Administration of justice

Pakistani women, be they young or old, or even dead or alive, suffer rape by perverted elements that use rape as a tool to suppress and oppress half of the country’s population. One cannot fathom the moral bankruptcy of a society where a rape occurs every two hours. Going by the statistics, each day 12 […]

This episode of Just Asia begins with Indonesia, where a public protest called for the dissolution of Indonesia’s Anti-Terror Police Unit. The protest followed the death of Mr. Siyono, one day after being arrested by the Police Unit on March 10. Although the police claimed Siyono died from fighting police personnel, an independent autopsy revealed […]

By Urmila Pullat On 3 April 2016, four men died of asphyxiation in a clogged manhole in Dodballapur, near Bangalore. Two of these men were manual scavengers, while the other two were passers-by who died while trying to save them. Manual scavenging is the scourge of India, mired in complex issues of caste, poverty, class […]

This article is an attempt to demonstrate that the occurrence of serious crimes in Sri Lanka, could be drastically reduced by doubling the number of High Courts since only the High Courts have the jurisdiction to conduct trials regarding serious crimes. However, prolonged delays in adjudication has undermined the effectiveness of these courts acting towards […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the torture, arbitrary detention, extortion and abuse of power by the Punjab police against a family, the father and his two sons, for the past four years.  The only crime of the family was that they dared to use their civil rights […]

An oped from the Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Despite Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s attempt to bully the National Human Rights Commission for its report at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Commission – represented by its chair Justice Anup Raj Sharma […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that faith-based prejudice has led to the murder of a Christian businessman by Muslim meat sellers looking to grab land. The murderers are close aides of a political coordinator of a federal minister from the ruling political party. Due to the political clout of […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from Protection International Thailand (PI) and Human Rights Lawyer Association (HRLA) that on 8 April 2016 Mr. Supoj Kansong, a land rights activist and a key witness to the assassination of Mr. Chai Boonthonglek, was ambushed by an unidentified gunman. UPDATED INFORMATION As […]

On March 16, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva reviewed the situation of human rights in Nepal and gave recommendations to improve it. The Council does that with every member of the UN in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Along with the government, non-government organizations and civil society organizations, […]

An article from Asif Aqeel forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Asif Aqeel Tahira Gill is fighting for her life in Jinnah Hospital’s intensive care unit. The 55-year-old woman was a nurse in the General Hospital, before she got injured in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park bombing on March 27. Her husband passed away some years […]

On 21 March 2016 the commander of the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station in Burma, or Myanmar, sent a letter to Ma Thandar, the wife of Ko Par Gyi, whom soldiers killed in a remote part of the country’s east in 2014. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has described previously (AHRC-STM-075-2015, AHRC-UAC-145-2014), both a civilian court […]

Bangladesh police have once again killed protestors. This time four out of a few hundred villagers who protested on 4 April 2016 have been killed. The farmers were protesting against acquisition of their agricultural lands without consent or adequate compensation, for the purpose of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Gondamara Village of Banshkhali Upazilla […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly objects to Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s summons to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chair Anup Raj Sharma, Commissioner Mohna Ansari and other members on 3 April 2016, where he sought clarification on Ansari’s statement during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held in Geneva in March. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the forced dispersal of peaceful protesters and their illegal arrest in Kampung Bhintuka-SP13 field in Mimika, Timika district, Papua on Tuesday, 5 April 2016. We have been informed that 12 protesters were taken into police custody in Kuala Kencana for further investigation and questioning. Prior to the protest, […]

This week Just Asia covers the deadly dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan city, Philippines. Suffering from hunger and unable to plant their crops due to the El Nino drought, the farmers organized a protest blockading the main highway connecting North Cotabato and Davao City on March 29. On April 1, police and military personnel […]

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2013, 55-60% of all trafficking victims are women. Pakistan is both a country of origin and destination, as far as trafficking of women is concerned. Women in Pakistan are most vulnerable to trafficking due to poverty, gender discrimination, lack of […]

by Basil Fernando The existence of a mass grave may come to the notice of the public by many different ways; a statement by a witness made during a court hearing – as in the case of Chemmani Mass Graves: discoveries of some scattered remains of bones by workers when digging a site for constructions […]

A Statement from Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The starving and unarmed farmers of Kidapawan cried for rice. They were given bullets. Photo credit to HKCHRPP The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace […]

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders [a joint programme of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)], and Odhikar The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Asian Human Rights Commission, and Odhikar urge the global human rights community to […]

Interview Part 2 Interview Part 1 On behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission, we are sharing with you the second part of the interview, with Basil Fernando, on the origins of the present political crisis, in Sri Lanka which is being traced to the manner in which the developments that took place in 1931 […]