Land rights

INDIA: Roll back steep hike in user fee in the NTPC hospitals

Dear friends,             The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding an indefinite hunger strike (fast unto death) undertaken by the people affected by the steep hike in user fee in the Sanjeevani Hospital run in Shaktinagar by the National Thermal Power Corporation. The AHRC has learnt that […]

INDIA: In observance of International Rivers Day, tribes protest the Chakpi Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project

Dear friends: The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding peaceful rallies that took place on March 12, 2013, in observance of International Rivers Day, regarding opposition to the Chakpi Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project. The dam is proposed to be built over Chakpi River in Chandel District, Manipur in the Northeast of India near the […]

PAKISTAN: The Country has gone Mad, No Doubt

Ms. Perveen Rehman (56), worked for the betterment of the poor and neglected When a small lady weighing hardly 60 kilograms working for the betterment of poor slum-dwellers, and amongst the under-privileged in poorer residential areas, is viewed as a dire threat to the Taliban and the local administration, the sanity of these institutions, and […]

INDIA: Indians in the Northeast protest the European Union Free Trade Agreement

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding peaceful protests against the adoption of the European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Indian government. The cases took place on 24 February in Maram Khullen, 28 February in Chandel and on 2 March of 2013 in Thamnapokpi. Demonstrators called for […]

SRI LANKA: The Recent Suppression of Tamil Voice at Vavuniya

A group of hundreds of relatives of the disappeared from Mannar and Vavuniya were to arrive on the 5th night in Colombo by buses to share with the people in the South their pathetic stories about the disappearances of their loved ones during and after the war, and then to present a petition to the […]

PHILIPPINES: Investigation reveals the boy killed on a rooftop during a demolition was shot

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a murder case has been filed against members of a demolition team who killed a boy. The result of investigation conducted by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also revealed evidence of violation of rights, not only with regard to the killing of […]

SRI LANKA: A monk leads mob violence at Maligawatta with the connivance of the police

Swarnavahini reported a raid on a house maintained at a high rise building in Maligawatta by a mob led by a Buddhist monk, Galabodathe Yanasiri, the secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (The Buddhist Power Army). Galabodathe Yanasiri claimed that a person residing there was keeping false deeds, fake ticket books and passing himself off […]

INDIA: Immediately stop evicting and threatening the floating huts-dwellers of Loktak Lake

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Centre for Research and Advocacy, Manipur regarding continued eviction of floating hut dwellers and destruction of their floating huts at Loktak Lake by the Loktak Development Authority (LDA) of the Government of Manipur and Manipur Police on 23 February 2013. Worryingly, the assault […]

PHILIPPINES: Save 78 poor fisherfolk families from forced eviction and starvation in the Freedom Island of Paranaque City

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt about 78 families belonging to fisherfolk community facing threats of imminent eviction during a field visit undertaken by its Programme Coordinator for Right to Food Programme together with a representative of Defend Job Philippines. The local authorities had served the notice of eviction to these […]

INDIA: Put an immediate end to plans of inundating people without rehabilitating them

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt about the imminent threat to lives of thousands of families in the Narmada Valley which encompasses large tracts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh through an urgent action alert issued by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). The NBA has learnt about an impending meeting of the […]

BANGLADESH: Destitution pushes several single elderly women into starvation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about several elderly single women being pushed into starvation in the Ghorabandha village of the Gaibandha district of Rangpur division. Most of these destitute women have been widowed for decades with no family to bank upon and have been forced into begging to ensure […]

INDONESIA: Violations is the rule, protection is the exception

On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2012, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2012. The full report is now available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2012/ahrc-spr-006-2012.pdf  In the middle of 2012, Indonesia had its state of human rights reviewed by […]

PHILIPPINES: Reprisal on urban poor leader and villagers for cooperating with the UN expert on housing

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by the reprisal on an urban poor leader and other residents for filing complaints and cooperating with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. The urban poor leader and the residents, who opposed the demolition of their communities in Manila, had no knowledge […]

SRI LANKA: Speaker’s ruling has no bearing upon the substantive issues in the impeachment

The Speaker’s ruling relating to the Supreme Court’s notice to the Speaker and the members of the Parliamentary Select Committee does not in any way prohibits the constitutional right of the Court to entertain and to determine the Reference made by the Court of Appeal for a specific question relating to the scope of Article […]

PAKISTAN: Putting land reforms on political agenda

Representatives of the leading parliamentary parties and civil society bodies have called for land reforms to get rid of the country’s colonial economic power structure. They urged political parties to include land reforms in their election manifestoes At a seminar titled, ‘Where are Land Reforms on Political Agenda in Pakistan?’, they, along with land reforms […]

PAKISTAN: Land ownership for secure peasant livelihood in Pakistan

Our story is simple. We believe that enormous imbalance in political power sustains intense and widespread oppression. The threat of being deprived of food and shelter is a form of imposed violence that requires redistribution of economic power in favour of the desperately impoverished. Land redistribution is therefore called for as a primary instrument in […]

SRI LANKA: Make the Impeachment Boomerang on the Rajapaksas

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following article written by Tisaranee Gunasekara who is a Sri Lankan columnist based in Colombo Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- An article written by Tisaranee Gunasekara, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Make the Impeachment Boomerang on the Rajapaksas Tisaranee Gunasekara […]

SRI LANKA: Special Task Force kills 11 prisoners and injures many others

Yesterday (9th of October), at least 11 prisoners were gunned down and around 35 were injured by the STF. The shooting was carried out when the STF entered the Welikada prison for some inspections. (Photo Courtesy: Sunday Times, Sri Lanka) According to an eye witness, interviewed by the BBC Sinhala service, when some prisoners who […]

PAKISTAN: UPR report lacks objective realism and denies the reality concerning human rights

For the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Pakistan, the country presented a four-year working report of how the government improved the state of human rights in Pakistan. Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, the foreign minister leading the Pakistan delegation, presented the report to the UN. The UPR is a process in which the UN […]

BURMA: AHRC expresses solidarity with protesting farmers

(Hong Kong, October 18, 2012) The Asian Human Rights Commission on Wednesday sent a message of support to farmers and their allies gathering for a “people’s conference” to oppose land confiscation and degradation for a copper mining project. In the message to farmers and others gathering for the inaugural Letpadaung Mountain region people’s conference, the […]