Judicial system

Avinash Pandey By 30 June 2015, 1300 farmers had killed themselves in Maharashtra, according to the state government’s own admission, with half of the year still to go. The ongoing drought in Marathwada was supposed to deepen the crisis, which it did, with the toll reaching 997 there alone by 30 November 2015. The total […]

In the continuity of attacks on the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, Mr. Najeeb Ahmed, pesh imam (leader) of the Sarai Alamgir mosque was punished by unknown Muslim fundamentalists with sharp shaving blades in Gujrat district, Punjab province. On December 1, as Mr. Ahmed entered his house, he was pounced upon, his clothes were removed and […]

A Press Release from Human Rights Commission of Pakistan forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Lahore, December 1: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed its alarm and serious dismay over Pakistan voting last week against a United Nations General Assembly resolution that called for recognising the role of human rights […]

More than 100 farmers have reportedly committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most impoverished states in India, because of a hailstorm that destroyed their crops. The situation will only worsen with 50 of 75 districts being hit by a severe drought. Despite having evidence of the drought, the provincial government took two and […]

The Pakistan Institute of Labour Research and Education (PILER), a non-profit organization, and a partner of the Asian Human Rights Commission, is being targeted in a smear campaign. This is being done by the “invisible forces” inside Pakistan, through a certain TV chanel, the content of which is aired by other television channels. As a […]

Emarine Kharbhih The Ministry of Home Affairs stated in the parliament that India is not ready for a marital rape law since it will “break the institution of marriage”. According to a study done by the International Centre for Women and the United Nations Population Fund, 57.5 per cent of men agree that a wife […]

The world had hardly come to terms with the shock and horror of the burning down of a chipboard factory by an enraged mob led by misanthropic mullahs when news has emerged of another attack. This time an Ahmadi Muslim mosque in Kala Gujram, not far from the chipboard factory, has been targeted. The local […]

Courtessy from daily Pakistan Freedom of religion is a fundamental right that exists only on paper in Pakistan. Each year thousands of Christians, forming 13% of the total population, suffer at the hands of religious bigots who use blasphemy as an excuse to ruin their life. Christian girls are increasingly being forced to convert to Islam. According […]

Avinash Pandey With two cases of sedition, one police complaint filed against him in three Indian states, and mobs picketing in front of his house in another, Aamir Khan must be a worried man. More so for the fact that the first of these cases is listed for hearing on 1 December 2015 in Kanpur, […]

A statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Gender based violence continues to show an upward trend in Pakistan, which has been ranked as the third most dangerous country for women by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll. The past four years, with the formation of civil governments, have seen the […]

The results of the 2015 general election held on November 8 in Burma, or Myanmar, have slammed the door shut on the sham politics of the last five years. Gone are the days of a concocted legislature comprising for the most part of yes-men and sleepy heads. With this election, people in Burma have not […]

AHRC TV opens with some good news from Sri Lanka, where the Cabinet has approved the President’s proposal to abolish the Executive Presidency, thereby returning the country to full democracy, including the separation of powers. Next, we bring you an excerpt from a documentary film titledCyber-democracy: Cambodia, Kafka’s Kingdom, directed by Ellen Grant, which highlights […]

The weekly Times column, Focus on Rights, titled‘The Loss of Sri Lanka’s ‘Truth-Telling’ Monk’ by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, in the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, on 08 November 2015, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Kishali Pinto Jayawardena George Orwell once reminded us that ‘in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a Hong Kong-based regional human rights organization,urges the Drafting Committee of the Parliament of Indonesia to review the draft billon the Indonesian Penal Code (KUHP). In particular, those articles of the new bill which seek to regulate serious crimes or gross violations of human rights, and which already exist […]

AHRC TV opens with the historic national elections that have just concluded in Burma. Despite some serious flaws, observers have declared the elections “reasonably free and fair”. Aung San SuuKyi and her NLD party have won a stunning outright majority of the votes. This comes 25 years after Burma’s last democratic election which SuuKyi’s NLD […]

In a shameful assent to military rule, on 11 November 2015, the National Assembly approved an amendment to the Pakistan Army Act (PAA), 1952. This amendment provides legal cover to arrests already made by law-enforcement agencies, including the Army. According to media reports, the Bill amends Section 2 of the PAA, allowing military courts to […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is gravely concerned about the health situation of student protesters who are currently carrying out hunger strikes in the prisons. There are incidences of solitary confinement, force-feeding, denial of water to some students besides inadequate hospital care. There was a police crackdown after which they arrested the non-violent student protesters […]

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු අනුරාධපුරයේ සුප‍්‍රසිද්ධ කරාටේ ශූරයෙකු මරාදැමීම පිළිබද කථාව පසුගිය සති වලදී සාකච්චාවට භාජනය විය. ඊට එක් හේතුවක් වූයේ එම අපරාධයේ දී කලා යැයි කියා ඒ වාර්තා වුන සමහර සිද්ධින්ය. 28 දෙනෙකුගේ පමණ කණ්ඩායමක් තමන් අදුනාගත නොහැකි ආකාරයෙන් එක සමාන ඇදුම් කට්ටල වලින් සැරසී එක සමාන ආයුධ ඇතිව කටයුතු කල බවත්, එම සිද්ධීන් ‘සීසීටීවී’ […]

The weekly Times column, “Focus on Rights” by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, in the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, on 08November 2015, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Kishali Pinto Jayawardena At one time, we had women survivors of rape and abuse in Sri Lanka praying that the Goddess Kali may visit their attackers when they […]

The landmark election is scheduled to conduct on tomorrow (Sunday, November 8, 2015). Around 90 political parties with 6,065 candidates, around 10,500 national and international election observers, and over 40,000 polling stations are set to play the role. This may not fully achieved what the people are dreaming of but it may give positive outputs […]