Democracy

Today, celebrating international human rights day, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses its concern about various forms of human rights violations still occurring in Indonesia, despite the Soeharto dictatorship having ended 17 years ago. Major human rights violations abound. There is impunity for past abuses, torture and fabricated cases (unfair trial), assorted violations in […]

  Two elections were held in Sri Lanka in 2015, one in January and the other in August 2015. One was to elect the President, and the other was to elect members of Parliament. In both these elections, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated, and, as a result, a coalition of new parties […]

International Human Rights Day is observed each year on December 10. This year the United Nations has declared that the day will mark a year-long campaign for the global recommitment to guaranteeing freedoms and protecting human rights for all. To this end, the UN has called upon member states to revisit commitments made to two […]

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls for the return of all disappeared persons to their families. The government of Bangladesh must tell the whereabouts of the disappeared persons, and respond […]

This week world leaders met in Paris to kick off a two-week climate change summit, a meeting some say will determine the future viability of human civilisation on our planet. Just Asia looks at the implications for Asia from a human rights perspective. Next, Just Asia reports on the violent arrests of Papuans during peaceful […]

Avinash Pandey By 30 June 2015, 1300 farmers had killed themselves in Maharashtra, according to the state government’s own admission, with half of the year still to go. The ongoing drought in Marathwada was supposed to deepen the crisis, which it did, with the toll reaching 997 there alone by 30 November 2015. The total […]

In the continuity of attacks on the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, Mr. Najeeb Ahmed, pesh imam (leader) of the Sarai Alamgir mosque was punished by unknown Muslim fundamentalists with sharp shaving blades in Gujrat district, Punjab province. On December 1, as Mr. Ahmed entered his house, he was pounced upon, his clothes were removed and […]

A Press Release from Human Rights Commission of Pakistan forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Lahore, December 1: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed its alarm and serious dismay over Pakistan voting last week against a United Nations General Assembly resolution that called for recognising the role of human rights […]

More than 100 farmers have reportedly committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most impoverished states in India, because of a hailstorm that destroyed their crops. The situation will only worsen with 50 of 75 districts being hit by a severe drought. Despite having evidence of the drought, the provincial government took two and […]

The Pakistan Institute of Labour Research and Education (PILER), a non-profit organization, and a partner of the Asian Human Rights Commission, is being targeted in a smear campaign. This is being done by the “invisible forces” inside Pakistan, through a certain TV chanel, the content of which is aired by other television channels. As a […]

Emarine Kharbhih The Ministry of Home Affairs stated in the parliament that India is not ready for a marital rape law since it will “break the institution of marriage”. According to a study done by the International Centre for Women and the United Nations Population Fund, 57.5 per cent of men agree that a wife […]

The world had hardly come to terms with the shock and horror of the burning down of a chipboard factory by an enraged mob led by misanthropic mullahs when news has emerged of another attack. This time an Ahmadi Muslim mosque in Kala Gujram, not far from the chipboard factory, has been targeted. The local […]

This week marks the 100th episode of AHRC TV’s weekly human rights news programme, newly renamed as Just Asia. For this centennial anniversary, AHRC TV presents a new look to the programme, which will itself be further upgraded over the next few weeks and months. The theme for this week’s programme is violence against women […]

Courtessy from daily Pakistan Freedom of religion is a fundamental right that exists only on paper in Pakistan. Each year thousands of Christians, forming 13% of the total population, suffer at the hands of religious bigots who use blasphemy as an excuse to ruin their life. Christian girls are increasingly being forced to convert to Islam. According […]

Avinash Pandey With two cases of sedition, one police complaint filed against him in three Indian states, and mobs picketing in front of his house in another, Aamir Khan must be a worried man. More so for the fact that the first of these cases is listed for hearing on 1 December 2015 in Kanpur, […]

Telangana, yesterday, finally acknowledged that 231 out of 443 of its rural mandals (sub-districts) are hit by drought. This was not a sudden realization by the state, the 9th Indian state to get hit by drought this year. Their agricultural department knew that a ‘drought like’ situation was prevailing in Mahabubnagar, Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and […]

A statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Gender based violence continues to show an upward trend in Pakistan, which has been ranked as the third most dangerous country for women by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll. The past four years, with the formation of civil governments, have seen the […]

Avinash Pandey Dear President Pranab Mukherjee, it feels good to see your concern over the imminent threat of food insecurity because of the degradation of large masses of agricultural land. Your insistence upon the urgent need to adopt more sustainable methods of land use systems and soil management practices is really important and must be […]

The results of the 2015 general election held on November 8 in Burma, or Myanmar, have slammed the door shut on the sham politics of the last five years. Gone are the days of a concocted legislature comprising for the most part of yes-men and sleepy heads. With this election, people in Burma have not […]

AHRC TV opens with some good news from Sri Lanka, where the Cabinet has approved the President’s proposal to abolish the Executive Presidency, thereby returning the country to full democracy, including the separation of powers. Next, we bring you an excerpt from a documentary film titledCyber-democracy: Cambodia, Kafka’s Kingdom, directed by Ellen Grant, which highlights […]