Freedom of expression

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

INDIA: Censorship is a myopic world vision

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 […]

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. […]

BANGLADESH: HR violations are evident

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following editorial published by the Daily Star, an English-speaking national daily newspaper of Bangladesh, on 17 January 2012. The original editorial can be available for the readers at: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=218604. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- An Editorial from the Daily Star forwarded by the Asian Human […]

PAKISTAN: The former Ambassador to the United States faces death threats from the military and intelligence agencies — the civilian government has shown its inability to rein in the powerful institutions

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding various threats, including death threats, to the former ambassador of Pakistan to the United States of America. He is under virtual house arrest as his movements are restricted not only by the military intelligence agencies but also by the Supreme Court of Pakistan […]

THAILAND: Open letter from Somyot Pruksakasemsuk

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following open letter from the Malaysian Support Group for Democracy in Thailand on behalf of Mr. Somyot Pruksakasemsuk to those concerned with freedom of expression and political prisoners in Thailand. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ——- An Open Letter from […]

PAKISTAN: Two journalists and members of their families face death threats from religious militant groups — police make no effort to arrest the perpetrators

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding threats to the lives of two producers-cum-investigative journalists of a private electronic media house for unearthing a private detention centre run by a Muslim fundamentalist group. It is being operated under the guise of a rehabilitation center where people, from 4 to 50 […]

SRI LANKA: The New Year Wish List- 2012

All Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in the legal system. People reduced to powerlessness […]

INDONESIA: Another protester dies amidst the tense situation at Freeport

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the death of yet another union protester on 15 October 2011, following a shooting injury on October 10. The situation at the Freeport mine in Timika, West Papua remains tense, due to the repressive approach of the Papua regional police (POLDA Papua). UPDATED […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]