Statement

A senior political activist, Mr. Aftab Ahmed, working for the fourth biggest parliamentary party, MQM, has been allegedly extrajudicially executed in Rangers’ custody. He ostensibly died due to a heart attack, but his body bears evidence of torture, including burns. As their first response, the Pakistan Rangers denied Aftab was tortured and claimed he suffered […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) first learned from national and local sources that on May 2, police officers arrested at least 1,724 indigenous Papuans who took part in a peaceful protest in Jayapura and other cities in Papua. Subsequently, the AHRC received updated information that the number of indigenous Papuans arrested (primarily students) was […]

A statement on World’s Press Freedom Day-Pakistan is the fourth most dangerous country in the world for the journalists The freedom of press is a precious privilege that no country can afford to forgo; it is the fundamental right that affords the citizen their right to information and acts as a vigilante force against tyranny […]

Saturday, 30 April 2016, was the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a long-time labour rights activist and human rights defender. On 30 April 2011, Somyot was arrested on allegations of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code. He was held for six months of pre-trial detention and then hearings in his case […]

Labour Day in Pakistan is oxymoronic, because the day is just another holiday for the nation’s better off population, while the labour class toils under the blazing sun. Perhaps on no other day does the class difference between the haves and have nots manifest itself as clearly as it does on this day. Throughout the […]

Last Sunday, the Chief Justice of India, Justice T.S. Thakur, made an emotional plea to the Executive to increase the number of judges and fill up the vacant posts to fix the issue of the severe shortage of judges in India. A visibly crestfallen man, the Chief Justice spoke in detail about the challenges faced […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly objects to the arrest of Nepali journalist and civil society leader Kanak Mani Dixit on corruption charges. He has been arrested on the orders of the country’s anti-corruption body, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), on 22 April 2016. According to the CIAA’s press release […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward an interview by Mr. Basil Fernando, Director – Policies & Programmes of the AHRC in Sirasa TV, News 1st, Live on 26th April 2016. In the interview Mr. Fernando speaks on the modalities of appointments to the public services including the police service, the Attorney General’s Department, […]

April 24, was the frightening Sunday for the poor families including shepherds and daily wage earners of different parts of the Baluchistan in a drive to punish Baloch folks for boycotting by-elections conducted under the supervision of military to get the candidate from ruling party to win. The separatist and nationalist groups claim that the […]

That the Pakistan Military has been extending its tentacles to envelop the State apparatus is no secret. However, a lesser-known aspect is the economic hegemony it is perpetuating over peasants in the shape of Military Farms Okara. Illegal land grabbing is now being used as a most profitable business for the force, which has anyway […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward the interview by Mr. Basil Fernando, Director – Policies & Programmes of the AHRC in News Line TV 1. In the interview Mr. Fernando speaks about the importance of re-establishing a criminal justice framework in Sri Lanka that is capable of protecting all freedoms of the people. In […]

A group of people at a workshop identified the following as the basic adverse consequences of delays in litigation: • It changes the way litigation is conducted and encourages exchanging favors, as well as lying. • It encourages using criminals and other third parties to settle disputes. • Many judges preside over the same trial […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned about a symposium on the 1965 massacre, held on 18 and 19 April 2016 in Jakarta. The government, represented by the President`s advisory body (Watimpres), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the Press Council, and also representatives from other government institutions attended the symposium. The […]

The Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC) welcomes the release of political prisoners and student protesters in Burma. This is another positive development, and the AHRC will continue to monitor developments and work closely on criminal justice reform in the transitional period toward democracy. On 17 April 2016, Burmese New Year Day, the President of Myanmar, […]

Pakistan’s security establishment has been conducting military operations in Balochistan since 2001, to obtain control over the Baloch land and resources. Tortured and bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch missing persons are found daily in the province. Resistance by the cornered populace is perceived as insurgency and a threat to national security. The construction of the China-Pakistan […]

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, FIDH, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) The Bangladesh Government’s attempts to silence free speech continue. Several senior journalists and writers are facing trumped up charges and arbitrary detention for having published stories that are critical of the authorities. Mr. Shafik Rehman, an 81-year-old author, anti-death […]

Pakistani women, be they young or old, or even dead or alive, suffer rape by perverted elements that use rape as a tool to suppress and oppress half of the country’s population. One cannot fathom the moral bankruptcy of a society where a rape occurs every two hours. Going by the statistics, each day 12 […]

The rural distress plaguing large tracts of the Indian countryside is no secret. This distress has heightened in the wake of the devastating drought that is affecting more than half of India’s 676 districts. Forget the reports coming in from grass root organizations that showcase the severity of the crisis, data from the government’s own […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the Indonesian police’s failure to protect and ensure the right to freedom of expression and assembly of various groups over the past two months. In fact, the police’s negligence and indifference towards vigilante groups that forcibly disperse and intimidate peaceful events organized by these groups amounts […]

On 21 March 2016 the commander of the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station in Burma, or Myanmar, sent a letter to Ma Thandar, the wife of Ko Par Gyi, whom soldiers killed in a remote part of the country’s east in 2014. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has described previously (AHRC-STM-075-2015, AHRC-UAC-145-2014), both a civilian court […]