Inhuman & degrading treatment

NEPAL: An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to the relevant authorities

06 September 2017 Mr. Krishna Bahadur Mahara Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal Phone: 977-1- 4200182/183/184/185 Toll Free No: 1660-01-00186 Fax: 977-1- 4200061/056/160 Email: info@mofa.gov.np Dear Mr. Mahara, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to inform you that we are aware that your office […]

INDONESIA / MYANMAR: Myanmar Needs to Immediately End Persecution Against Rohingya

Jakarta, 2 September 2017 The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) condemns all violence against Rohingya civilians that has been escalated since Friday, 25 August 2017. The IOM has estimated that more than 18,500 Rohingya refugee fled Myanmar towards Bangladesh, and more than 100 persons died in the armed conflict. We urge the Government of both […]

AHRC TV: Rohingya flee more violence in Rakhine and other stories in JUST ASIA, Episode 186

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where fighting has broken out once again in the state of Rakhine. Clashes between Burmese security forces and Rohingya militants have led to some 89 people killed, including 12 security force personnel. This is the worst violence to hit the area since October 2016, when a military crackdown […]

PAKISTAN: International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances – Government refuses to criminalize the menace

A joint statement of Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), World Sindhi Congress (WSC), Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) and Rightsnow on the  International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances Each year on August 30, the world stands in solidarity with the victims of the enforced disappearances and their families and vows to fight against […]

INDIA/BURMA: Do not deport Rohingya and other refugees living in India

Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic group belonging to Burma, are considered the most severely persecuted people in the world. The majority of Burma’s 800,000 strong, Muslim populace, identifies as Rohingya and have faced severe discrimination in this Buddhist-majority nation. Rohingyas are routinely denied basic rights to healthcare and livelihood. By the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law they […]

PAKISTAN: Intelligence agencies using blasphemy to gag criticism of its atrocities

Blogger Ahmed Waqas Goraya, who disappeared earlier this year along with four other social media activists, has recently revealed the names of his abductors. Mr. Goraya posted on his Facebook page that Colonel Khalid of the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, and a civilian deputy director, Mr. Irtiza, tortured him while in custody. Having remained […]

SRI LANKA: Video showing the IGP grabbing a Police Officer by the collar challenges the respect due to on-duty Policemen

There is a saying that “if you are bitten by a cobra there is hardly any cure”. The situation of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) violating the law and committing an act of torture appears to have the same effect. This is not because of a defect of the Law in Sri Lanka. It […]

INDIA/BANGLADESH: Stop the Unlawful Detention of Bangladeshi Migrants

In May 2017, a young boy was apprehended by Border Security Force(BSF) officers in Dinajpur, West Bengal. MASUM, our partner organisation in West Bengal conducted a fact-finding mission and discovered that almost 18 months before the incident, his father had come to India, searching for a job, with the help of a middleman. The boy, […]

SRI LANKA: පොලිස්පති පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකුට වදහිංසා කිරීමේ සිද්ධිය හා පොලිස් සේවයේ කීර්තිනාමය

“නයෙක් කෑවොත් කළ හැකි වෙදකමක් නැතැයි” සමහරුන් කියන්නා සේ පොලිස්පතිවරයා පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු වදහිංසනයට ලක්කල විට එයට ද ලංකාවේ නීතිය කරින යාත්මක වන ආකාරයට අනුව කල හැකි දෙයක් නැතුවා සේ පෙනේ. එය නීතියේ ඇති අඩුපාඩුවක් නිසා නොව ලංකාවේ නීතිය කරිය යාත්මක වන ආකාරයේ ඇති බරපතල පැහැරහැරීම් හා මගහැරීම් නිසාය. පොලිස්පතිවරයා පොලිස් මූලස්ථානයේ නිළධාරියේකුගේ කොළරයෙන් අල්ලා ඔහුට තර්ජනය […]

SRI LANKA: Torture and fabricated charges by Mahiyangana Police with the view of land grabbing

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding continuous harassment meted out by the Mahiyangana Police and the Badulla Police to Herath Mudiyanselage Podi Kumarihami, in order to grab a land which Podi Kumarihami owns and where she has been living for a long time. Police officers attached to the […]

INDONESIA: Serious violations of human rights in Papua should be investigated

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the Indonesian Authorities to ensure that cases of human rights violations that occurred in Papua must be investigated properly, under fair trial principles and the Rule of Law. In the last two months, the AHRC has documented and reported some three cases of serious human rights violations, as […]

THAILAND: Reporter charged with sedition and computer-related crime; Five students and academics summoned for organizing an international conference

Khaosod reporter Pravit Rojanaphruk charged with sedition and computer-related crime On 8 August 2017, Mr Pravit Rojanaphruk, senior reporter at Khaosod English, reported to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) to hear his charges in two separate cases. First, Pravit is accused of sedition offence under Section 116 of the Thai Criminal Code and computer-related […]

INDIA: Independence Day for cows as hospitals massacre children

Statement | India | 14-08-2017

How exactly can one react to a republic that lets more than 60 of its children die in just 48 hours for the want of oxygen as the company supplying oxygen to the hospital had stopped it after repeated warnings for the same over non-payment of Rs. 68 Lakhs? How exactly one must feel after […]

PAKISTAN: Call to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance without any reservation

A Report by the Asian Human Rights Commission/Asian Legal Resource Centre to the 113 session of United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) are concerned about the increase in cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. The state has utterly and […]

PAKISTAN: Without respect for law, legal profession will flounder

The darker side of Pakistan’s lawyers’ cartel has been exposed in the case of law student Khadija Siddiqui, who was stabbed 23 times by her class fellow, Shah Husain, the son of a senior Supreme Court lawyer. After this horrific attack, Khadija could not find a single lawyer to take up her case. Being the […]

INDIA: The Northeast is flooded – State efforts are too little too late

Statement | India | 02-08-2017

The Prime Minister of India has just announced a Rs.2000 crore relief package to deal with the damage caused by the devastating floods have impacted the northeast region of India since mid-June, particularly the states of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh. The floods escaped media attention for quite some time, as is want of events […]

PAKISTAN: State failure allows jirga to order ‘revenge rape’

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is horrified by the news of the rape of a 17-year-old on the orders of a jirga (tribal council). The girl from the Rajpur area of Multan, Punjab province, was raped to avenge the rape committed by her brother. When a jirga was convened and informed that Umer sexually […]

AHRC TV: Bangladesh rights defender detained by Malaysian authorities and other stories in JUST ASIA, Episode 181

This week Just Asia begins with the case of Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan, who was detained by Malaysian immigration authorities for more than 12 hours at Kuala Lumpur airport last week. Without giving any reasons for the detention, the authorities finally deported him back to Dhaka. Just Asia speaks to […]

BANGLADESH: Police gouge eyes of a man in custody

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Khalishpur police of the Khulna Metropolitan city has gouged eyes of a detainee for failing to pay bribe. The victim, Mr. Mohammad Shah Jalal (Jibon). The Khalishpur police arrested him from the street near Boalkhali of the Khulna city when he went […]

PAKISTAN: State complicity abetting Hazara bloodbath

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the recent spate of attacks on the Hazara community in Balochistan province. In the most recent incident, four family members belonging to the ethnic Hazara Shia community and their driver were shot dead on July 19, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle near Balochistan’s Mastung […]