Freedom of expression

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the case of a farmer who was running a community radio station in accordance with provisions of the 1997 Constitution of Thailand but was subsequently taken to court on charges of illegal broadcasting under a law that predates the constitution. The verdict […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has today learnt that two of the three members of the Judicial Service Commission of Sri Lanka have resigned their posts as continuing to hold them would be incompatible with their consciences. The two are senior Supreme Court judges Shiranee Bandaranayaka and T B Veerasuriya. The third remaining member and […]

[RE: UP-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Three persons tortured by the Chapainawabganj police; UA-041-2006: BANGLADESH: Eight people killed and at least one hundred injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district; UA-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Two people killed and thirty-five injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district] ———————————– UP-016-2006: BANGLADESH: Three detained and tortured leaders have been released from prison in […]

[RE: UP-011-2006: NEPAL: Further arrests occur in Nepal’s escalating crisis; UA-036-2006: NEPAL: Further arrests in Nepal’s worsening political, security and human rights crisis; UG-002-2006: NEPAL: Immediate intervention required in Nepal’s deepening political, security and human rights crisis; UP-012-2006: NEPAL: Widespread repression and mass arrests continue to take place in Nepal] ———————————————————————- UP-017B-2006: NEPAL: A further […]

On the first anniversary of the infamous royal coup in Nepal, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) notes with concern that the King continues to sacrifice the rights of the people of Nepal while claiming that during the past 12 months the country had been on the right track. On the contrary, the human rights […]

On 5 December 2005, activist Cathy Alcantara was killed by unidentified armed men in Abucay, Bataan province, Luzon, Philippines. Alcantara, a mother of two children and the wife of a farmer’s organiser, died of a fatal gunshot wound while on her way to hospital after having attended the Luzon-wide farmers’ conference of the Pambansang Katipunan […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by another police raid on the free media in Nepal. According to the information received from INSEC, the human rights organisation in Nepal, armed policemen together with an engineer from the Ministry of Information and Communications raided the Sagarmatha FM station on 27 November […]

[RE: UP-43-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Questions remain in Sri Lanka’s willingness to save three of its citizens; UP-39-2005: Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia; UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans; UP-34-2005: Death […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed by the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR) (Thailand) that a farmer who was running a community radio station in accordance with the provisions of the 1997 Constitution has been taken to court on charges of illegal broadcasting under a law that predates the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding 73 workers from the Orex Factory in Ekala, Jaela, Sri Lanka, who were unlawfully dismissed after the owner arbitrarily closed down the factory in 2002. The AHRC previously reported that the owner, Mohamed Mohamed Izzath deprived his workers of the Employees Trust […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information through its local partner MASUM in West Bengal that Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights activist was illegally detained, threatened and assaulted by the officers at the Block Development Office in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal. Mr. Sharma was, at the time of the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the opposition party leader Mohammed Nasheed, who is the chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party(MDP), was arbitrarily arrested by the police in Male, Maldives on 12 August 2005. He was later charged with sedition and terrorism under very suspicious circumstances and is currently […]

[Re: UA- 50 -2005: INDIA: Three and a half year wait for justice for the brutal murder of an Adivasi (tribal person) by a forest official in Gujarat] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the case of Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava (30), an adivasi who was murdered by an Indian […]

This April 28, 46-year-old Sivaram Dharmeratnam became the latest victim of abduction and murder in Sri Lanka. Sivaram, a highly-respected journalist for the Daily Mirror newspaper–where he was known by his pen name, Taraki–was abducted while coming out of a restaurant in front of the busy Bambalapitiya Police station. The perpetrators allegedly parked their vehicle […]

In an announcement this week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand stated that the proposed reform of some hundreds of the country’s laws would concentrate on those that violate its 1997 Constitution. Perhaps it can be concluded from this announcement that criminal defamation will be among the laws in breach of both the Constitution and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) shares the concerns expressed by the Secretary General of the United Nations in his statement on the human rights situation in Nepal. Time and again the AHRC has stressed that regional governments such as India, international governments and bodies such as European Union, national political parties and the King […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission provides you the updated information below regarding the libel case filed by media conglomerate Shin Corp against a media-reform activist Ms Supinya Klangnarong and the Thai Post. Ms Supinya, Secretary General of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR), was sued by Shin Corp after she observed that […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that political activist Mohamed Yoosuf was illegally arrested by the police in Maldives on 13 August 2004. Mr. Mohamed Yoosuf was put in solitary confinement at the Dhoonidhoo Detention Facility after seven days of his arrest and he has now been there for 53 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man named Heeralu Mohottalalage Punchi Banda (39) was illegally arrested and tortured by the Sub Inspector (S.I.) Dhammika Bandara of Samanalaweva Police Post in Balangoda on 26 August 2004. Due to brutal torture, the victim still suffers from severe pain on his […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Korean-German scholar Song Du-yul, was freed on 21 July 2004 following the Seoul High Court’s decision to sentence him to three years in jail with the term suspended for five years. Mr. Song was initially given a seven-year jail term by a lower […]