Prosecution system

INDIA: Punish the perpetrators of assault on women Human Rights Defenders in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received very disturbing information regarding the assault on five women human rights defenders working with Sahjani Shiksha Kendra (SSK) in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. The women, belonging to the Dalit and backward communities, were physically and verbally assaulted while inaugurating an adult literacy centre for Dalit women. […]

BURMA: Two sharply contrasting reports on the struggle for land at Letpadaung

The Asian Human Rights Commission has since mid-2012 closely followed, documented and reported on the struggle of farmers in the Letpadaung Hills of central Burma against the expansion of a copper mining operation under a military-owned holding company and a partner compay from China. After repeatedly being refused permission to demonstrate against the operation under the […]

INDIA: Repeal the Manipur Loktak Lake Protection Act of 2006 and end forced evictions

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is providing an update on the situation of the local Indigenous people of Loktak Lake and the abuses perpetrated by the Loktak Development Authority in accord with the ineffective and outdated Manipur Loktak Lake Protection Act of 2006. UPDATED INFORMATION: Since 2010, The Loktak Development Authority (LDA) […]

PHILIPPINES: Police detain an ailing man as a substitute for a wanted man

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is forwarding an appeal about the ongoing illegal detention of an ailing man. The police illegally arrested and detained the victim, an Arabic teacher, at the hospital where he was being treated for a heart ailment as a substitute for a wanted man for whom there is […]

PHILIPPINES: Notes on the trial observation of falsely charged activist

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is sharing with you the notes taken during the trial observation of falsely charged activist, Temogen ‘Cocoy’ Tulawie. As mentioned earlier, the trial of Tulawie’s case had already been transferred to Manila and he is presently now detained in that city. After his trial was moved to […]

INDIA: Ensure safety of Human Rights Defenders and punish those threatening them

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing information from Samaj Chetna Adhikar Manch, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh regarding local goons threatening to kill its activists. The organisation, working in Java block of the district, has been in the forefront of the struggle against malnutrition and the widespread corruption in welfare schemes that […]

BANGLADESH: Shoddy tribunal has pushed the country to the verge of a civil war

The tribunal on war crimes established in March 2010 has pushed Bangladesh to extreme violence. Since 28 February, the events have taken a violent turn in which almost 100 persons including women, children and police officers have lost life. Several hundreds more are injured, and properties destroyed of which no body in the country has […]

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 […]

PAKISTAN: Prominent human rights defenders are targets of assassination

Two prominent lawyers and a well known human rights defender have been assassinated in target killings on February 2, 2013. Mr. Malik Jarrar 47, a Supreme Court lawyer, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Paktoonkha province by unknown persons, riding a motorcycle. He was on his way to pick up his two […]

INDONESIA: Punishment handed down to police officers who tortured minors to death in Padang does not reflect the gravity of the crime

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received the information regarding the judgement of the Muaro Sijunjung District Court which was delivered on 29 January 2013 on a torture case of two minors by four police officers. The two minors were found hanging dead in the bathroom of Sijunjung Sub-District Police Station in […]

INDIA: Immediately stop the brutal police assault on peaceful protesters opposing POSCO project in Odisha

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti about brutal police assault on villagers who were peacefully protesting against forcible acquisition of their lands. The 12 platoon strong mobilisation that culminated in the assault started around midnight and the police finally entered the village around 4 in […]

INDIA: Ensure punishment to the rapists of a minor girl in Manipur

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from North East Support Centre and Helpline that a 17-year-old girl belonging to the scheduled caste was abducted, drugged and raped in Manipur. We have also learnt that, though a police First Information Report is registered in the case, there has been no further […]

PHILIPPINES: Supreme Court takes judicial action on plot to kill falsely charged activist

Dear friends, After almost four months, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed by the Supreme Court (SC) that it has issued a Resolution as its judicial action to our appeal on the plot to kill Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie in jail. Tulawie is an activist from Sulu being prosecuted over fabricated charges. Though […]

SRI LANKA: 13 Jan, 2013-The 1978 Constitution is fulfilled

Today, with the President of Sri Lanka signing the removal notice of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, the 1978 constitution came to be fulfilled. The 1978 constitution is a representation of the conflict between the rule of law and the absolute power of the executive president. The historical circumstances in 1978 […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan woman executed today in Saudi Arabia

The International Commission against the Death Penalty (ICDP) condemns today’s execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan housemaid, in Saudi Arabia. She was beheaded in Dawadmi province near Riyadh. Rizana, a teenage domestic worker, was condemned to death after a four-month-old baby boy she was bottle-feeding choked and died in 2005. According to her birth […]

PHILIPPINES: Abadilla Five–the AHRC welcomes ‘conditional pardon’

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased that Leila de Lima, secretary of the Department of Justice (DoJ), has recommended to President Benigno Aquino III the granting of a “conditional pardon” to the Abadilla Five. The Abadilla Five: Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, Cesar Fortuna, Joel and Rameses de Jesus, are serving terms of life […]

THAILAND: Call for trial observers for Somyot

Next week, the Criminal Court will resume its schedule on Somyot’s case on 19 December 2012 after it has been delayed for three months without informed explanation. Prior to this, the Constitutional Court also ruled that Article 112 is not against the constitutionality. Both information made the lawyer as well as the family grave concerns […]

PHILIPPINES: Trial of falsely charged Sulu activist now in Manila

NEW REPORT: Special Report: The Philippines’ hollow human rights system http://www.article2.org/pdf/v11n0203.pdf Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the trial of Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie, an indigenous activist who is prosecuted on evidence of forced confession, would now be heard in Manila. Temogen would be moved from a prison in Davao […]

PHILIPPINES: An appeal to the Supreme Court on plot to kill an activist

Dear friends, Further to our earlier appeal about the plot to kill human rights defender Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges you to write to the Supreme Court of the Philippines requesting that they urgently act on Tulawie’s petition to reconsider its decision to transfer him from Davao City jail to […]

PHILIPPINES: Plot to kill a human rights activist inside the jail

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of a plot to kill a human rights activist, Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie, who is being prosecuted on fabricated charges inside the jail should he be transferred from Davao City to Manila. This plot is serious because the court has already postponed the scheduled hearing […]