Right to fair trial

INDONESIA: A 72-year-old man and his son sentenced to death penalty on fabricated charges

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a local NGO, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), regarding the fabrication of charges and torture committed by the police against a 72-year old man and his two sons. The innocent men were falsely charged, tried and sentenced to […]

BANGLADESH: Torture survivors and relatives of custodial murders share their gruesome experiences in People’s Tribunal

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission and Odhikar A survivor of torture, relatives of a survivor and of two victims of death, who were tortured to death in police custody, have shared their gruesome experiences in a People’s Tribunal today, June 26, 2013, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar, in collaboration with the […]

INDIA: The makers and breakers

Article | India | 21-06-2013

“Out of 4835 Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assembly analysed, 1448 members or 31% have declared criminal cases against them in a self sworn affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India.” This alarming statistic is taken from a report conducted in 2012 by the Association for Democratic Reforms in India (full […]

PHILIPPINES: Immediately relocate the victims of demolition drive in Quezon City

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about allegedly illegal demolition of around 120 houses in Florentino St., Sto. Domingo, Quezon City on April 10-11, 2013. The information sent to the AHRC by Barangay Sto. Domingo Settlers Association through Defend Jobs Philippine asserts that the demolitions were carried out in violation […]

BURMA: Innocent man was sentenced life imprisonment for alleged bomb plot

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the case of a young man whom the authorities in Burma have accused of involvement in a bombing nearby government offices. Police alleged that Kyaw Swa Lin was involved merely because he was found to have a diary in his house with some […]

PHILIPPINES: Police justify arrest and detention of an ailing man as a substitute for a wanted man because they ‘look the same’

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that an ailing man whom the police have illegally arrested and detained as a substitute for a wanted man will not be released from jail. The police justified their action by insisting they had proof that the victim’s facial features and those of the […]

PHILIPPINES: Tortured political activist writes about the investigation into his arrest, detention and fabrication of charges in jail

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is sharing with you a letter, written from prison, by Renante Gamara, a political activist whom police tortured and questioned in the absence of a legal counsel during his arrest on April 3, 2012. In his letter he writes about the investigation by the Commission on Human […]

BANGLADESH: Attorney General Attacks Family’s Right to Represent Prisoners

On 18 April 2013, the Attorney General for Bangladesh Mr. Mahbubey Alam participated in the hearing of a writ petition before a High Court Division Bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. The writ was filed by Mrs. Firoza Mahmud, wife of Daily Amardesh‘s Interim Editor Mahmudur Rahman. Mrs. Mahmud had challenged the order of the Chief […]

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 […]

PAKISTAN: The Supreme Court must ensure that Ahmadis should not be disfranchised

A Golden Opportunity to abolish self-contradictory Franchise System and Restore true Justice and Democracy in Pakistan The world has strongly and repeatedly drawn the attention of Pakistan to its self-contradictory franchise system which denies the Ahmadi Muslims the fundamental right to vote.( Click here to read our previous statement on the issue) The Supreme Court of […]

PAKISTAN: Polio, Taliban, and media

Resistance to polio vaccination has been going through a constant phase of evolution in Pakistan, and with every passing day, it goes one notch up from its previous level involving people from conservative camps to enlightened ones as well. About six months ago, Maulvi Ibrahim Chishti of Muzaffargarh’s rural Khan Pur Bagga Sher area declared […]

INDIA: The great thamasha

Article | India | 22-02-2013

Bijo Francis* Overcoming initial reluctance, the Maharashtra state police have finally registered a case in the infamous Bhandara rape and murder incident. This is a case, not much discussed in India, other than for sparse reporting in a few Indian dailies, of the rape murder of three sisters, all minors. Missing of three miserable village […]

PAKISTAN: Shia genocide — What exactly is preventing the military and the judiciary from performing their duties against militancy?

After hearing the accusations of covert and overt support for sectarian terrorism and the terrorists the state institutions, like the judiciary and the army are trying to clarify their positions. There is of course, the involvement of the civilian set up that, after a total of 32 years of collision between the army and the […]

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 […]

PAKISTAN: Government must ensure the safe recovery of four abducted human rights defenders

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the abduction of four human rights defenders in broad daylight by persons said to be from an outlawed religious organization. The unknown armed persons abducted six workers of a NGO including, two lady workers. However, after some time they threw the two women out of the vehicle and […]

PAKISTAN: The issue that the Supreme Court can supervise investigations is contentious especially in view of the ‘Right to Fair Trial’

The political frictions generating from the overreach of the Supreme Court will be far more damaging to Pakistan and its people than any gains which may be made during the investigations under the supervision of the Supreme Court The statement of the Asian Human Rights Commission on the orders of the Supreme Court for the arrest of […]

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 […]

PAKISTAN: The AHRC condemns and protests against the calculated Shia extermination taking place in the country

On January 10th 2013, the New Year in Pakistan started with a gruesome bang of a continuing holocaust of sectarian cleansing in which Quetta witnessed 4 bomb blasts targeting Hazara Shias. The death toll of the day was 102 dead and hundreds injured. The day has been labeled as Black Thursday. Ali Dayan Hasan of […]

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 […]

SRI LANKA: The Comments of S.N Silva – the archenemy of rule of law

Sarath Nanda Silva is heavily quoted in SLBC programmes trying to criticize the Supreme Court judgment relating to the question on the interpretation of law referred to it by Court of Appeal. He says that the Supreme Court has not properly interpreted the words “or standing orders” as found in Article 107(3) of the constitution. […]