Freedom of expression

AHRC TV: Weekly Roundup, Episode 97

The Roundupthis week opens with a report of yet another targeted assassination in Bangladesh, which pushes the country further into lawlessness and terror. Faisal ArefinDipan, owner of a publishing house, is the latest victim. AHRC TV interviews Md.Ashrafuzzamanabout the killing spree and what is behind it. Next in this programme, BablooLoitongbam, of Human Rights Alert […]

SRI LANKA: පෙළපාලි හා මහජන උද්ඝෝෂණ වල පොලිස් සහභාගීත්වය

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු නොබෝදා පත්කරන ලද ජාතික පොලිස් කොමිසම විසින් ඔක්තෝබර් මස 29 වන දින විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ප‍්‍රතිපාදන කොමිෂන් සභාව ඉදිරිපිටදී ශිෂ්‍යයන් කණ්ඩායමකට පොලිසියේ කැරලි මර්ධන ඒකකය විසින් පහර දීමේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පැවැත්වීම ආරම්භ කිරීම සතුටට කරුණකි. එම පරීක්‍ෂණ කොමිටුවේ වාර්තාව සති දෙකක් ඇතුළත නිකුත් කරනු ලබන බවට ජාතික පොලිස් කොමිසමේ ප‍්‍රකාශකයෙකු විසින් නිවේදනය […]

NEPAL: UN Members deeply concerned about caste discrimination and untouchability

A Press Releasefrom the Nepal Dalit National Social Welfare Organisation (NNDSWO), Dalit NGO Federation (DNF), The Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO), and the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) on behalf of the Dalit Civil Society Organisations Coalition and by the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN)forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) UN Nepal UPR Review calls […]

BURMA/MYANMAR: Arrested Student Leaders’ Rights Under Grave Threat

The Asian Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the situation of two Burmese student leaders who have recently been arrested after being fugitives for nearly 7 months. Kyaw Ko Ko and Lin Htet Naing both played a leading role during the student protest earlier this year, against a controversial national education law passed by […]

BURMA/MYANMAR: Election campaign period sees third arrest over Facebook post

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding the arrest of Patrick Kum Jaa Lee for sharing a photo on Facebook. Husband of a human rights activist, Patrick has been charged with defaming the military by his photo sharing, and faces up to three years imprisonment. During Burma’s election campaign period, Patrick […]

NEPAL: Torture and Ill-treatment in Nepal – Anti-torture law, impunity, and the UPR

A Joint Press Release by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO Nepal) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO Nepal) have prepared this report in relation to the upcoming second cycle of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to be held on 4 November 2015. It presents the […]

PAKISTAN: Blogger arrested for tweets about judge

Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies have extended their tentacles to a web blogger who found cyberspace the only avenue available to him to expose the underbelly of corruption in the country. On October 28, a 19 year old blogger and political worker of Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) allegedly […]

SRI LANKA: Embattled Media: On A Unique Book and A Seminal Launching Event

Press Release of  the launch of the book,  ‘Embattled Media Embattled Media: Evolution, Governance and Reform in Sri Lanka’ By Dr. Chaminda Weerawardhana, and edited by Dr William Crawley, David Page and Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission. Nasir Mansoor, Colombo Telegraph [LINK https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/embattled-media-on-a-unique-book-a-seminal-launching-event/] October 27,2015 ( October 29, 2015 ) The book Embattled Media: Evolution, Governance and Reform in […]

BURMA/MYANMAR: Woman faces 5 years imprisonment over a Facebook post

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding a young woman being arrested and brought to trial over a post on social media. Lt. Col Kyaw Htin, an Army general staff officer of the Southwest Command in Pathein, filed case against the woman over a post that allegedly insults the Burmese military. […]

PAKISTAN: Supreme Court makes landmark judgment

Aftab Alexander Mughal In a landmark judgment on 7 October the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) upheld the death sentence of Malik Mumtaz Qadri, 30, who murdered the former Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, a liberal Muslim, on 4 January 2011. Qadri, one of Taseer’s official bodyguards from the Elite Force, shot him 27 times with […]

BURMA/MYANMAR: Imminent elections causes spike in politically motivated arrests

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned about the state of freedom of expression in Burma, at a time when Burma is awash in election campaigns. Rather than allow for the people to air their opinions as befits a democratizing nation, the government has chosen to suppress freedom of expression and Internet freedom and […]

ASIA: Weekly Roundup, Episode 94

This week AHRC TV continues its coverage of the 4th annual Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-Treatment and for Fair Trial Meeting, which saw parliamentarians, senior policemen, and senior activists gather in Hong Kong last to deliberate on the transformations required in the justice institutions of Asia. The programme includes talks by Sri Lankan Deputy […]

INDIA: Fanatic fringe the new mainstream

Article | India | 15-10-2015

Avinash Pandey “Incidents like Dadri and Ghulam Ali are really sad but what is the role of the Centre in them?” These are the words of Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, who finally appears to have broken his silence in this statement made to the Bengali newspaper Anandabazar Patrika on the increasing instances of […]

ASIA: Weekly Roundup, Episode 93

Earlier this week, Asian Parliamentarians gathered in Hong Kong for the 4th conference of the Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-Treatment and for Fair Trial. Three days of discussions on the rule of law, democracy, fair trial, and police reform ensued. AHRC TV documented the event. This episode features snippets from the conference. Don’t miss […]

SRI LANKA: Sense and nonsense on judicial matters

A comment on the approved UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka Basil Fernando Now that the UN Resolution on promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka has been approved by the Human Rights Council, a new page opens up with possibilities of looking into and dealing with grave problems that havecrippled […]

INDIA: Nutrition and TB: An Essential but Ignored relationship

Article | India | 30-09-2015

Prashant Kumar Dubey Nutrition and TB are two entities which need to be considered together, not separately. It is unfortunate that our country has not taken any initiative in this area resulting in a disregard for this relationship. If we really want to overcome TB, we need to talk through a package system similar to […]

SRI LANKA: නීතිපති දෙපාර්ථමේන්තුව පිළිබද ප‍්‍රශ්නය හා ලංකාවේ යුක්තිය පසිදලීමේ අනාගතය

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමසාරිස්තුමාගේ කාර්යාලය මගින් 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වන දින ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබදව පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්කරන ලදි. ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම් හා යුද්ධ අපරාධ පිළිබදව ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුවේ එකගතාවය ඇතිව මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සලයේදී ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති යෝජනවාට පදනම වන්නේ එම වාර්තාවයි. ලංකාව තුළ විශේෂයෙන් 2002 සිට 2009 අතර කාලය […]

SRI LANKA: OHCHR Investigation contributes to reconciliation and justice development in Sri Lanka

The Investigation Report issued by the Office of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) dated 16th September 2015, is the most comprehensive report on human rights issued by any international or national agency to date. It is comprehensive and balanced. If implemented it could lead to considerable positive developments in Sri Lanka. […]

INDIA: Let them eat rasgullas

Statement | India | 24-09-2015

Death of children under its care is nothing novel for the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics located in Cuttack, Odisha. It took 58 of them to die in less than 10 days for it to become scandalous. Over the years, the Institute, popularly known as Shishu Bhawan, has recorded an alarming number […]

NEPAL: मधेशी दलितमाथि मधेशी विष्टहरुको दलन

-शिवहरि ज्ञवाली यो लेख मधेश केन्द्रित राजनीतिक दल र नागरिक समाजको मधेशी दलित समुदायमाथिको विभेदपूर्ण व्यवहारमा केन्द्रितछ । मधेशी समुदाय विगतदेखि विशेषगरी पहाडे खस राज्य व्यवस्थाका कारण नियोजित रुपमा पछाडि पारिएको र लुटिएकोसमुदाय हो । विशेषगरी मधेशी समुदायले विगतदेखि अनागरिक भएर बाँच्नुपरेको यथार्थ छ भने तिनै मधेशी उच्च जातीयसमुदायको विभेदपूर्ण व्यवहारका कारण मधेशी दलित समुदाय मान्छे भएर जिउन नपाएको तितो यथार्थ पनि हाम्रा सामु छ ।यो लेखको मुख्य सरोकार मधेश केन्द्रित राजनीति र मधेशी नागरिकसमाजको दायित्व काठमाडौंलाई औला ठड्याउनेमात्र हो कि मधेशी दलितका समस्या रसवालहरुमा आफ्नो दायित्व पनि हुन्छ भन्ने प्रश्नमा केन्द्रित छ । मधेशी दलितमाथि मधेशी विष्ट सोच “दीपक मलिकलाई अहिले पनि इनारबाट पानी खान दिएका छैनन् । कुटपिट पनि गरे । मधेस आन्दोलन भन्दै उनीहरु झन् ठूलो स्वरले कराउँदै छन् । उनीहरुको मनोबल झन् बढेको छ । दलितलाई कुट्दा प्रशासनले पनि केही गरेन ।“ बीबीसी नेपाली सेवामा कार्यरत मेघराज रसाइलीले आफ्नो फेसबुकमा सिराहा धनगढी—३, नैनपुरका प्रेम रामको भनाइ उल्लेख […]