Administration of justice

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that three protestors, whom the police had brutally assaulted, arbitrarily arrested and tortured while in custody in May 2009, had been convicted for nine months over false charges of attacks and violence. The protestors were together with several villagers holding a peaceful demonstration […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the lack of transparency by the Supreme Court (SC) in hearing the petition of the Abadilla Five. The petition, which sought to declare as null and void their conviction for murder, suffered further delay due to the lack of transparency and arbitrary […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the life of a journalist who has been twice arrested, tortured and remanded on tenuous charges, is in danger. Senake Ekanayake has complained to the National Human Rights Commission, the National Police Commission, the President and the Inspector General of Police about his illegal […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the relief of a 75-year-old man who was illegally chained in a room for almost 34 years by relatives, with the knowledge of local police. Though the man was released under the orders of the Supreme Court and declared mentally sound, we […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that human rights activists in South Korea will hold a people’s tribunal on October 18, 2009 regarding the deaths of five men. The five protested against a forced eviction and burned to death during an agressive dispersal operation by the police. No officers have so […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to report that various police units have squabbled over the custody of a rebel in front of a judge in open court and violated various other procedures, suggesting an interest in securing a bounty and other rewards. Police deceived the rebel’s indigenous village elders by falsely […]

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 has received information about a case in which six close relatives of a man have been arrested, tortured and falsely charged in response to his love marriage to a higher caste woman. The woman’s family (which includes powerful Punjab assembly member Iftekhar Baloch) is alleged to be behind […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about a case in which a policeman shot an drunken farmer in the groin during a house call. The victim and his family have accepted US$1000 from the officer in return for not lodging a criminal case against him. However the use of settlements to […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a Phteah Rong Commune police officer rejected the complaint of a young rape victim without investigating it, and humiliated the girl in the process. The case was only filed in court after pressure from a local NGO and there are serious concerns that the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received detailed information about a case of extreme violence, corruption and impunity involving members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a ruling partner of the Zardari government. Police and high ranking officials are continuing to thwart all attempts by a young rape victim to prosecute MQM […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Navsarjan, a human rights organisation based in Gujarat that the only Valmiki (lowest Dalit sub-caste) family living in Shampara (also known as Khodiyar) village is in danger of being forced out from their home. This action is due to a boycott imposed on […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from QIC-AC Uttar Pradesh (QIC-AC UP), a human rights association that in Bahraich district a 14-year-old girl was sexually abused then shot by a member of a mafia. At the time, she was alone in her home as her only remaining family member, her […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the continued detention of 19 workers who are facing fabricated charges for holding a strike two years ago. They were, at the time, protesting the illegal termination, demanding payment of minimum wages and other lawful benefits from their employers. One of the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Navsarjan Trust, a Gujarat-based human rights NGO, that there has been a social boycott put into place by the entire non-Dalit community against the Dalits of Nesda village. This was in response to the Dalits’ refusal to dispose of dead animals, a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a man who was abducted by soldiers, tortured and held incommunicado for over three months remains in detention over questionable charges. After abducting him on January 9, 2009, the soldiers tortured him to confess his involvement to the bombing and burning of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you that members of a ruling party have grabbed land that was donated for a hospital project in Punjab province. When the donor made an official complaint, hired thugs attacked his property and a witness to the event, and threatened the donor and […]

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 has received information that a student activist has been arrested by members of a military intelligence agency, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Another female student has been fined and sentenced to three years in prison on sedition charges by the Anti Terrorism Court for heading a demonstration […]