Judicial system

Next Monday, 10 August 2015, the body of the well-known rugby player and Havelock’s Captain, Wasim Thajudeen, will be exhumed on the orders of the Colombo Additional Magistrate. The Magistrate made this order on the basis of an application by the Criminal Investigations Division, which submitted reports stating that newly available evidence suggests that Thajudeen’s […]

The verdict allows for extrajudicial killings by legalising military courts Today, 5 August 2015, will be remembered as a black day in the constitutional history of Pakistan. It will be commemorated as a sad day, a day when the apex court validated military rule once again. The establishment of military courts has been upheld by […]

The Bangladesh Police has again attempted to justify extrajudicial executions with the excuse of “self-defence”. The latest attempt has been made in a media release (original Bangla and unofficial English translation) sent out from the Police Headquarters and circulated to the country’s media on 2 August 2015. In order to hide its crimes of extrajudicial executions, the […]

The alleged murderer may have been a radical terrorist that he has professed but either he is not divulging the real intention or is being used as an escape goat by the intelligence agencies. Karachi, “the city of light”, witnessed another dark moment when freedom of speech activist and owner of “The Second Floor” (T2F), […]

In urban planning, slums are thought of as a tumor; an alien growth that can risk the overall development of an urban mega project. The notion ignores the fact that the labor force needed to materialize the urban dream often comes from this underbelly, which provides shelter to lives lived in the shadow of ostentation. […]

This Week’s Roundup begins in Indonesia, where, despite a murderous attack by the police and military against indigenous Papuans in Paniai Regency, the National Commission on Human Rights has yet to conduct an investigation, as it claims have insufficient funds. Since then, the Independent Student Forum has managed to collect IDR 608,000 so that Commission […]

Yakub Memon is dead and buried. He was legally murdered on Thursday, 30 July 2015. This was after the Supreme Court dismissed the final petition put forward by a group of eminent lawyers pleading postponement of the sentence in a dramatic hearing that took place in the early hours of Thursday, just 2 hours before […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the death of Aslin Zalim in police custody in Bau-Bau Regency, South East Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The Bau Bau District Court has convicted Police Adjunct Senior Commissioner (AKBP) Joko Krisdianto, former Chief of Bau Bau Police Resort (Polres Bau Bau), to six […]

A Statement from the Friday Forum forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The country is about to face another decisive Parliamentary election shaping our political future. The Friday Forum wishes to place some crucial concerns before the voters. There is much confusion among the public about what is at stake with the Parliamentary election. […]

The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children – Nelson Mandela The Juvenile Justice (Amendment) Bill 2014 was not deliberated by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, as it strongly opposed the amendments made to it; despite this, the Union Cabinet went ahead and passed the bill in the Lok Sabha […]

On 24 July 2015, the Supreme Court of India, while deciding Criminal Miscellaneous Petition 1606/1997 along with Writ Petition (Criminal 539/1986), in short D.K. Basu (2), has directed the state governments to form State Human Rights Commissions in the states of Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Nagaland. In the same Order, it has […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Nepal police has fired 4 rounds of bullets and several rounds of tear gas canons, in addition to a baton charge, on people watching documentaries of Dr. Raut in Baluwa Bazaar of Mahottari District on Tuesday evening at around 8 p.m. Around 25 people […]

Yesterday, the CID filed a report at the Magistrates Court of Colombo, seeking to re-open criminal proceedings regarding the alleged murder of the rugby player Wasim Thajudeen. Wasim, who was a well known rugby player and voted as the most popular ruggerite for the year 2009 by Caltex Observer Touchdown Rugby quiz, was found dead […]

A Statement from TENAGANITA Women’s Force forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The U.S Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report has, for the past few years, been seen by many organizations tackling modern-day slavery as a tool for governments to undertake structural changes that would end the trafficking and enslavement of persons in their […]

Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of every democracy. However, in states where democracy is little more than fascism in the façade of democracy, press freedom is the first casualty. This is the case in Pakistan, where journalists are suffering from an epidemic of violence. The latest attack has been on Geo News Bureau […]

A Press Release from Cambodian Civil Society Groups forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) We, the undersigned civil society groups, condemn the Cambodian People’s Party’s unanimous approval yesterday of the repressive and unnecessary Law on Associations and Non- Government Organizations (LANGO) and call on the Senate to reject the law. The vote at […]

On Thursday, July 23, police in Indagaw Township in Bago (Pegu) Region of Myanmar arrested human rights defender Ma Su Su Nwe and took her to the local court, where she was remanded in custody charged with trespassing under section 447 of the Penal Code: a section of law now being used with monotonous regularity […]

This Week’s Roundup begins in the Indian state of Kerala where AHRC follows up on the unique police modernisation process underway. Featured in the programme is footage of Member of the State Legislative Assembly V.T. Balram, debating this critical reform process in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The programme then revisits events in China where more […]

Yakub Memon, a terror convict, will be hanged to death, most probably on 30 July 2015. He will be killed by the State because the Supreme Court of India rejected his curative plea, the final appeal, and cleared the way for hanging. He will hang after being convicted under the much reviled Terrorist and Disruptive […]

Pakistan courts have finally started taking a proactive approach to support religious minorities and safeguard their interest. On 22 July, the Supreme Court of Pakistan suspended the execution of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal to Asia Bibi and […]