Administration of justice

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that, as anticipated, a human rights defender in Burma was imprisoned again last week. She was originally jailed because of complaints she made against local officials and has now been imprisoned with her husband under the same charges, after appearing before the same […]

We have cautiously welcomed the announcement by the Presidential Media Unit about the appointment of a commission of inquiry into the recent conflict from the perspective of restorative justice. In our second statement we have also indicated other experiences where credible attempts have been made into the study of past wrongdoings with the idea of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about two killings that took place during a police operation in Aceh. The men died after police arrested them and took them to an area that they believed was being used by an armed group. Both detainees were unarmed and in custody but were […]

The AHRC cautiously welcomes the announcement of the appointment of a commission to probe violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct during the final stages of the conflict and the circumstances that may have led to such actions and identify any persons or groups responsible for such acts. Despite of the fact that the obvious […]

The democratic transition in Indonesia is still hampered by a number of government policies. Civil supremacy, law enforcement and human rights are not priority issues for the government in drafting these policies. This is true even of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration, even though it is considered reformist. There has been no resolution to many […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information concerning the case of 84-year-old Mr. Masaru Okunishi, who has been detained on Japan’s infamous death row for the past 41 years. Okunishi was accused of murder in 1961 and acquitted by the trial court in 1964 yet was sentenced to capital punishment […]

Lahore, April 28, 2010: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemns the target killing of Nazima Talib, a university teacher in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, and calls upon the government to provide adequate security to vulnerable academic staff across Balochistan and bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice. Human Rights Commission of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about another ‘encounter’ killing by Manipur security personnel that bears all the signs of being an extrajudicial execution. The man was abducted, unarmed, in front of his family, his house was searched and his were valuables stolen, although the incident report claimed that a […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is extremely concerned for the welfare of a young man who was badly beaten along with his family, then abducted illegally by soldiers. A former employer who owes him money was seen directing his abduction. Although police were able to find him, intervene and provide medical treatment, […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning yet another case of abduction and extrajudicial execution in Manipur. After unidentified persons were seen abducting a man in April, the local police reported having killed him in an armed encounter later that evening. Given the widespread pattern of extrajudicial executions in the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has gathered detailed information on the escalating harassment of criminal witness Saman Thialakasir by police before his murder in February. He was found dead the morning after he was picked up by officers. Saman had reported a case of illegal logging in his neighbourhood with suspected connections […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police and officials are refusing to respond to the abduction of a fifteen-year-old Hindu girl by a neighbour in December last year. Her parents found her captive in a Muslim seminary and were told that she was married and had converted to Islam. The […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a copy of a letter from a human rights defender in Myanmar (Burma), a copy of which has also been addressed to you. As the letter may not have been received or its contents not communicated to you, we are taking this opportunity to raise the matter […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that police in Lahore made no effort to protect university staff from violent attacks by expelled students from a conservative Muslim organization earlier this month. One professor sustained serious head injuries and bone fractures. Local police then avoided filing an FIR for a week and when […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man was arbitrarily arrested, tortured and held in remand for more than two years before he was finally granted bail. Dehiwela police held him illegally for one month and ten days before his transfer to a remand prison and he reports that officers […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Wellawatte police have taken no action during the two-year period since a young student was allegedly arrested by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). No information has been given to his family and his whereabouts are entirely unknown. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the illegal arrest, abduction and disappearance of two persons from the Baloch Nationalist Movement on two separate occasions in April. Eyewitnesses in both cases saw the arrests carried out illegally by persons in and out of uniform, and the family of neither man […]

Dear friends,  A radio station in Indonesia – Radio Era Baru – has been forcibly shut down by police in an alleged act of censorship. An investigation by the country’s human rights commission has concluded that the move was in response to pressure from Chinese officials, who objected to the station’s airing of criticism of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a lawyer in Kandy has been ill treated by a high police official while trying to represent his client at a police enquiry. This comes at a time in which the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) is reporting increasing cases of open disrespect […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) team illegally arrested, detained and interrogated a number of men in February 2010. Though one was released without charge after nine days of being illegally held, three have been faced with allegedly concocted murder and arms charges, while another […]