Freedom of association

PHILIPPINES: Reinstate all illegally dismissed workers of Print Town immediately

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the allegedly illegal and unjust dismissal of more than 100 production workers in the Mamplasan, Binan, Laguna Plant. The information from Defend Job Philippines and Nagkakaisang Manggagawa sa Print Town (United Workers in Print Town) also documents the pitiable livening and working conditions […]

INDIA: Remembering Ayodhya that was not the fountainhead of sectarian strife in the subcontinent

Article | India | 04-09-2013

By Avinash Pandey Ayodhya was in news, for all the wrong reasons, again. Vishva Hindu Parishad, that venomous organization with equal hatred for the minorities and the nation, had tried to infiltrate into Ayodhya yet again. They were stopped by the state government. It was a game well played. A communal organization has attempted to […]

BANGLADESH: Adil, the man I know

You said to me “ I can bear anything” with stubborn eyes you faced the sun until blindness became a ball of flame and the flame turned the sea to salt. – Lu Xiaobo : Ne enemies , No Hatred It was few days ago that they came and dragged him to their vehicle and took […]

PHILIPPINES: Immediately stop threatening a community with demolition and displacement

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing information from Defend Job Philippines regarding the threats of a demolition drive affecting more than 5500 families, or 30000 people of San Roque, North Triangle, Quezon City. The aforesaid demolition and eviction drive for making way to the implementation of the Vertis North Project […]

SRI LANKA: From Minor Tyranny to Excessive Tyranny

Impeaching the Chief Justice and Sri Lankan Politics By Upul Abeyrathne1 “All are accordingly bound by the necessity of keeping the law, unless perchance there is any who can be thought to have been given the license of wrong-doing. However, it is said that the prince absolved from obligations of the law, but it is […]

BANGLADESH: Mr. Shahed Kayes, a human rights defender abducted and stabbed, requires immediate protection

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the abduction and attack upon Mr. Shahed Kayes, a human rights defender working in Narayanganj district in Bangladesh. A group of persons abducted Mr. Shahed Kayes, a well-respected human rights defender, working in Narayanganj district of Bangladesh, yesterday, 25 July. The AHRC is informed that Kayes’ abductors, with […]

BURMA: Police torture of gay and transgendered people

The Asian Human Rights Commission has been following with concern news of the police targeting of gay and transgendered people in Burma, or Myanmar, and has recently obtained detailed information on a number of cases of alleged arbitrary arrest, detention and torture of persons on the grounds of sexual orientation. The AHRC is troubled both […]

BURMA: Identifying and freeing remaining political prisoners

The president of Burma, or Myanmar, U Thein Sein in his recent visit to the United Kingdom has made a commitment that all political prisoners in his country will be released by the end of the year. According to him, a committee is continuing to review all relevant cases and determine those persons who are […]

PAKISTAN: The Council of Islamic Ideology intends to complete the elimination of the religious minorities

The Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan held a meeting on May 29, headed by Maulana Sherani, and warned that if the blasphemy laws are amended, the country’s minorities will be unsafe, but how much worse could the situation get? Minorities have been suffering since these laws were introduced by General Zia Ul Haq in […]

INDIA: Judicial Magistrate takes up the witch-hunt against Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswamy, a human rights defender in Madhya Pradesh state

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Badwani, Madhya Pradesh state regarding the continuing witch-hunt against human rights defender Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswamy of the Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS). Having braved an externment notice, followed by attacks from the locally elected Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and then a vilification […]

BURMA: Buddhist monk imprisoned for alleged deviant teaching

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has previously issued an appeal about an elderly religious leader in Burma who has been imprisoned for allegedly establishing a deviant Buddhist order. In this appeal, we bring you details of another case of a monk jailed for allegedly teaching the group’s doctrine. Although the prosecution brought no […]

BANGLADESH: A massacre of demonstrators

News reports from Bangladesh allege that a series of attacks on demonstrators have taken place, at around 3am today, May 6, 2013. The extent of the injuries and death is difficult to be ascertained at the moment. The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, gave the figure of deaths as 5. However, several internet reports have mentioned that the […]

PHILIPPINES: Reprisals on another illegally dismissed workers four years after their reinstatement to work

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the workers who were illegally dismissed but reinstated after we issued our appeal have once again been repressed by their employer. In September 2008, the shoe company reinstated the workers they had illegally dismissed after they went on strike and filed complaints of […]

SRI LANKA: The Recent Suppression of Tamil Voice at Vavuniya

A group of hundreds of relatives of the disappeared from Mannar and Vavuniya were to arrive on the 5th night in Colombo by buses to share with the people in the South their pathetic stories about the disappearances of their loved ones during and after the war, and then to present a petition to the […]

PAKISTAN: The Supreme Court must ensure that Ahmadis should not be disfranchised

A Golden Opportunity to abolish self-contradictory Franchise System and Restore true Justice and Democracy in Pakistan The world has strongly and repeatedly drawn the attention of Pakistan to its self-contradictory franchise system which denies the Ahmadi Muslims the fundamental right to vote.( Click here to read our previous statement on the issue) The Supreme Court of […]

INDIA: Ensure safety of Human Rights Defenders and punish those threatening them

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing information from Samaj Chetna Adhikar Manch, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh regarding local goons threatening to kill its activists. The organisation, working in Java block of the district, has been in the forefront of the struggle against malnutrition and the widespread corruption in welfare schemes that […]

PHILIPPINES: Vendors face forced eviction and food insecurity

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Defend Job Philippines about an eviction notice served on the vendors of Luneta Park (also called Rizal Park) in Manila. The proposed eviction will not merely leave the vendors jobless but also jeopardize their food security. It would also render many of them […]

PAKISTAN: Persecution of Ahmadis during the month of January 2013

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from Nazarat Umoor Ama. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A joint swoop on an Ahmadi printing press in Lahore by a team of mullas and the police: The Punjab Police raided a printing press Black Arrows, owned […]

INDIA: Stop witch-hunting Human Rights Defenders

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received very disturbing information from Barwani, Madhya Pradesh regarding the administration’s continuing witch hunt against human rights defender Ms Madhuri Krishnaswami of the Jagrat Dalit Adivasi Sangthan. In the most recent attack, the District Magistrate has written a letter to the Divisional Commissioner that found its […]

SRI LANKA: The Comments of S.N Silva – the archenemy of rule of law

Sarath Nanda Silva is heavily quoted in SLBC programmes trying to criticize the Supreme Court judgment relating to the question on the interpretation of law referred to it by Court of Appeal. He says that the Supreme Court has not properly interpreted the words “or standing orders” as found in Article 107(3) of the constitution. […]