Statement

A news journalist, working with the Minivan News, in Maldives, Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla has been missing since 8th August 2014. AHRC has received information from the Minivan News in Maldives that  there is credible evidence that  the journalist  has been abducted, with the recent spate of incidents of intimidation created by religious groups in affiliation […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is gravely concerned to have learned that another activist, Pornthip (last name withheld), age 25, who graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at Ramkhamhaeng University, has been arrested in relation to a complaint under Article 112 of the Criminal Code in Thailand. This is the second arrest of someone […]

Courtesy: Mathrubhumi Daily India’s battle against poverty has reached the phase of “elimination” from “alleviation” said President Pranab Mukherjee in his address to the nation. That was last evening, the eve of 68th Independence Day of the republic. It was encouraging to listen to the president explain that the difference was not merely about semantics. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is gravely concerned to have learned that Patiwat (last name withheld), a fifth-year student in the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Khon Kaen University and a human rights defender, is facing a criminal investigation in relation to a complaint under Article 112 of the Criminal Code in Thailand. […]

“Interestingly, among the Hong Kong political elites who agreed that there was validity to the concept of distinct Asian values, there was significant disagreement as to what such values actually meant. The affirmative sample broke into three groups,” argued Bob Beatty in his latest paper exclusively published in the latest issue of Torture: Asian and […]

National history is written from a certain perspective. And, it can be rewritten later from other perspectives. However, it should not be forgotten that the purpose of having a national history, which itself underlines certain aspects of national memory, is so that accumulated wisdom from the past can circulate in society. Future generations can utilize […]

Police in the Mandalay region of Burma shot farmers who were protesting their land having been grabbed by the military. The protest, which took place this morning (14th August 2014) involved the farmers ploughing the fields that had been taken from them. The farmers are from Nyaung Wine Village, Singu Township, Mandalay Region. Over 6,000 […]

Members of the Insein Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have been threatening relatives of Ko Zin Aung, a local rickshaw driver tortured to death in July this year (AHRC-UAC-110-2014). Ko Moss and Ma Aye Aye Nwe, the brother-in-law and the cousin of the victim respectively, were called, 11th August 2014 to Myo Thit Quarter Administrative Office, […]

At dawn today, Jovito Palparan Jr., a retired military general, wanted on charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), in Sta. Mesa, Metro Manila. Palparan is the principal accused in the abduction, illegal detention, torture and rape of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. Jovito Palparan Jr. […]

In two video clips released to the public on 2 and 3 August 2014, Kritsuda Khunasaen, who was arbitrarily detained by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), detailed her experience while in detention. She described a range of forms of both mental and physical torture. The response of the NCPO has been to […]

Eighteen days have passed since the tragic incident where the arms of a 10-year-old boy were severed from his body by a landlord and to-date, no positive developments have been taken nor has there been any progress in the case against the perpetrators of this horrific crime.  According to reports, doctors are being tight-lipped to […]

On the 4th of August, a meeting for the families of disappeared persons, held at the Centre for Society and Religion in Colombo, was disrupted by a mob of people led by several Buddhist monks. The families, who had travelled from Mannar, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi, Vavuniya, and Jaffna, had also visited the International Committee of the […]

During the three days of Eid holidays about three dozens people were drowned at the beaches of Karachi, the majority drowned at a beach run by Military, its commercial outlets and Clifton Cantonment, which are run directly under the Pakistan military. . Four persons drowned at two different beaches that were under the city government. […]

On Monday, 28 July 2014, an unidentified group kidnapped five-year-old Damindu Yasen Kumara. They arrived on motorcycles, with their faces covered by helmets and masks. They stabbed his parents, who struggled to protect their child. The kidnapping occurred in Katugampalagama, Meegalewa Police Divison. Several media channels have broadcasted the heartbreaking voices of his father and […]

A young Palestinian boy walks through the remains of a house targeted by an Israeli air strike near a beach refugee camp west of Gaza City. (UN Photo/shareef sarhan – 12 July 2014 ) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and its partner organisations condemn the continuing hostilities in the occupied Gaza Strip. The AHRC […]

On Sunday evening, July 27, a crowd of around 150 fanatics attacked a small, peaceful community of 17 Ahmadi families living in Arafat Colony, on the outskirts of Gujranwala district, Punjab. As a result of the attack, eight houses were burned down. Three Ahmadis in one of the houses succumbed to the flames. All the […]

The fast-unto-death hunger strike of Nanda Prasad and Ganga Maya Adhikari, better known as the Adhikari couple, has reached 278 days and counting. Their only demand is an investigation and prosecution of those who killed their son, Krishna Prasad Adhikari. In other words, they demand justice. Krishna Prasad was abducted and brutally murdered in June […]

President of Myanmar, U Thein Sein, announced that the government cannot give back over 30,000 acres of paddy land that the state has been using since it was confiscated by the army two decades ago. On the one hand the President ordered state and regional governments and land management committee to cooperate with members of […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the official announcement by the General Election Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum, KPU) of the result of the Presidential Election on Thursday, 22 July 2014. After counting and recapitulating the votes cast by Indonesians on 9 July 2014 for about three weeks, the Committee finally declared Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla to […]

There have been reports of an alleged abduction and rape of an eleven-year-old girl by a group of Navy officers, and of another nine-year-old girl treated in a similar manner.  In the first case, the soldiers have been serving at Karainagar Navy base have been deployed to patrol Ureddikulam, Urkatturai, Karainagar city and Kytes. Seven […]