Inhuman & degrading treatment

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with the UN’s new report detailing mass gang rape, killings and other human rights abuses against the Rohingya by the Burmese military. A team of UN investigators interviewed over 200 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who told how their children, including a newborn, were trampled or cut to death. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to inform you about a paper entitled “Kidnapping and Forced Disappearances of Activists in 1997-1998: Who was Responsible?” This paper shows the stagnation of the investigative process. In 2006 the National Commission on Human Right (Komnas HAM) investigated the case and issued a recommendation report. It concerned allegations of […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with Thailand, where the Khon Kaen Provincial Court on Monday, during an in-camera hearing, granted permission for police to extend the detention of Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattaraksa. A law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM), Jatuphat was arrested on lese majeste charges for sharing a […]

The government of Pakistan is conspicuously silent on an organised and malicious campaign started by two television channels for inciting hate and violence against activists who are protesting for the recovery of five disappeared bloggers. The campaign was so strong that at one point a strong group of religious fundamentalists attacked the activists who were […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, which is seeing human rights at its lowest point since 1997, said an Amnesty International report. According to the report, authorities have “failed on many fronts” to protect the city’s rights and freedoms. Amnesty urged the Hong Kong government and civil servants to “make defending […]

by Avinash Pandey Rohith Vemula’s suicide a year ago shook the country. The circumstances of his death left no doubt that it was an institutional murder committed through continuous harassment, and not a simple suicide. It exposed how the culture of caste discrimination was alive and kicking in Indian campuses despite being outlawed by the […]

Last week, in the High Court of Badulla five police officers and a security officer were sentenced to death for causing the murder of Sadun Malinga, a 17-year-old boy. The boy and four of his relatives had gone to the town for some business when the police suddenly arrested them, beat them in public, and […]

It is almost a week since the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) admitted to having found prima facie evidence of the security personnel of state government of Chhattisgarh having raped and sexually and physically assaulted at least 16 women, mostly women belonging to the indigenous communities. It is also been a week since the NHRC […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where at least 14 bloggers have disappeared since the beginning of January. The government started off 2017 with a crack-down on human rights defenders and bloggers raising their voices on disappearances and extrajudicial killings, particularly in Balochistan. The security establishment there is very sensitive to the construction of the China PakistanEconomic […]

A 10-year-old child working as a household help was tortured by her employers, an Additional Sessions judge and his wife; the girl has been severely injured. The judge has used his influence and position to settle the case outside the court with the father of the maid. The Chief Justice of Pakistan took suo motto […]

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where four border police officers have been detained after a video went viral, showing them beating unarmed Rohingya men in the state of Rakhine. The video was posted to Facebook on Saturday and seems to show officers with military-grade weapons kicking two men, as another officer looks on […]

Concerns have been raised about the preliminary report of the Consultation Task Force (CTF), particularly about hybrid courts and foreign judges. It should be remembered that this report and its recommendations have not been finalized. Additionally, at the very beginning of the report, the CTF write that they are not making extensive recommendations themselves, but […]

How does one deal with a 42% spike in suicides by farmers/cultivators in a country where “development” has been the buzzword for the last couple of years? If the question isn’t creepy enough to send a shiver down one’s spine, consider that “Bankruptcy or Indebtedness” and “Farming Related Issues”, i.e. non-personal reasons, account for 58.2% […]

Today, January 4, is the death anniversary of former Governor of Punjab Province Salman Taseer, who was killed in broad daylight by his own bodyguard in 2011, for appealing for the pardon of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad. After his assassination, Salman Taseer’s family […]

FATA is a human rights free zone where free human beings have been enslaved since 1901. Pakistan claims that FATA is its constitutional part and has placed it in the Pakistan Constitution of 1973. People in this unfortunate place have experienced inhumane treatment ever since Pakistan came into being in 1947. The miseries and troubles […]

A Statement from Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (KARAPATAN) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission. Karapatan today joined RISE UP!, a campaign initiated by faith-based groups, institutions and people’s organizations against the drug menace and for the protection of human and people’s rights against drug-related extrajudicial killings, in a protest action in […]

The Maoist movement in India, which allegedly claims it will uproot the Indian State by an armed insurrection, has brought organised and armed violence to the remotest countryside in higher number and intensity. The ongoing conflict has brought the State and Maoist firepower into the daily lives of some of the most marginalised of the […]

This week, in its 150th episode, Just Asia begins with Burma, where the crackdown on the Rohingya may amount to ‘crimes against humanity’, says UN’s human rights agency. Since October, the Burmese military have been burning Rohingya homes, shooting people and raping women. According to John McKissick of the UN refugee agency, the government’s “ultimate […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the Nepal Police who arrested Dr. C. K. Raut and more than two hundred supporters of his campaign. They came from different districts of Nepal’s Terai. Excessive force was used. Illegal arrests were made. By contrast, Dr. Raut and his supporters were commemorating 25 November (Mangsir 10, […]

We, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Peoples’ Network of Salween River, the Hatgyi dam affected communities, and the Foundation for environment and natural resources demand the Salween dam plan to stop immediately. We realise that the planned dam on the Salween River is causing tension between armed groups and slowing down the peace […]