Freedom of expression

BANGLADESH: Presidential clemency must not be political game:

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following report published in New Age, a national English language daily newspaper of Bangladesh, on 1 March 2012. The original story can be read at: http://newagebd.com/newspaper/detail.php?date=2012-03-01&nid=2466. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the New Age, a national English language daily newspaper of Bangladesh, […]

BANGLADESH: Presidential clemency political. Says Asian HR Commission

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following report published in The Daily Star, a national English language daily newspaper of Bangladesh, on 1 March 2012. The original story can be read at: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=224539 . Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the Daily Star, a national English language daily newspaper of […]

SRI LANKA: With media gagged or threatened, no progress for freedom of information

Reporters Without Borders calls on all members of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council, which began its 19th session yesterday, to pass a resolution condemning the Sri Lankan government’s violations of freedom of information and to demand an end to threats and violence against news media and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka. “For […]

INDIA: A corpse of rights without justice at its soul

One of the sad truths that we have to live with today is that the people’s struggles for human rights are highly fragmented in India. Equally disheartening is the fact that whenever or wherever human rights comes up for discussion, it is addressed in piecemeal, ignoring and leaving far behind a comprehensive approach to rights […]

PAKISTAN: The killing of Shias –it is hard to refute the accusation that the military was involved

In a cold blooded attack by men in uniforms of the Pakistan Army, 18 persons from the Shiite community of Islam were targeted and killed. The incident occurred in the Khyber Pakhtunkha province close to the border of Gilgit and Baltistan area where Shias reside almost in good numbers to the Sunni population. On February […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව: සාමකාමී උද්ඝෝෂකයින්ට වෙඩි තැබීම ආණ්ඩුවේ පුරුද්දද?

මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනයයි AHRC-STM-034-2012-SI පෙබරවාරි 22, 2012 ආසියානු මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසමේ නිවේදනයයි සාමකාමී ලෙස උද්ඝෝෂණය කරන උද්ඝෝෂකයින්ට වෙඩි තැබීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසිය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් සිදුකරන දෙයක් බව ධීවර සහ ජලජ සම්පත් සංවර්ධන කැබිනට් අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා  හලාවතදී ධීවරයෙකුට වෙඩි තබා මරාදැමීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් බී.බී. සී. සිංහල සේවයේ වාර්තාකරුවෙකු ඇසූ ප්‍රශ්නයකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.  මෙලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පොලිසිය […]

SRI LANKA: Vox Papuli, Vox Del

By Nilantha Ilangamuwa “As your attorney general I’m sorry to have to tell you that the present picture of crimes in the United States is far from good. In fact I would say it is shocking – particularly so in regard to the percentage of juveniles involved in law breaking”. Tom C. Clark, Former Attorney […]

THAILAND: Trial of ten activists charged for protesting against undemocratic legislation tomorrow

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for court observers at the resumption of the trial of ten activists, who are being prosecuted under Criminal Code on trespassing and coercion in relation to peaceful protest that was held on 12 December 2007 in Thailand. The Black case No. is 4383/2553. The trial […]

SRI LANKA: The DIGP Ravi Wijegunawardena should be held responsible for the shooting of a fisherman engaged in a peaceful demonstration

On February 14 a young fisherman, Anthony Fernando, was shot dead while he was engaged with a number of other fishermen in protesting the increase of oil prices which would seriously affect the livelihood of fisherfolk. A large group of policemen led by the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the North Western Province, Ravi […]

THAILAND: Trial of webmaster charged for computer crime resumes tomorrow

[RE: AHRC-FPR-006-2011: THAILAND: Calling to observe for court trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai website, on 4 – 17 February 2011, 9.00am – 4.00pm at the Criminal Court] ——————————————————————— Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for court observers at the resumption of the trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of the […]

INDONESIA: Police killed two villagers and injured 82 others in anti-gold mining protest

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) received information that the police shot local farmers who were demonstrating against the gold exploration plan in several sub-districts in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara Province, on 24 December 2011. Two villagers died and 77 others were injured in the shooting. Five others were also injured by police […]

SOUTH KOREA: Rising attacks on rights defenders under the National Security Act

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to strongly protest against the search and seizure of seven places including the offices of several rights group and of houses belonging to their staff by National Intelligence Service (NIS) on February 9, 2012 under the National Security Act (NSA) and is concerned with the increase in legal […]

SRI LANKA: The agony of political lies

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” – Viktor E. Frankl1 High level military officials were […]

THAILAND: Concern among rights agencies regarding the stifle of the right to freedom of expression and the right to participate and propose legal amendments as provided for by the Constitution

Contributors: Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), Cross-Cultural Foundation (CrCF), Campaign Committee for Human Rights (CCHR), Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) and Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Want Project (EnLaw) Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following joint statement from Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), Cross-Cultural Foundation (CrCF), Campaign Committee […]

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea must release activist charged over Kim Jong-il tweet

Park Jeonggeun could face seven years in jail after tweeting about Kim Jong-il © Private The South Korean authorities should immediately release a social media activist accused of helping “the enemy” for re-tweeting messages from North Korea’s official government Twitter account, Amnesty International said today. Park Jeonggeun, a 24-year-old Socialist Party activist, was yesterday charged […]

PAKISTAN: Shahzad Commission results marred by free ride for ISI

Government has to Take on Military and Intelligence Services and end Impunity  (New York, January 30, 2012) – The Pakistani government should redouble efforts to find the killers of the journalist Saleem Shahzad, following the failure of the judicial inquiry commission to identify those responsible, Human Rights Watch said today. The commission concluded in its […]

INDIA: Censorship is a myopic world vision

Statement | India | 27-01-2012

The authorities in India have to wake up to the reality that censorship is not a norm, acceptable in the world today. In what could be considered as one of the most controversial proceedings in the country’s legal history, 21 companies including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and YouTube are to appear in a trial court […]

PHILIPPINES: Protect journalist facing threats to his life

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that a community journalist had been threatened for condemning the murder of his colleague in General Santos City. The threats made to him sent via his mobile phone cannot be taken lightly as there had been a pattern of targeted attacks against journalists […]

UPDATE (Indonesia): Tondano district court sentenced corruption informant to five-months imprisonment

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the illegal charges against Stanly Handry Ering, an informant in a corruption case. On 13 December 2011, the Tondano district court sentenced Stanly to five months imprisonment for defamation. Meanwhile, the cases of corruption revealed by Stanly are still being examined. UPDATED […]

PHILIPPINES: Journalist threatened for condemning colleague’s murder must be protected

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned that Ronald Allan Mascardo, editor and publisher of a local newspaper Dadiangas Balita, has received death threats via his mobile phone for condemning the murder of his colleague, Chris Guarin. Marcardo openly criticized those who masterminded the killing of Guarin at his burial ceremony on January 15. […]