Impunity

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a local partner organization, Human Rights Defenders and Promoters, that the police, a municipality officer, and a village administrative officer from Kangyi Daunk Township, Ayeyawady Region, arrested a villager without giving any reason and tortured him. When the case was brought to court, […]

by Basil Fernando It must have been somebody’s idea that judicial independence in Sri Lanka must be destroyed. When the idea was first generated we do not know. It is possible that it arose more or less at the same time as the 1962 coup. Those were wild times for some people who had enjoyed […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Anil Kumar Yadav, an 18-year-old youth and resident of Ward No.9, Ferset Village Development Committee (VDC), Saptari District, has been tortured for having a love affair with a girl aged 16. The incident occurred on 18 October 2014. It is members of […]

by Basil Fernando As the possibility of an election has become a “hot topic” of the day, with it has emerged the problem of the 1978 Constitution and the system of the Executive Presidency, as a sharp point of contest and debate in Sri Lanka. In the midst of this unfolding scenario, President Rajapaksa, in […]

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 […]

by Avinash Pandey They did not speak Kannada, the language of the state they live in. They, therefore, were “legitimate” targets of violence in a city that has benefitted the most from India’s shift from Nehruvian Socialism to free market economy. The fact that they contribute to the city, and the province’s income, meant nothing. […]

A Statement from the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)   Date:                                 15 October 2014 Name:                               Taing Try Category:                          Journalist Location:                           Kratie Province Nature of threat:                Murder Brief Description: On 12 October 2014, journalist Taing Try was found dead near his car in Khsoem Khang Krao village, […]

On 10 October 2014, the independent online media outlet Prachatai reported on three instances of torture of persons held in military and police custody which have taken place since the 22 May 2014 coup by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in Thailand (Read the entire report by Prachatai in English here and […]

In a landmark criminal judgment involving abuse of power by the police, a Special Additional Sessions Court in Calicut not only acquitted the accused framed by the errant cops in Sundari Amma murder case, but also ordered a department inquiry as well as compensation. The court found that there was significant reason to suspect that […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that after soldiers in Kachin State, northern Burma detained two men over alleged involvement in an anti-government armed group, they were tortured and interrogated illegally. Furthermore, although the men, named Lahpai Gan and Baran Yaun, were turned over to police custody they were then […]

To date, no credible investigation into the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda has taken place. Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared on 24th January 2010 and to this day there has been no credible investigation into his disappearance, despite many interventions by the United Nations Human Rights agencies, other international organizations, and by local Sri Lankan organizations. The wife […]

During the last two weeks, a video showing a policeman beating a young woman on a public road in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka, has generated heated discussion in the media. Reactions shown in the media and in social media such as facebook show public contempt for the behavior and conduct of the police. What is near […]

State fails once again to protect blasphemy convict, injured by prison guard In a latest incident on 25 September 2014, a 71-year old prisoner who was awarded the death sentence in a blasphemy case was attacked and critically wounded when a cop on duty opened fire at him in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, close to Islamabad. […]

In this week’s episode of the Weekly Roundup , AHRC TV covers the tragic news of the death of Nanda Prasad Adhikari, following a 333-day hunger strike in Nepal. His wife, Ganga Maya, continues her fast, protesting against the Nepal government’s inability to investigate, prosecute, and punish her son’s killers. To learn more about this […]

Dear friends, The Terai Human Rights Defenders (THRD) Alliance in Nepal has informed the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that three teenage children were tortured by three drunk police officers on 26 September 2014. The victims are still waiting for justice and the perpetrators have yet to be charged.  CASE NARRATIVE: Mr. Deepak Thater, the […]

Vilbur Larch of Global Health and Human Rights Show (USA) talks with Basil Fernando, On the 29th of September Vilbur Larch of the Global Health and Human Rights Show talked with Basil Fernando about the Right Livelihood Award this year. This discussion is now available online. In this discussion, the nature of the Right Livelihood […]

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 […]

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 […]

by Bushra Khaliq The 2014 floods in Pakistan is the fifth in series of floods since 1973, 1988, 1992 and 2010. This time the late monsoon rains [in the early part of] September unleashed terrific floods in Central Punjab. Swollen rivers, particularly the Chenab breached floodwalls, sweeping away thousands of villages and the Government despite […]

On 19 September 2014, the Appeal Court upheld the Criminal Court’s ruling in the case of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk. Somyot was found guilty of two violations of Article 112 of the Criminal Codeand sentenced to ten years in prison on 23 January 2013, with one additional year from a prior case for a total of eleven […]