Statement

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) appreciates the efforts of the Pakistani Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and his two-member fact finding team to probe the cases of the Pakistanis who are on death row and awaiting beheading on the charges of drug smuggling. The government of Saudi Arabia must also be praised for its readiness […]

Last week the US National Institutes of Health ( NIH) issued an report titled, “Interim Report: Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) working group.” The report has extensively examined President Barack Obama’s brain project, which mentions the need to develop electromagnetic modulation as a new technology for brain circuit manipulation. In the meantime, the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has in a number of recent appeals and statements (AHRC-UAC-105-2013, AHRC-UAC-101-2013, AHRC-STM-108-2013) pointed to the persistent pursuit and prosecution by the police and local authorities in Burma, or Myanmar, of human rights defenders under draconian legislation old and new. Despite the country’s continued progress away from its overtly dictatorial past, it is […]

The AHRC urges the government of Pakistan to carry out a high powered inquiry into the killings of Christians by a commission of experts rather than the police The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the two deadly suicide attacks on the All Saints Church in Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkha province […]

Counting up to August 2013, as many as 126 extrajudicial deaths and over 400 disappearances have taken place in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Violent killings and disappearance after arrest by authorities continues without relent. Most bodies, of those murdered extra judicially, have been found in the Balochi speaking districts of the province, particularly Quetta, […]

The Guardian reported on September 11 that Lord Carlisle has argued for an inspectorate of judges which could deal with problems before they lead to complaints. Meanwhile new regulations dealing with complaints against judges come into force at the beginning of next month.  The new regulations come on the basis of the Constitutional Reform Act […]

Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan continue to be persecuted, prosecuted, humiliated, harassed, tortured and subjected to target killings. In the very recent past hundreds of Ahmadis have been murdered for their faith and belief and this horrifying brutality continues under the very eyes of the Government who take no notice or action and blatantly allow the […]

Sunila Abeysekera passed away yesterday in Colombo. Born in 1952 she stood for the liberal values of equality, liberty and human rights at a very dark period in her country. By 1962, at the age of ten, a section of the country’s elite attempted a military coup. This coup symbolised the disillusionment of an important […]

Download the full text of the report ( PDF) (Word) In her media statement from Colombo on 31 August 2013, Dr. Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, “I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state, […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned about the continued and arbitrary detention of Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan Secretary of Odhikar. The AHRC has learned that the government has introduced new allegations against Mr. Nasiruddin Elan, the Director of Odhikar, in an attempt to detain Elan as well, so as to absolutely cripple the functioning of the […]

After nine years of trial, on September 3 Stella Estremera, editor-in-chief of Sun.Star Davao; and Antonio Ajero, the newspaper’s former publisher, were convicted by a local court in Digos City for a criminal case of libel. They were convicted based on the complaint of Baguio Saripada, a former city government employee, after his name was […]

  Aristedes Sarmiento. Photo: Worker’s Assistance Center (WAC) On July 16, 2013 Aristedes Sarmiento, was one of five men released after they were exonerated by the Courts from fabricated charges laid on them in August 20, 2008.  However, Samiento was again arrested for another murder, again on trumped-up charges. In April 2006, when Sarmiento and […]

Before leaving Sri Lanka after her week-long visit the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, made a media statement in which she expressed her deep concern about Sri Lanka heading in an “increasingly authoritarian direction”. She said, “I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the […]

After the Anti-Torture Law was enforced, there have been two widely publicized torture videos where police officers were caught on camera torturing suspects in their custody. The first was in August 2010; the perpetrator was Joselito Binayug. The second was in June this year and the perpetrator was none other than Alfredo Lim, a former […]

Last week a shocking story was revealed in the media. On August 21 2013 P. Chandana Thushara Peiris, (32), the father of one child was arrested by the Moratuwa police and severely tortured to force him to confess to having possessed bombs and having committed several other crimes. When the family learned about the arrest […]

Today, 30 August 2013, is the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance. According to the UN Resolution A/RES/65/209 adopted in the Sixty-fifth Session of the General Assembly, the 30th day of August has been declared, and has been so observed since 2011, as the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance every year. This Resolution […]

After 22 years of advocacy and lobbying, the Philippines enacted the Anti-Torture Law in November 2009. This law is not an ordinary law. The Philippines became the first country in Southeast Asia to enact a domestic law on torture. In effect, this law means the country commits itself legally to the international community to enforce […]

On July 3rd 2013, President Mahinda Rajapaksha published a gazette that authorized the armed forces to engage in “the maintenance of public order”. Last week, he announced a new ministry under the title “the Ministry of Law and Order”. By these two acts, the Sri Lankan civilian police have been virtually reduced to nothing, and […]

On June 21, we reported that Alfredo Lim, the former Mayor of Manila, had tortured a rape suspect in full view of the public, while the senior police officers present did nothing to prevent him. We rightly demanded that Lim, who perpetrated the torture and the policemen, who did nothing to stop the torture, be […]

The Balochistan government has registered a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act against the chief executive and three other employees of a television channel, ARY Digital, for releasing a documentary about the attack on the former residency of the father of the nation. The three other employees are the Executive Director, Owais Tohid, the Quetta bureau […]