Administration of justice

PAKISTAN: A parliamentarian arranges the arrest and torture of a man’s mother and other relatives in response to a love marriage

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 […]

CAMBODIA: Justice is traded in Kampot after a police shooting

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 […]

CAMBODIA: A police officer has deliberately mishandled the case of a 15-year old rape victim due to his friendship with the rapist

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 […]

PAKISTAN: The trade of justice continues as police protect ruling party members who are guilty of rape and maiming with acid

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 […]

INDIA: A lower-caste family faces social boycott to pressure them to leave

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 […]

INDIA: Authorities must do more for a 14-year-old girl who was raped then shot

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 […]

PHILIPPINES: Nineteen striking workers laid with fabricated charges continuously detained

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 […]

INDIA: Social ostracism against Dalits for refusing to dispose of dead animals

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 […]

PHILIPPINES: Soldiers torture a man with electric shocks to his sex organ to force a confession

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 […]

PAKISTAN: A man who donated land for a hospital is attacked after the land is grabbed by ruling party members

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 […]

UPDATE (Thailand): Landmark trial to begin of policemen who illegally arrested and dispersed protestors six years ago

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 […]

PAKISTAN: A student leader goes missing after his alleged arrest by state agents; a female student demonstrator is sentenced to three years in jail

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 […]

PAKISTAN: Love marriage greeted by the torture of a family; one girl is abducted by a Punjab MP

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that six members of a family, including three women and one young girl, were arrested on the instructions of a member of the Punjab provincial assembly (and Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N) in retaliation for a love marriage. All have been tortured severely by police in custody, […]

PAKISTAN: Two peasants are arrested on fabricated charges the day before they testify in court, another remains missing

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that two peasants have been arrested under fabricated charges the day before their long awaited court case against a local criminal. The criminal, who abducted one of the peasant’s brothers, beat his family members and is known for illegal land grabs, has close ties with […]

SRI LANKA: Police apathy exposed towards the rape of a 14-year-old girl

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that police officers are failing to act on a report made by a young girl, who was abducted and raped on 27 April. The girl knows her attacker and has presented evidence of the crime, yet no substantive action has been taken by the local police station.  CASE DETAILS: (based […]

PHILIPPINES: Conclude investigation into the killing of two farmers

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concern over the delay in the conclusion of the investigation into the deaths of two farmers who were last seen alive taken by soldiers in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental on 2 February 2009. Their dead bodies had been discovered when the investigators exhumed a gravesite […]

THAILAND: Man given ten years’ imprisonment for lese-majesty online

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the latest imprisonment of an Internet user in Thailand for posting online supposedly offensive images to the country’s royal family. We are bringing you details of the case and urge you to protest strongly against this use of draconian laws, old and new, to attempt to […]

SRI LANKA: Police allegedly torture men during interrogation

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that police allegedly tortured a man, accused of murder, to force him to provide five names during interrogation in the Nawalapitiya police station on January 9. All five men named were accordingly arrested. One man was allegedly tortured. The other four were put in […]

PAKISTAN: Gender-biased judge should be transferred from rape trials

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has discovered that a judge whose unprofessional behaviour in a rape trial last month caused widespread concern, has been assigned the case of another teenage rape victim.  CASE DETAILS:  Court spectators and prosecutors expressed outrage at the behaviour of Additional District and Sessions Judge Nizar Ali Khawaja […]

UPDATE (Indonesia): Rights activist Buchtar Tabuni in trial on charges of subversion

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the subversion charges against rights activist Mr. Buchtar Tabuni, referred to as Buktar Tabuni in previous appeal have not been dropped, and that he is currently facing trial at Jayapura District Court, Indonesia. The main charge against him is under article no. 106 of […]