Enforced disappearances and abductions

Hong Kong, October 28, 2009  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned that after Soeharto’s fall there is no significant progress in the resolution of the past human right abuses which occurred under the New Order regime, in particular disappearances.  For example between 1997 and 1998, 24 activists were abducted because their struggle for […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the special assistant to the chief minister of Sindh, Mr. Ismail Dahri, in the company of several policemen attacked villagers in Nawab Shah district on the nights of September 26 and 27, to forcibly evict them from their land. Mr. Dahri, a close […]

(Hong Kong, October 6, 2009)  Between 1997 and 1998, 24 student activists in Indonesia, who challenged Suhartoe’s New Order regime disappeared by an abduction of the Army Special Forces Command. Until now, no justice was brought to this key case in Indonesian history.  The National Commission for Human Rights in Indonesia categorized the case as […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that corrupt officers in the Paikgachha police have allowed a twelve-year-old girl to be kidnapped four times. The girl is from the Hindu minority. Each time the police have either refused to help the mother, or have accepted bribes from the perpetrators to waive a […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) for the International Day on Enforced Disappearances. They urge Thai government comprehensive action taken against enforced disappearances to the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you about the continued disappearance of one of three men. Soldiers illegally arrested them on May 18, 2009, on suspicion that they were members of a rebel group. The missing victim was last reported in police custody; however, the police officer who had taken […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a Norwegian citizen and political activist of Iranian nationality has been forcefully abducted from a bus between Balochistan province and the Sindh province capital, Karachi. Eyewitnesses described his abductors as armed, plain-clothed and in a fleet of four-wheel jeeps bearing no registration number, but […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is continuing its series of appeals on the alleged torture, abductions and killings committed by police officers in Kalasin province in North-eastern Thailand over the last five years during the notorious ‘war on drugs’. In this update we bring news of the murder cases of 28 persons […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has been informed that a peasant activist, who lives in Sindh Province, has received no protection or help from police despite being subjected to torture, countless threats, abduction and currently dispossession from his land by influential landowners; due to his human rights work in assisting those who remain […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Guria, a local human rights organisation based in Uttar Pradesh, regarding the alleged kidnapping and physical harassment for the purposes of human trafficking, of a twelve-year-old girl in Varanasi. After failing to take immediate action, the police eventually recovered the girl. Further, abuse […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a man who was abducted by soldiers, tortured and held incommunicado for over three months remains in detention over questionable charges. After abducting him on January 9, 2009, the soldiers tortured him to confess his involvement to the bombing and burning of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple who belong to different religious sects and who chose to marry freely are currently in hiding due to threats on their lives. The groom’s immediate family (his mother, father, sister and two brothers) were arrested on false charges, yet after the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that a young woman who married freely last summer remains missing, along with her husband’s father and brother, after they were seen being abducted in October last year. According to the groom’s family no investigation into their disappearance has been carried out. Before her abduction the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the case of a missing student Joyashan Yogendran has still not been taken up by Batticaloa police. It is alleged that Yogendran disappeared at a time when a number of his school friends were arrested for a high profile crime; three died in […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the allegedly unlawful arrest of a man from his workplace in Dehiwela by police in 2008. Hours after making a police complaint and a public announcement about the disappearance, the man’s boss was abducted from Wallawatte by men claiming to be from the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a student activist has been arrested by members of a military intelligence agency, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Another female student has been fined and sentenced to three years in prison on sedition charges by the Anti Terrorism Court for heading a demonstration […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that six members of a family, including three women and one young girl, were arrested on the instructions of a member of the Punjab provincial assembly (and Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N) in retaliation for a love marriage. All have been tortured severely by police in custody, […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that two peasants have been arrested under fabricated charges the day before their long awaited court case against a local criminal. The criminal, who abducted one of the peasant’s brothers, beat his family members and is known for illegal land grabs, has close ties with […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the detention and abduction of Sinnavan Stephen Sunthararaj, a human rights defender based in Jaffna, in Sri Lanka’s north, and is gravely concerned for his safety. Sunthararaj was abducted at gunpoint in front of his family by uniformed men less than three […]

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed this automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to them. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Pakistan authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]  Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information […]