Institutional reform

A group of people at a workshop identified the following as the basic adverse consequences of delays in litigation: • It changes the way litigation is conducted and encourages exchanging favors, as well as lying. • It encourages using criminals and other third parties to settle disputes. • Many judges preside over the same trial […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned about a symposium on the 1965 massacre, held on 18 and 19 April 2016 in Jakarta. The government, represented by the President`s advisory body (Watimpres), the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the Press Council, and also representatives from other government institutions attended the symposium. The […]

By Phattranit Yaodam On 26 January 2016, the Prime Minister, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, wrote a letter to the Chairperson of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) regarding the draft Act on Trafficking in Persons Procedure Code. He wrote about the rationale and provided a summary of the main issues, and urged the NLA to give priority […]

A Statement from the Human Rights Lawyers Association forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The intimidation, interference and impediment of the exercise of freedom of expression regarding the Draft Constitution must be brought to an end. The law of the land, the Constitution, sets out the relations of the agencies exercising state powers among […]

The Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC) welcomes the release of political prisoners and student protesters in Burma. This is another positive development, and the AHRC will continue to monitor developments and work closely on criminal justice reform in the transitional period toward democracy. On 17 April 2016, Burmese New Year Day, the President of Myanmar, […]

Pakistan’s security establishment has been conducting military operations in Balochistan since 2001, to obtain control over the Baloch land and resources. Tortured and bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch missing persons are found daily in the province. Resistance by the cornered populace is perceived as insurgency and a threat to national security. The construction of the China-Pakistan […]

We are sharing with you a discussion conducted between Dr. U C P Perera, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, and Head, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, who has also been involved in the investigations into the Chemmanimass grave, and Mr. Basil Fernando, Director Policy and Programmes, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong […]

After decades of engagement across Asia, and in particular, in Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries, seeking to learn about and confront the most fundamental problems plaguing our societies, the Asian Human Rights Commission has arrived at a juncture where both the root malady can be diagnosed and ways forward for society can be […]

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, FIDH, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) The Bangladesh Government’s attempts to silence free speech continue. Several senior journalists and writers are facing trumped up charges and arbitrary detention for having published stories that are critical of the authorities. Mr. Shafik Rehman, an 81-year-old author, anti-death […]

This episode of Just Asia begins with Indonesia, where a public protest called for the dissolution of Indonesia’s Anti-Terror Police Unit. The protest followed the death of Mr. Siyono, one day after being arrested by the Police Unit on March 10. Although the police claimed Siyono died from fighting police personnel, an independent autopsy revealed […]

By Urmila Pullat On 3 April 2016, four men died of asphyxiation in a clogged manhole in Dodballapur, near Bangalore. Two of these men were manual scavengers, while the other two were passers-by who died while trying to save them. Manual scavenging is the scourge of India, mired in complex issues of caste, poverty, class […]

This article is an attempt to demonstrate that the occurrence of serious crimes in Sri Lanka, could be drastically reduced by doubling the number of High Courts since only the High Courts have the jurisdiction to conduct trials regarding serious crimes. However, prolonged delays in adjudication has undermined the effectiveness of these courts acting towards […]

An oped from the Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Despite Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s attempt to bully the National Human Rights Commission for its report at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Commission – represented by its chair Justice Anup Raj Sharma […]

On March 16, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva reviewed the situation of human rights in Nepal and gave recommendations to improve it. The Council does that with every member of the UN in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Along with the government, non-government organizations and civil society organizations, […]

The rural distress plaguing large tracts of the Indian countryside is no secret. This distress has heightened in the wake of the devastating drought that is affecting more than half of India’s 676 districts. Forget the reports coming in from grass root organizations that showcase the severity of the crisis, data from the government’s own […]

An article from Asif Aqeel forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Asif Aqeel Tahira Gill is fighting for her life in Jinnah Hospital’s intensive care unit. The 55-year-old woman was a nurse in the General Hospital, before she got injured in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park bombing on March 27. Her husband passed away some years […]

On 21 March 2016 the commander of the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station in Burma, or Myanmar, sent a letter to Ma Thandar, the wife of Ko Par Gyi, whom soldiers killed in a remote part of the country’s east in 2014. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has described previously (AHRC-STM-075-2015, AHRC-UAC-145-2014), both a civilian court […]

Bangladesh police have once again killed protestors. This time four out of a few hundred villagers who protested on 4 April 2016 have been killed. The farmers were protesting against acquisition of their agricultural lands without consent or adequate compensation, for the purpose of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Gondamara Village of Banshkhali Upazilla […]

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2013, 55-60% of all trafficking victims are women. Pakistan is both a country of origin and destination, as far as trafficking of women is concerned. Women in Pakistan are most vulnerable to trafficking due to poverty, gender discrimination, lack of […]

by Basil Fernando The existence of a mass grave may come to the notice of the public by many different ways; a statement by a witness made during a court hearing – as in the case of Chemmani Mass Graves: discoveries of some scattered remains of bones by workers when digging a site for constructions […]