Democracy

On 17 August 2016, the Office of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) officially informed Ms. Pornpen Khongkachonkiet that the NHRC could not investigate the facts revealed in a torture report that she and two other human rights defenders had submitted to the NHRC. The Commission claimed that the report failed to provide […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding ongoing judicial harassment of Ms. Sirikan Charoensiri, human rights lawyer and legal and documentation officer at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR). Ms. Sirikan is now facing accusations of sedition under Section 116 of the Thai Criminal Code, as well as violation […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is pleased to witness the historic coming into being of Sri Lanka’s Right to Information (RTI) Commission with three Commissioners being appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council on Friday, 30th September 2016. The three Commissioners, namely retired public administration officer Mahinda Gammanpila (Chair), Attorney-at-Law & […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned about six Pacific countries raising the subject of human rights violations in Papua in the General Debate of the Assembly’s 71st Session, on 26 September 2016. The video can be accessed here. The six Pacific countries are Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Tonga. The […]

Though incidents of accusation of blasphemy are on the rise, it is heartening to note that the police attitude has improved remarkably in handling such cases. Thanks to the incessant and relentless lobbying and advocacy by civil society and rights organizations, the tide has begun to turn in favor of marginalized religious minorities, especially in […]

This week Just Asia begins with an update regarding the execution of mentally ill Imdad Ali. Pakistan’s Supreme Court rejected his mercy appeal, and has set his execution for Tuesday, October 4. The Supreme Court decision arrives despite four United Nations human rights experts having urged authorities in Pakistan to halt Imdad Ali’s execution. The […]

Police and public officials have prevented a press briefing of Amnesty International (AI)’s about state-sponsored torture, saying that AI speakers might be charged for not having working permit. On 28 September 2016, at Four Wings Hotel in Bangkok, Special Branch police officers and officials from the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare intervened at a […]

Seldom does a verdict fully betray the rot that permeates the judicial system from policing to the Judiciary. The Supreme Court of India verdict on 24 September 2016 counts as one such verdict. In acquitting death row convict Dhal Singh Dewangan, a resident of Chhattisgarh, the verdict exposes the façade that passes off as forensic investigation in […]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld the death penalty against a mentally ill person, Mr. Imdad Ali, thereby overturning a previous appeal and a court decision staying his execution. The Supreme Court decision arrives at a time when four United Nations human rights experts have urged authorities in Pakistan to halt the execution of Imdad Ali, […]

The hasty passing of laws and emergency regulations particularly with the intention of encouraging law enforcement officers to commit acts which amounts to serious crimes is not an unfamiliar practice in Sri Lanka. How Sri Lanka became second in the world with regard to committing the heinous crime of enforced disappearances is an example of […]

On 7 September 2016, the verdict in the landmark case of the Karen people was delivered from the Central Administrative Court in Thailand. It ruled that the authorities did not break the law in burning down six Karen plaintiffs’ properties to forcibly relocate them from the Kaeng Krachan National Park. The Asian Human Rights Commission […]

Senior police were happy to admit the practice of ‘encounter killings’, in which about 2,000 people died in 2015, Human Rights Watch says Jon Boone in Islamabad, Monday 26 September 2016 07.00 BST-Police in Pakistan may be illegally executing hundreds of people each year in fake “encounter killings”, human rights investigators have warned. The term […]

What if you woke up one morning and realized you were living under institutions that looked more like mental institutions than institutions of justice? And, rather than trying to bring sanity, the institutions were being run by mad men? Would you run? Or would you stay? What if we somehow took your Stockholm Syndrome away? […]

शैलेन्द्र प्रसाद हरिजन (अम्बेडकर) नेपाल सरकारले हाल तयार पारेको संविधान संसोधन त्रुटीपुर्ण रहेको छ । यो संसोधन प्रस्तावले मधेशी दलित, जनजाती लगायतका अल्पसंख्यक तथा सिमान्तकृत समुदायको केही मागहरु आँशिक रुपमा समेटे पनि अधिकाँश मागहरु संबोधन गर्न सकेको छैन । सरकारले ल्याएको संविधान संसोधनको प्रस्ताव ललिपप मात्र देखिएको छ । यसवाट कुनै पनि माग संबोधन हुन […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where the Supreme Court ordered a week-long stay on the execution of mentally ill Imdad Ali. Despite being diagnosed as “insane”, Ali was to be hanged early on September 20. Due to appeals by rights groups, the Supreme Court will now hear the case on September 27 and […]

By Basil Fernando One more judgement from the Supreme Court, on torture by the Sri Lankan police, was added to a long list of such judgements, when the Supreme Court decided in favour of a petition filed by W.N.L.K. Fernando of Naththandiya Police against officers attached to the Wennapuwa Police Station [S.C.F.R. Application No. 612/09]. The […]

The Laureates of this year’s Right Livelihood Award, widely referred to as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, have been announced today in Stockholm, Sweden. This years’ Laureates are: Syria Civil Defence (The White Helmets), ‘for their outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians from the destruction of the Syrian civil war’. It is the first […]

A leading figure of the human rights movement in Russia today, Svetlana Gannushkina, has been announced as a Laureate of the 2016 Right Livelihood Award. Gannushkina receives this award ‘for her decades-long commitment promoting human rights and justice for refugees, forced migrants, and different ethnic groups’. Through the organisation that she founded and heads – the Civic […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned as human rights organizations, including Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRDA) and Advocacy Forum (AF), as well as human rights defenders and lawyers have been barred from monitoring detention centers and from meeting those detained in custody. The Nepal Police have stopped giving permission to lawyers […]

An article titled “The OMP – A Flawed Attempt to Deal with Complaints of Disappearances and/or Missing Persons in Sri Lanka” published in the Colombo Telegraph, by M.C.M Iqbal, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission by M.C.M. Iqbal You May Read the Sinhala translation HERE To say that the Office of Missing Persons (OMP)) is a […]