Freedom of expression

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

INDONESIA: AHRC launches human rights report on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day

(Hong Kong, December 07, 2011) On the occasion of the upcoming International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2011, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is launching its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-006-2011/view. In the report, the AHRC witnessed a […]

SOUTH KOREA: New organ established to restrict freedom of expression over the internet

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned with the newly established organ under the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) that has broad authority to restrict freedom of expression over the Social Network Service (SNS) from the internet. According to the media interview of the chief of the organ, it is authorised by Act […]

NEPAL: Commitments to accountability and justice continue to be jeopardized in 2011

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 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here. Given […]

INDONESIA: Human Rights in 2011 – The Decay of Pancasila and Constitutional Protections

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 publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report will be made available […]

PAKISTAN: A journalist was attacked by terrorists from a banned militant organisation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding a journalist and prominent human rights defender that has left the country after an attempt to abduct him by a banned Muslim militant organization, the Jamaatud Dawa, which was allegedly involved in sectarian and terrorist attacks both inside and outside the country. He […]

SRI LANKA: Death threats to the Sunday Leader newspaper’s editor must be investigated

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Ms. Frederica Sandra Carmela Jansz, editor of the local, English-language newspaper, The Sunday Leader, received sexually violent, anonymous death threats on 27 October 2011. Ms. Frederica is a well-known journalist who has bravely and repeatedly called for governmental transparency and accountability. She was […]

INDONESIA: New report reveals extent of Papua human rights violations; NGOs meet in Geneva to address their concerns on the situation of human rights in Papua

A Joint Statement by the Faith Based Network on West Papua (FBN), Franciscans International (FI), and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Geneva, 3 November 2011 Following last month’s violent dispersal by Indonesian security forces of the Third Papuan Peoples’ Congress in Jayapura, Indonesia has been confronted with the full scale of human rights problems […]