Arbitrary arrest & detention

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional human rights organization in Asia, condemns the repeated arbitrary arrest and detention occurring in Papua. Three particular cases have come to the AHRC’s attention, documented below. Case 1 On 21 November 2017, members of the Jayapura District Police arbitrarily arrested 14 indigenous Papuans in Nimbontong District, while […]

Sri Lanka Report for 2017 2017 was a decisive year for Sri Lanka, showing what progress had – and hadn’t – been made in the past few years. In January 2015, a new government was elected with a massive intervention on the part of the people. For 10 years, their premiere, Mahinda Rajapaksa, ran an […]

This is a joint statement of the Asian Human Rights Commission and Nervazhi, Kerala, India. Nervazhi is one of the many organisations that the AHRC works with throughout Asia. In question and answer form we are explaining the basic aspects of the relationship between the two organisations. The AHRC, based in Hong Kong, and Nervazhi […]

  This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where police issued summons to at least another 47 individuals on May 29, for exercising their freedom of peaceful assembly to call for elections and democracy. Fifteen others were charged by the police earlier, also for participating at an assembly held at Thammasat University and the UN […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you about the wrongful arrest of four people in three separate cases. In the first case, a human rights defender was denied her right to call her family and lawyer to inform of her arrest. In the second case, indigenous peasants were tortured and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Government of Bangladesh has engaged its student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), to unleash violence against the demonstrators. Several students have informed the AHRC that the BCL activists were identifying demonstration participants living in the University of Dhaka dormitories from Sunday night onwards. […]

A Press Release from the International Coalition for Papua forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) On 4 April 2018, members of the local Police, Intelligence (BIN), police special unit ‘BRIMOB’ and the military district comand ‘Kodim 1701 Jayapura’ searched several houses in the residential area ‘Perumnas III Waena’, located in the HeramDistrict of Jayapura. The houses […]

This week Just Asia begins with Indonesia, where a sword-wielding man attacked a church during Sunday services at St Lidwina Church, Yogyakarata province. The man burst into the church on Java Island, ran toward the choir and attacked German pastor Karl Edmund Prier, who was leading the choir. He then slashed the statues of Jesus […]

This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where seven members of the People Go Network and a sociology professor presented themselves at a police station inPathum Thani Province on Wednesday. The activists were accused of breaching Article 12 of NCPO Order No. 3/2015, which prohibits the gathering of five or more people for political purposes, after they organized and participated in a peaceful […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, which has been engulfed by a wave of agitation after the rape and brutal murder of seven-year-old Zainab Ansari in Punjab Province. Zainab’s body was found dumped on a rubbish heap days after she was abducted. Zainab was the 12th victim of child abuse and murder in the […]

This week Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, where abusive and racist remarks were hurled last week at Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai after she sentenced police officer Frankly Chu to three months in prison. In response, human rights lawyer Philip Dykes, legal scholar Johannes Chan and four other barristers made a statement saying such “racial […]

Pakistan has recently been placed on a special watch list for severe violations of religious freedom by the United States’ Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. This was done under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. A brief announcement by the United States’ State Department said that for the first time it has created a […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding a unique type of disappearance of a peasant leader and lawyer who was disappeared from inside the jail after his bail was granted by the sessions court. When the peasants submitted surety bonds for Mr. Nabi’s release, the police and jail authorities […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the abduction and torture of a human rights defender and the Chairperson of the Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum (PFF). He along with three colleagues were held hostage by subordinates of the Sindh Provincial Minister of Fisheries and Livestock, Muhammad Ali Malkani. As […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned about an alleged case of crimes against humanity. It took place on 24 December 2011 in Sape Port, Lambu sub-district, Bima Regency, West Nusa Tenggara Province. Based upon investigations, a report was issued by the Commission for the Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a national, prominent, […]

Glamorizing terrorists as born again saviours of humanity is the new tactic adopted by the state to abet home grown terrorism The month of December in Pakistan is akin to March for the Romans, when an empire was brought down. The historic day of December 16 has been particularly bloody, as it was on this […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received the following up-dated information. It concerns the enforced disappearance of a 21 year-old student from one of Karachi University’s canteens. He was abducted by plainclothes persons in the presence of a good number of Rangers. The abductors came in a white car and on two […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Danamon Bank Labor Union about two situations. The First is information related with the criminalization and detention of the chairperson and secretary general of the Danamon Bank Labor Union. The Second is information related with union busting and laid-off workers (PHK) of […]

On the occasion of international human rights day, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) observes the major human rights issues of concern in Indonesia. Impunity and a fragile criminal justice system have let down victims of human rights abuse and those seeking justice. According to research by the Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR), Indonesia’s rule of […]

Just Asia completes its 200th episode this week. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)’s news programme was launched on 14 October 2013 as the Weekly Roundup, and provided a platform for the stories of those fighting for human rights throughout the Asian region. On its 100th episode, the news program evolved into Just Asia. Basil Fernando, Director […]