Statement

At a school inauguration ceremony on January 5 at Kompong Cham province, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a stern warning to all political parties against criticising their competitors in order to win votes in the upcoming April 1 commune elections. He urged them to adopt a commercial advertisement style, extolling one’s own goods or […]

On January 10, 2007, workers of a Korean-owned factory, who have been on strike since September 25, 2006, were forced to appear in court to submit their defence in response to the charges of libel the policemen filed against them. The policemen attached to the Rosario municipal police station in Cavite arbitrarily filed libel charges […]

The judiciary of Pakistan has abdicated their duty to protect the citizens of the country by their blatant and open failure to handle cases of disappearances thereby providing the secret agencies of the Pakistan Army all the time they require to illegally detain people in torture camps. The higher judiciary of Pakistan is claiming that […]

We reproduce below the email reply from Ms. Dilruskshi Handunnetti, the Sunday leader journalist who made several allegations against the AHRC in her article entitled ‘Targeting CBK and LTTE’s southern gift’.  We have earlier shared our replies to these letters.  Kindly see AHRC-OL-001-2007, AS-001-2007 and AHRC-OL-002-2007. We reproduce below the email sent by Ms. Handunnetti today (as received) and […]

Mr. Salim Baloch, a political leader of the southern province of Balochistan was rearrested by secret service personnels after recording a statement in the Sindh High Court on 31 December 2006, in which he gave details about his nine months of captivity in different military camps and the severe physical and mental torture that, amongst […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to forward by way of this statement, a report sent to President Rajapaksa by the Bishop of Mannar on the killing of innocent civilians in an aerial bombardment carried out by the Sri Lankan Air Force. Please find a copy of my report to the H.E.President on the brutal […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns as an act that demonstrates the failure of the international community to deal with dictators within the framework of law, while not deviating from international norms and standards. The fact that the United States of America and the United Kingdom supported this act is a sad reflection on the […]

AS-321-2006 December 29, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: New Year’s Wish List for 2007 1. That fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution be fully honoured; the right against illegal arrest (Article 13.1), the right against illegal detention (article 13.2), the right against torture (Article 11) to be fully respected and […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-323-2006 December 27, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission BANGLADESH: sedition charges against leading Bangladesh lawyers involved in writ challenging assumption of office by chief adviser – Part Two The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that the police in Bangladesh have filed sedition charges against 12 lawyers […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AS-320-2006 December 27, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission BANGLADESH: Sedition charges against leading Bangladesh lawyers involved in writ challenging assumption of office by chief adviser The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that the police in Bangladesh have filed sedition charges against 12 lawyers practicing in the […]

STATEMENT- ABOLISHMENT OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION BILL On the 7th December 2006, the Supreme Court in Jakarta abolished the highly controversial Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Bill of 2004, which the residing Judges described as “illogical”. Said residing Judge Jimly Asshidiqque; “The Court rules that the law goes against the Constitution and has to […]

The newspapers reported a request by the Judicial Service Association (JSA) to “implement the death penalty to halt the loss of public confidence in the judiciary.”  This, according to the report was done at the Annual General Meeting of the association which comprises of judicial officers from High Courts, District Courts and Magistrate’s Courts around […]

We refer your our earlier statement ‘SRI LANKA: Do newspapers like the Sunday Times, Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa contribute to the prevalence of endemic torture in Sri Lanka?’ and the dossier of documents available at: http://www.srilankahr.net/pdf/newsreports_onPalithaCase.pdf.  Mr. R.S. Wijewardene, the Chairperson of Wijeya Newspapers Ltd has responded to our letter and the AHRC has replied with […]

On September 29, four members of a poor peasant Dalit (non-caste Hindu) family in Khairlanji village of Bhandara, in the northeast of the state of Maharashtra, were brutally killed in planned mob violence by caste Hindus. Four members of the family were paraded naked before almost the entire village, and tortured and savagely assaulted with […]

A policeman in the south of Thailand speaking confidentially one day to a human rights defender explained how he gets assigned to kill people. The superior officers do not give direct orders. Rather, they may call him to an informal meeting after work, and share some drinks. They bring him into their confidence, and treat […]

In September 2005 the Asian Human Rights Commission and Varanasi-based partner the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) organised a public hearing on hunger in the east of Uttar Pradesh. The panel, which was chaired by a retired high court judge, directly heard 25 detailed complaints of starvation from people of various Dalit (so-called […]

In recent weeks there has been a lot of talk in Thailand about the need to reform the police. Everyone agrees that policing in Thailand is a huge problem. As is common throughout Asia, the police force is the main day-to-day perpetrator of killings, torture and other gross abuses of human rights there. It is […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-215-2006 September 14, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission CAMBODIA: Law abolishing parliamentary immunity is unconstitutional & unacceptable On August 31 the National Assembly of Cambodia adopted a new law regarding its members. The Law on Members of Parliament is intended, among other things, to regulate parliamentary immunity, including […]

The abduction of yet another Tamil businessman on December 11, in Kotahena by an unidentified group was reported in Lankanet.  The victim is said to be Chabamale Muttu Folton (42) and he was abducted near his house at Paramananda Vihara Mawatha. The article reported the following: “The suspects who had come in a white van […]

The committee appointed to hunt for corrupt deals done by the previous government of Thailand has called for the former head of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the Ministry of Justice to appear before it on Wednesday, December 13. It is seeking answers from Pol. Gen. Sombat Amornvivat in relation to his department’s […]