democracy boasts of economic and industrial growth, surpassing almost all nations except China. Ideally, this growth should trickle down to every citizen of the country both rich and poor, so all could reap the benefits.  However, it is the deeper […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission joins in the condemnation of the attack on a minivan in Yala, southern Thailand, which left nine people dead. As has been widely reported, the vehicle was stopped in the morning of March 14 as it was travelling on the Yaha-Bannang road, and its occupants were shot. A small bomb […]

The virtual removal of Chief Justice Iftekhar Mohammad Chowdary by President Musharraf and the subsequent curtailing of his freedom of movement by putting him under house arrest has resulted in an  unprecedented protest from lawyers around the country. The massive response from Bar associations and lawyers all over Pakistan is a clear indication of the […]

The Cambodian government is to be congratulated on its ratification of the Optional Protocol and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) on 19 January 2007.  In doing do, the country has recognized the problem of torture and has voiced its trust in the implementation of the OPCAT to address this problem. As […]

One year ago on March 12, a woman named Shahin Sultana Santa was beaten and tortured by police in Dhaka while she was waiting for her son outside the boy’s school near Road number 27 of the Dhanmondi Residential Area in the capital of Bangladesh. She was beaten so badly that she suffered fractures on […]

The acting police chief of Thailand on Monday, 12 March 2007 made a verbal attack on . The Manager online newspaper quoted Pol. Gen. Seripisuth Themiyavet as saying that Angkhana should be taught to “shut up” about the case of her husband, lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who was abducted by police three years ago and whose […]

Several international experts have, in the recent week, focused on a number of very crucial issues regarding the criminal justice system of Sri Lanka. They have commented on the need for the government to “dispel serious concerns about whether the justice system is now able to carry out independent and credible investigations into who was […]

President Musharaff removed the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, on March 9, 2007 after summoning him to the President’s Camp Office in the military premises. The President thereafter proceeded to declare the Chief Justice to be non-functional. Following this the Chief Justice was not allowed to return to the Supreme Court and he is […]

The recent statement of the Inspector General of Police and his Deputy to the effect that policemen, soldiers and deserters are among those who have been investigated with regard to the allegations of abductions and disappearances should be given the serious consideration that it deserves. In terms of numbers, since September 2006 there are over […]

On March 6, the Human Security Act of 2007, which defines acts of terrorism, was signed into law (the law is available on the internet at http://philippines.ahrchk.net/pdf/HumanSecurityActof2007.pdf). It will take effect two months after elections in May 2007 are concluded. The new law defines the crime of terrorism as “sowing and creating a condition of widespread […]

The admission by the Chief of Police in Sri Lanka that the police, army and the army deserters are responsible for abductions and killings of civilians is a bold move. However, for the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) this is no news since the AHRC has been in the past calling for intervention and warning […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-040-2007 March 2, 2007 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PAKISTAN: Women fighting for their rights and groups fighting for electoral reforms express frustration over government’s failure to implement laws A group of civil society organisations threatened to launch a campaign for the protection of the rights of women in […]