Extrajudicial killings

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a team of Manipur Police Commandos (MPC) shot a pregnant woman dead in front of her young son, allegedly by accident, and shot dead a young man at close range in custody. Officials claim that the man was trying to escape but eyewitnesses […]

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 (AHRC) has received information from the Human Rights Initiative (HRI), a human rights organisation based in Imphal, Manipur regarding the murder of two persons by the Manipur State Police Commando Unit. The HRI alleges that the victims were robbed and shot dead in a fake encounter by the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you about the recent torture and killing of a farmer in front of his family. The soldiers, who were on a military operation, assaulted and tortured the victim so that he would confess to being a member of a rebel group. The man […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man who was shot dead by police while in custody was not trying to escape at the time, as the police have suggested. The victim, who was arrested on April 2, 2009 by police officers in North Jakarta and was pronounced dead […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Human Rights Initiative (HRI), a human rights organisation based in Imphal, Manipur state, concerning the murder of two persons in Chandel district in Manipur. The HRI informs that of the two victims, one was a local merchant and the other a daily […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that officers who shot two men dead in custody have yet to be investigated or charged, and that the murder of a labour leader has not been properly looked into after a year.  CASE DETAILS: (According to information received from Philippine NGOs)  Case One: Alberto Ocampo and […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of 17 human rights, women’s rights, labour and indigenous people’s rights NGOs from Bangladesh. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that after a four-year-long post mortem inquest, a provincial court in Southern Thailand has absolved all officials and military persons of responsibility for the deaths of 78 persons at Tak Bai, Narathiwat. The court admits that the victims suffocated to death, but […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received reports that a young unarmed man was shot dead during his cousin’s wedding party by a police officer in Panjgore district, Balochistan province last month. The Assistant Sub Inspector accused of the shooting has defended his own authority regarding who he does and does not […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Human Rights Alert (HRA), a human rights organisation based in Imphal, Manipur state, concerning the threats to life faced by the a witness to torture and murder, committed by the Assam Rifles. On 16 May the Assam Rifles arrested Mr. Pebam Gunendro […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concern over the delay in the conclusion of the investigation into the deaths of two farmers who were last seen alive taken by soldiers in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental on 2 February 2009. Their dead bodies had been discovered when the investigators exhumed a gravesite […]

[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 been informed […]

Sri Lankans looked at their TV screens and newspapers last week with shock and shame as the story of the abduction and killing of six year old Varsha Jude Regi of Trincomalee came to the attention of the entire nation. Although much has been talked and written about this horror story, the real societal meaning […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that two persons, one of whom was a woman, were killed under the pretext of a “legitimate encounter” that took place between rebels and government soldiers. The victims were farming villagers living in Maramag, Bukidnon. The dead body of one of the victims […]

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man was shot dead by police constables allegedly under the influence of liquor in Teminabuan, south Sorong Regency, West Papua Province at midnight of December 31, 2008. Angry villagers have protested against the killing and in the ensuing violence a police officer […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of yet another killing of a peasant activist. Witnesses to the incident reported that when the shooting took place, local police had no men deployed there and the police who responded did not pursue the fleeing attackers. CASE DETAILS: (According to information […]

The AHRC is publishing its 2008 annual human rights report on Indonesia. A pre-publication version of the report can be downloaded at http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-012-2008-Indonesia_AHRR2008.pdf. How proud can Indonesia be of its reform process? While the country has established a national human rights commission (Komnas HAM) and has also undergone wide-reaching institutional reforms since the end of Suharto’s […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of the killing of three persons, including two political activists, in separate incidents recently. The AHRC is gravely concerned by these renewed, if not continuing targeted attacks, which exposed the realities that unless the perpetrators of the killings there are prosecuted, activists […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that a local court in southern Thailand has ordered after four years of hearing the post-mortem inquest over the death of 19 men, on the pretext of self defense, that the policemen who killed them cannot be charged. The court had depended […]