Urgent Appeal Update

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is distressed to learn that human rights defender and freelance journalist Jiten Yumnam has been tortured by police in custody. We have also obtained court documents which show that he and the seven other accused were arrested on mere suspicion and unsubstantiated allegations. The documents stand as […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to let you know that a number of human rights defenders on whose behalf we have campaigned in recent years have been released from imprisonment in Burma, as well as some of those who were involved in the September 2007 protests.  DETAINEES RELEASED:  The AHRC […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained further and more detailed information on the case of Ma Mar Mar Aye, on whose imprisonment we recently issued an appeal. According to this information, the primary reason for her imprisonment was not the T-shirts that the police removed from her house, as previously reported, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to inform you that two journalists who had been imprisoned in 2008 for helping cyclone victims to contact international agencies have been released from prison. CASE DETAILS: As per our appeal in April (AHRC-UAC-033-2009), 24-year-old Ma Eint Khaing Oo and 29-year-old Ko Kyaw Kyaw Thant, […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Davao City, southern Mindanao, has denied a human rights lawyer temporary judicial protection via a Writ of Amparo petition. The court ruled that he failed to prove ‘by substantial evidence’ that the inclusion of his […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has heard that the violent campaign waged by Muslim radicals against a human rights lawyer who defends minorities has intensified in Faisalabad.  It would also like to make an amendment to previously issued information, to note that while the Daily Pavel printed a fatwa that named advocate Rao […]

Dear friends, Though the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to note the start of a long-awaited investigation into the illegal arrest and torture of a rickshaw puller and a day-labourer after an Urgent Appeal was issued, the investigation is seriously flawed. The torture took place at Paikgachha police station in 2008 and the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has previously reported that over several years violence, blockades and lawsuits have been used in successive attempts to evict hundreds of families in Dey Kraham zone of Phnom Penh in favour of 7NG company (see AHRC-UAU-006-2008, AHRC-UAU-002-2008, UA-271-2007). These attempts have so far failed as those rightful residents have put […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is continuing its series of appeals on the alleged torture, abductions and killings committed by police officers in Kalasin province in North-eastern Thailand over the last five years during the notorious ‘war on drugs’. In this update we bring news of the murder cases of 28 persons […]

Dear friends,  Last year the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an urgent appeal in the case of U Myint Aye, the leader of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group in Burma whom police and other officials arrested without giving a reason. Later the military regime there organised a press conference in which it […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to report that a police inspector being tried for the assassination of Gerald Perera is still working for the state as an officer. The victim was a complainant in a torture trial against police officers when he was shot dead. With one of the accused […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed about the worsening health of some human rights defenders currently detained in prisons in Burma on whose cases we have earlier issued appeals. Some of the prisoners have received no medical assistance despite their serious conditions. CASE DETAILS Pyi Phyoe Hlaing (AHRC-UAC-025-2009) and Ko […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the provincial court in Songkhla, Southern Thailand is set to hear the case against a group of policemen on 24 June 2009, after pending for six years. It is a landmark complaint—the first ever to be filed against policemen in the country—and has […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you that the three human rights lawyers, whose names were included in the list of targets in a leaked document reportedly created by the military, have filed a petition for a Writ of Amparo to seek judicial protection. The writ is a remedy […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that after a four-year-long post mortem inquest, a provincial court in Southern Thailand has absolved all officials and military persons of responsibility for the deaths of 78 persons at Tak Bai, Narathiwat. The court admits that the victims suffocated to death, but […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to share brief profiles of those listed as targets in a recently a leaked document, allegedly belonging to the Philippine military. Many are human rights defenders, and knowledge of their work and backgrounds may help give some insight into why members of their government may […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned to report that a Sri Lankan girl charged with the death of a baby in her care still faces the death penalty in a Saudi prison, despite strong flaws in her case and her pardoning by one of the baby’s parents. Rizana Nafeek has now […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received additional information concerning the case of Ms. Hasina Kharbhih, a human rights defender working against human trafficking in India. We have been informed that on May 27 Kharbhih, while on her way to the court for the hearing of her case, was stopped, threatened and […]

Dear friends,  On 8 September 2008, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported on the case of Roy Varghese, a schizophrenic detainee held at Central Jail, Jaipur, Rajasthan, in urgent need of psychiatric treatment. Roy has been in custody since 1992 and despite repeated attempts by human rights defenders to improve his conditions, the government […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the detention and abduction of Sinnavan Stephen Sunthararaj, a human rights defender based in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka’s north, and is gravely concerned for his safety. Sunthararaj was abducted at gunpoint in front of his family by uniformed men less than three […]