Child rights

SRI LANKA: Dum spiro, spero, dum vivimus vivamus

By Nilantha Ilangamuwa Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead, Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade, The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night, That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were […]

INDIA: Prospect is in inaction

Statement | India | 14-03-2012

The national debate regarding India’s position about the proposed resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council concerning Sri Lanka is limited to a Tamil view of the issue. The views exchanged in both houses of the country’s parliament and in the media reflect this. This parochial view about the resolution exposes the widespread lack […]

INDIA: A corpse of rights without justice at its soul

Article | India | 29-02-2012

One of the sad truths that we have to live with today is that the people’s struggles for human rights are highly fragmented in India. Equally disheartening is the fact that whenever or wherever human rights comes up for discussion, it is addressed in piecemeal, ignoring and leaving far behind a comprehensive approach to rights […]

NEPAL: Ratification of the third Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission, Advocacy Forum, Concern for Children and Environment (Concern) Nepal, Backward Society Education (BASE) Nepal and Himalayan Human Rights Monitors (Himrights) to the Prime Minister of Nepal   To, Rt. Hon. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Prime Minister of Nepal Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Nepal Singh […]

INDIA: Police connive with child traffickers to abduct a rescued girl, who was raped again

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from Guria, a local human rights organisation based in Varanasi, India concerning the case of Maya (name changed), a girl who was kidnapped and sold by human traffickers in 2006. After rescuing the girl, Guria and the AHRC had issued an Urgent Appeal […]

SRI LANKA: Police refuse to investigate the case of a girl who disappeared after torture by a school principal

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mohamad Rasul (11) is a resident of No: 33/05, Palliyawatte, Poruthota, Koshshikade. Rasul was a student of Palanguthura Al-Fala School. On the 19 January after being subjected to severe torture by the principle Rasul was expelled from the school at 12.30 pm. Up […]

SRI LANKA: The New Year Wish List- 2012

All Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in the legal system. People reduced to powerlessness […]

PAKISTAN: The Uzma Ayub rape case–justice is not as important as the honour and prestige of the judiciary

In the case of the murder of the brother of a teenage pregnant girl, the Peshawar High Court Khyber Pakhtunkha province took a Suo Motu notice and directed the provincial home secretary and the Provincial Police Officer (PPO) ordering them to ensure the arrest of the accused within three days and the immediate suspension of […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

PAKISTAN: A couple was murdered in the name of honour for refusing to hand over two minor girls

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple was murdered along with the father of the groom in an honour killing. The order for the killing was issued by a Jirga, an illegal tribal court. During the Jirga it was ordered that the couple cancel the marriage and if […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]

INDIA/BANGLADESH: Police refuse to take action to rescue a girl trafficked to Bangladesh

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), a human rights organisation working in West Bengal, India about the case of a 15-year-old girl, who was trafficked from the state to neighbouring Bangladesh. Though the family of the victim approached the local police, the officers […]

NEPAL: Commitments to accountability and justice continue to be jeopardized in 2011

Statement | Nepal | 07-12-2011

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here. Given […]

INDONESIA: Human Rights in 2011 – The Decay of Pancasila and Constitutional Protections

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report will be made available […]

PAKISTAN: Teen-age girl in the driving seat to get rid of the loans taken for treatment of her father

Farzana Ali Khan ”Those who are really concerned about me must pay a serious attention while those do not care should not waste their time by coming to me.” Can you believe, who said this? These are the words of a nine-year old girl Wajeeha, a student of grade II from Tangi town of Charsadda […]