Institutional reform

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from The Free Media Movement of Sri Lanka. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Press Release from The Free Media Movement of Sri Lanka forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) SRI LANKA: Media organizations […]

Basil Fernando Sri Lanka has turned out to be a land of many quarrels but no debates. Often quarrels turns into violence, sometimes murder and even worst. And the violence itself leads to new quarrels and the circle goes on. Sadly however, hardly anything ever turns into a debate. Debate has become a lost art […]

Today, the Union Home Ministry, the Chief Ministers of Manipur and Nagaland and a handful of Naga and Meitei nationalists are celebrating the 61st day of their successful enforcement of an indefinite economic blockade organised against the ordinary people living in Manipur state. In tribute to the strenuous effort of the All Naga Students Association […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained the details of the case against a journalist who has been imprisoned in Burma for sending video footage abroad. Ngwe Soe Linn was sentenced to 13 years in jail for supposedly sending illegal clips and going illegally into Thailand, even though there was no evidence […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two anti-corruption activists have been accused of defamation by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), after their group publicly pointed out a multi-trillion rupiah gap in the AGO’s annual budget and called for an investigation. The case raises questions about the use of the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that senior police officials are preventing an investigation into the alleged gang rapes of female students by a group of teachers. The family of one victim is being pressured to settle outside legal channels in a feudal jirga court, despite directions from the Chief […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a police officer raped a woman on 7 October 2008 but due to tardy action by police authorities the officer was able to escape arrest. A colleague of the accused has been assigned as the investigating officer. CASE DETAILS: A man known as […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you regarding further delays in the conclusion of the Petition for Review on Certiorari that the Abadilla Five has filed. We previously reported that the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) was required by the Supreme Court to submit their comment on the petition; […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the Supreme Court (SC) has already required the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to comment on the Petition for Review on Certiorari the legal counsels of the Abadilla Five filed on May 5. The SC’s resolution was issued on June 16 but […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the police allegedly ordered parents to pay a bribe of 150000 riels (US$37.5) each if their sons were not to be arrested after these youths had damaged a party sign in Soeung commune, Bor Keo district, Rattankiri province. On 2 July 2008, they arrested […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man was found dead with a broken neck and severe injuries on his head in a river in Takeo province on 8 May 2008. The police have classified the case as accidental drowning. It is suspected that the man’s death was a political […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that following the Court of Appeals (CA) conclusion of its appellate review affirming the conviction imposed by a lower court on the Abadilla Five, the lawyers for the accused are seeking to nullify the CA’s decision on April 1. They filed a Petition […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the Attorney General (AG) has, at the time of writing, failed to appeal the case of Gerald Perera even though there are serious grounds on which to pursue this case (AHRC-STM-088-2008). The AHRC, once again, kindly asks for your immediate intervention in […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the accused police officers responsible for the torture of Gerald Perera, who was later assassinated before giving evidence before a court, were acquitted by the Negombo High Court on 2 April 2008. This judgment is extremely dangerous as hereafter persons who want […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the brutal murder of Mr. Suherman, for reasons yet unknown, by Police Officers of the Medan District Police on the 11th April 2007. On the 11th April 2007, at around 3:30a.m., around 30 yet unidentified men claiming to be Medan District Police Officers […]

[NOTICE: The AHRC have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Cambodian authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Cambodian authorities are […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you about the prolonged detention of two farmers in Davao Oriental province, the Philippines. Both of them have been detained for almost three years without any progress in their case because the prosecution witnesses failed to appear in court on six occasions. One of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that the Sri Lankan Cabinet has decided to appoint a working committee of judicial officials and lawyers to consider solutions to the problem of court delays in Sri Lanka. A memorandum in this regard was submitted by Justice and Law Reforms Minister, Amarasiri […]

[RE: UP-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Three persons tortured by the Chapainawabganj police; UA-041-2006: BANGLADESH: Eight people killed and at least one hundred injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district; UA-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Two people killed and thirty-five injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district] ———————————– UP-016-2006: BANGLADESH: Three detained and tortured leaders have been released from prison in […]

[RE: UP-43-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Questions remain in Sri Lanka’s willingness to save three of its citizens; UP-39-2005: Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia; UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans; UP-34-2005: Death […]