Human rights defenders

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that nine human rights defenders from Gilgit-Baltistan, including the President of the Supreme Appellate Court, Bar Association were charged for sedition for holding a protest in front of the office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) at Gilgit. […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern with the continued detention of four political activists and five poor farmers. They are charged with murder. They allegedly attacked a police station, killing two policemen and wounding three others. Paraffin tests show they never fired a gun. Nevertheless, the prosecutor recommended indicting […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received further information on the murder of three more persons. In one incident, a father and his son were killed; and in another a sugarcane farmer. The AHRC is concerned by this renewed pattern of targeted attacks on human rights and political activists, and the absence […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that 12 human rights defenders including Baba Jan, a prominent human rights defender, have been sentenced to imprisonment for life, by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC). They have been so sentenced for raising their voice and holding a protest against not providing compensation rightly due […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the continuing targeted killings of human rights defenders and political activists. In August, four persons–two are rehabilitation workers in typhoon affected areas and two are political activists—have been killed in separate incidents. CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by the Alliance for the […]

Dear Mr. President, “You must be the change you want to see in the world” The Sri Lankan Lion roared at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly reminding the global community that “…, in order to gain the confidence and goodwill of the international community as a whole, but one of the essential requirements was consistency of standards across […]

The fifth Congress of Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), held in Manila from 22-25 September and attended by participants from ten countries – Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jammu and Kashmir in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand and Timor-Leste renewed its commitment to fight against impunity and build a world without disappearances. AFAD […]

Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe, a 23-year-old, member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) from Yadanabon University, Mandalay has been falsely implicated in the abduction of two Chinese workers from an army-backed copper mine project. On 20 September 2014, four months after the incident, she was arrested in her hometown under Penal Code […]

Conference Statement September 17-20, 2014, Manila, Philippines– We, the participants in the conference on “Sharing Best Practices in Advocating for Legislation Against Enforced Disappearances” coming from organizations fromArgentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and the United States of America are convened in Manila, Philippines, the […]

by Basil Fernando – Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2014 (This is an article issued on the occasion of receiving the Right Livelihood Award-2014) In 1989 when I learned that some people, due to malice or some other reason unknown to me, had entered my name into a list of persons to be disappeared, a stream […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you that The Right Livelihood Foundation has announced the laureates for 2014. They are Mr. Edward Snowden, Mr. Alan Rusbridger, Ms. Asma Jahangir, Mr. Basil Fernando, and Mr. Bill McKibben. This award is also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” For further information about the award and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to express grave concern about the arrest, interrogation, and harassment of four academics and three students during a public lecture on 17 September 2014 at Thammasat University in Bangkok. This is the latest in a series of actions by the authorities in the four months since the National Council […]

TEXTS ADOPTED Provisional edition P8_TA-PROV(2014)0024 Human rights violations in Bangladesh PE536.999 European Parliament resolution of 18 September 2014 on human rights violations in Bangladesh (2014/2834(RSP)) The European Parliament, –    having regard to its previous resolutions on Bangladesh, –    having regard to the EC-Bangladesh Cooperation Agreement of 2001, –    having regard to Articles 33 and 35 […]

A group of researchers associated with the Sydney University in Australia claim that they have found a more effective way than what has been tried so far, to prevent torture. The more effective way, as claimed, is to engage with the torturers themselves; which means to engage with officers of the security establishments. Quite an […]

by Professor Sunanda Mahendra Basil Fernando is a poet cum lawyer and bilingual writer who lives in Hong Kong. Apart form his day to day legal activities, he writes poems both in Sinhala and English. Several English poems have appeared in foreign learned journals. Quite recently one of his collections of English poems came to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the judicial harassment of Pornpen Khongkachonkiet and Somchai Homlaor, long-standing and prominent human rights defenders and director and chairperson, respectively, of the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) in Thailand, is ongoing. They have been accused of defaming the army and face potential legal prosecution for […]

Tungkum Limited (TKL) must drop Defamation Case against two community based Human Right Defenders (HRDs) in Loei. Tungkum Limited (TKL) filed a defamation suit in Phuket provincial court against Mr. Surapan Rujichaiwat and Ms. Porntip Hongchai, two communities based Human Rights Defender (HRDs). Mr. Surapan Rujichaiwat and Ms. Porntip Hongchai received a court summons on Saturday […]

Two years ago on 11th September  2012 a third degree fire broke out at the Ali Enterprises, garment factory in the industrial area of Karachi, where  259 workers perished – burnt alive. It was one of the most devastating tragedies known in the history of the garment industry. The tragedy sparked a debate but on a […]

The Lawyers Collective strongly condemns death threats to two of it’s leading members, Attorneys-at-Law, Mr. Namal Rajapakshe and Mr. Manjula Pathiraja. Mr. Rajapaske  and Pathiraja have  been  leading human rights activists and lawyers with long experience in public interest litigation. They appeared in series of sensitive cases challenging arbitrary actions of all organs of the […]

by Nilantha Ilangamuwa “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried” ― Oscar A. Romero (1917 –1980) The earlier idea of the destruction of the social system and “establishment” of the social disorder was a systematic ideological option designed and driven by certain elite groups. It was merely an […]