Human rights defenders

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 […]

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 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information from human rights organisation MASUM that Mr. Ajimuddin Sarkar, a district human rights monitor of Murshidabad district, West Bengal was illegally arrested and detained by plain-clothed police personnel of Islampur Police Station in broad daylight after being abused and beaten up. Mr. Sarkar had been […]

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 […]

Javeria Younes Women in Pakistan are treated as second class citizens. Denied their fundamental rights, the they are often viewed as property, to be dealt with as their owners deems fit. The chauvinism and patriarchy prevalent in Pakistan ensures systematic gender subordination, which perpetuates violence. In a society where the male ego is inflated at […]

This year’s ‘Alternative Nobels’ announced 2015 Right Livelihood Awards honour courageous and effective solutions to secure human rights and respond to global crises A Pacific island state foreign minister who has challenged the world’s nuclear powers through unprecedented legal action; an indigenous leader who fights to protect the Arctic in the face of climate change; […]

This week’s Roundup will reveal the 2015 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, which were announced 1 Octoberduring a press conference at the Swedish Foreign Office in Stockholm by Executive Director Ole von Uexkull and Chair of the Board, Dr. Monika Griefahn. This year’s Honorary Award goes to TONY DE BRUM and THE PEOPLE OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS “in […]

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 […]

A Press Release from Martin Ennals Foundation forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Call For Nominations – 2016 MARTIN ENNALS AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Deadline: 9 November 2015 (PLEASE NOTE THE NOMINATION DEADLINE IS ONE MONTH EARLIER THIS YEAR) Nominations can be submitted electronically atwww.martinennalsaward.org The Award is granted annually to an individual, or […]

An Open Letter from Janasansadaya to the President,Prime Minister, the Speaker and all Members of the Constitutional Council, Sri Lanka, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 2015.09.15 1. මෛත‍්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා ගරු ජනාධිපති ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය කොළඹ 2. රනිල් වික‍්‍රමසිංහ මහතා ගරු අග‍්‍රාමාත්‍යය අරලියගහ මැදුර කොළඹ 03 3. කරූ ජයසූරිය මහතා ගරු කථානායක පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ශ‍්‍රී ජයවර්ධනපුර කෝට්ටේ සහ […]

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 […]

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. […]

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් මහ කොමසාරිස්තුමාගේ කාර්යාලය මගින් 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වන දින නිකුත්කරන ලද ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව පිළිබ`දව පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව මේ දක්වා ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබ`දව ජාතික හෝ ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් නිකුත්කර ඇති පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තා වලින් ඉතාමත් අංග සම්පූර්ණවූත්, තුලනාත්මකවූත් පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව බව නොපැකිල ප‍්‍රකාශකල හැකිය. පිටු 261 කින් සමන්විත වන මෙම වාර්තාව […]

This week, AHRC TV reports from Geneva, where Sanjida Islam from Bangladesh has met with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to try to gather international support for her struggle to find her disappeared brother who was abducted in December 2013 by the notorious Rapid Action Battalion. Also in Geneva, the Right Livelihood […]

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 […]

-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 […]

The abduction, rape, and murder of Seya Sadewmi of Kotadeniyawa on 12 September 2015 has led many Sri Lankans to react across the country, and provoked many demonstrations by women’s organisations and also by children. Even yesterday, 23 September 2015, demonstrations by school children were reported from the North of the country. Similarly, media reports […]

An article from The Hindu forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission No other term but ‘dismay’ can describe one’s response to New Delhi’s ungenerous reply toNepal’s democratic drafting of a Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The Ministry of External Affairs merely ‘took note’ of the document, and followed that up a day later with a […]

The Interior Ministry of Baluchistan has recently stated that it has arrested 8363 Baloch over the span of 9 months. Whereas, the Chief Minister of Balochistan Dr. Malik Baloch has said that those arrested will be dealt in accordance with the law. No further details pertaining to the arrested have been revealed. The provincial interior […]

The Pakistani National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology approved the Cyber Crimes Bill 2015 on September 17 for a second time, after making some cosmetic changes to clauses that curb free speech. Legislators from the ruling party are determined to pass the Bill; the Chairman of the Standing Committee is the son in-law of […]