Judicial system

The life of an average citizen in the Philippines these days is beset with fear. Even the expression “rule of law” evokes cynical reactions among ordinary folk, as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo uses the very same expression to justify blatant and brutal repression.  Sloganeering about anti-terrorism and anti-crime drives is used as a weapon to subdue […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission welcomes the resolution adopted by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) to introduce a . BASL appointed a committee comprising a former chief justice and two former Supreme Court judges to draft this code of conduct.  This move by BASL answers a dire need in the country. It deserves […]

The AHRC is holding its advanced human rights study programme from October 9-14, 2005 in Hong Kong, at which participants from 10 nationalities will participate. To mark this occasion, the AHRC is launching a series of discussions aimed at drafting an Asian Charter  With a view to drafting an Asian Charter , the Asian Human […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information through its local partner MASUM in West Bengal that Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights activist was illegally detained, threatened and assaulted by the officers at the Block Development Office in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal. Mr. Sharma was, at the time of the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses shock and condemns the killing of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar on 12 August 2005. In direct and indirect terms the Government and many other sources have accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) for the murder. The LTTE has denied this allegation. Though a […]

[Re: UA- 50 -2005: INDIA: Three and a half year wait for justice for the brutal murder of an Adivasi (tribal person) by a forest official in Gujarat] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the case of Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava (30), an adivasi who was murdered by an Indian […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from sources in Indonesia regarding the killings of demonstrators at Trisakti and Semanggi, Jakarta in 1998/99 (See Further: UA-23-2002). For years, Indonesian human rights NGOs, the victims and their families have been struggling for the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court, which […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the further postponement in the trial of Jejhon Macalinsal, Aron Salah and Abubakar Amilhasan due to a possible neglect by the court and prosecutor. Despite the case having been scheduled for hearing four times in June, the trial has not go ahead […]

Strange news has been coming from Thailand, where five police have filed defamation complaints against a reputed forensic pathologist and senior government bureaucrat after they suggested that a man with five bullets in his vital organs probably didn’t shoot himself. The death of Sunthorn Wongdao on May 21 has captured public imagination since the police […]

On May 26, the Danish government announced that it has earmarked 4.5 million Danish Krone (US$ 750,000) for the new office of the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights in Nepal. The office will use this money over the coming two years for active monitoring and investigating of gross rights abuses occurring on the ground […]

[RE: UA-112-2004: BURMA: Complaints against forced labour blocked and victims punished issued on 3 September 2004; UP-11-2005: BURMA: Four officials sentenced to prison for forced labour in Kawmhu Township, Yangon Division] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received detailed information from the Yoma-3 News Service (Thailand) and other sources that former local […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the long delay in the trial of three men named Jejhon Macalinsal, Aron Salah and Abubakar Amilhasan. They were arrested by the police of General Santos City on 24 April 2002, who accused them of being involved in the 21 April 2002 Fitmart […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) – Mindanao about a man named Pegie Boquecosa (24) who has been detained more than two and a half years without trial since his arrest on 11 September 2002 due to deliberate negligence of the […]

Since January 2005, at least 18 human rights and political activists have killed or disappeared in the Philippines. The latest reported attack was on Alden Ambida, a provincial coordinator of the opposition Bayan Muna party in Eastern Samar this April 11. He is now fighting for his life in hospital. In March, three other Bayan […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 11, 2005 AS-39-2005 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission So where are Thailand’s judicial bodies? Speaking last Friday, April 8, the head of Thailand’s newly-formed National Reconciliation Commission Anand Panyarachun said that the commission would not be acting to investigate the mass killings in the south of the country […]

The address to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights by the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan this April 7 is a wake-up call to the global human rights movement. This speech marks a moment in the development of global human rights standards of far greater importance than the Vienna Conference of 1993.  For the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, about the complete disregard for a court orders by the Beldanga police in a murder case in West Bengal, India. According to the information received, Mr. Saidul Mullick, a potato vendor, left home on 29 […]

As the Sixty-first Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is taking place in Geneva, we would like to draw attention to the colossal absence of human rights in three countries in the Asia region.  The countries are Nepal, Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia.  While Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia have been on this list for quite […]

THAILAND: False allegation of theft and assault; inaction and negligence by the police, the investigating officer and the state-appointed attorney ————————————————————————————- Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to draw your attention to a particularly disturbing case involving Mr Chanon Suphaphan and the inaction and negligence of the police, the investigating officer and […]

In exonerating the three generals identified as having been primarily responsible for the killing of at least 85 persons in Narathiwat province on October 25 of last year, the Thai army commander-in-chief General Pravit Wongsuwan made a surprisingly frank admission. “There is no disciplinary penalty for those holding the rank of general,” he is reported […]