Judicial system

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about a judge in Burma (Myanmar) who convicted two villagers for having stolen a box of gold jewelry, even though he knew police tortured them. According to the information received, police in Pakokku tortured 67-year-old U Kyaw Nyunt and a companion in 2012 to […]

Civil society groups must resist the evil designs of the Punjab government to stop the marchers from entering the province The second phase of the Long March for the recovery of hundreds of disappeared persons after their arrest by the security forces has now covered 600 kilometers on its way to Islamabad, the final destiny. […]

Press Statement on the Report  prepared by Mohan Rao, Ish Mishra, Pragya Singh and Vikas Bajpai, December 30, 2013 A team of independent academics and a journalist carried out an inquiry into the communal violence that shook Muzaffarnagar district in UP this past September. The report is based on the findings of the team during […]

A one-and-a-half-year-old infant was buried four days after she died from pneumonia in Toba Tek Singh, Punjab province. The girl, who was from an Ahmadi family, died on December 19, and was taken for burial the following day. At the cemetery the local clerics gathered with approximately fifty men who were armed with sticks and batons. […]

Billions of rupees had been wasted on government propaganda exercises but the Meteorological Department was not properly equipped and the Disaster Management Website, too, remained outdated due to lack of funds, an Opposition legislator charged yesterday. Eran Wickremeratne MP told The Island it was shocking that despite a total of over 1.6 million people being […]

Sabita Lahkar, a Guwahati based female journalist called for a press conference on September 10, 2003 demanding justice publicly for sexual harassment at workplace. She was working as the Chief Sub-editor at a vernacular daily Amar Asom. She alleged that her senior, editor in chief and a well known literary figure in the state of Assam […]

The open debate about the denial of equality between men and women may be seen as historically recent. However, the reality of gender imbalance has been a factual data for centuries and unfortunately, when we look at countries like Pakistan, the journey towards gender equality appears to be a long and insidious odyssey. The relationship […]

The AHRC condoles the death of Mr. Khurshid Anwar, a writer and activist reputed for his life-long struggle for upholding the rights and dignity of the downtrodden, not only in India but the whole subcontinent. Unable to cope with the mental torture of relentless social media trial over a case of an alleged rape which […]

Mr. Ban Ki Moon Secretary General of the United Nations Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations S-378, New York, NY 10017 USA Fax: +1 212 963 7055 or 2155 An Open Letter to the UN Secretary General by the Asian Human Rights Commission Your Excellency, the Secretary General of the United Nations, […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you that we have released the 10thEpisode of the Human Rights Asia Weekly Roundup today, December 18, 2013. In this week’s news roundup we begin by taking you to Burma, also known as Myanmar, for a special report taking a look at the progress made three years after the […]

Following is an extract from the Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka, entitled ‘Towards Reconciliation and Rebuilding of the Nation’. In this exercise the independence of the Judiciary should be preserved and defended at all cost. The Judiciary which has the sacred role of interpreting and applying the meaning of a […]

Democracy and human rights were taboo under the military regime until the movement of democratisation which took place in 1987 triggered the 9th Amendment to the Constitution in the country. This Amendment guaranteed at least ‘procedural’ democracy. Those terms were released from constraints that had been kept for decades by the military forces. After they […]

1. Legs are shaking and heart is trembling. This time, with good fortune, we could have saved one’s life. If we did not force emergency services up to the mountain, having believed what we were told by the police who said that she did not take medicine but only consumed alcohol and if we did […]

Over the course of 2013 the Asian Human Rights Commission has followed reports of a larger number of conflicts over land grabs and attempted grabs in Burma, or Myanmar. Some of the conflicts are over recently taken land, and others are reinitiating struggles begun many years ago. These land grabs include the well-known expansion of […]

The case of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, whom police officers abducted and forcibly disappeared over nine years ago, took a new twist when the Department of Special Investigation claimed that its file on his case had itself disappeared during anti-government protests last week. According to Niran Adulayasak, Director of Special Criminal Case Office 1 […]

Following is an extract from the Pastoral Letter of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka, entitled ‘Towards Reconciliation and Rebuilding of the Nation’. Even though exact statistics may vary and may be disputed, malnutrition does exist in Sri Lanka. There are many families who just cannot manage even one proper meal a day. And […]

From Karachi to Islamabad a long march has started for the recovery of missing persons from Balochistan The Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) has started the second phase of the Long March, this time from Karachi to Islamabad covering a distance of approximately 1,400 kilometers. The first phase of the March started on October […]

The health of Mr. Nanda Prasad Adhikari and Mrs. Ganga Maya Adhikari, parents to a murdered son, Krishna Prasad Adhikari, is deteriorating rapidly. According to doctors at Bir Hospital, having  resumed their hunger strike from their hospital beds, the Adhikari couple are now in critical condition. Maoist cadre allegedly killed Krishna Prasad Adhikari in 2004. […]

PRESS RELEASE December 13, 2013 Three (3) Muslim victims of arbitrary arrest and detention were released last December 10, 2013, Human Rights Day after the Taguig Regional Trial Court’s decision that they were victims of mistaken identity. Mujeener Dagam Cabalo and his two other co-accused were released from the Special Intensive Care Area of the […]

Human Rights Report for 2013: ‘License’ to torture, kill and to silence the oppressed http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2013/AHRC-SPR-001-2013.pdf/ On December 9, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has expressed its deep concern over the renewed targeted attacks of journalists and activists. In the space of one week, five journalists and activists, known critics against corruption, wrong doings of local politicians, […]