Right to fair trial

SRI LANKA: An attempt is made to abduct a journalist and human rights defender

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an attempt was made to abduct Mr. Shantha Wijesuriya, a journalist for Lanka-e-news, Sri Lanka’s most widely read online news publication. Shortly after the publication of a controversial article in which Mr. Wijesuriya highlighted the link between a known criminal and the Rajapaksa family, […]

SRI LANKA: A young woman is sexually assaulted; police refuse to take action against the perpetrator

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 16-year old girl was sexually assaulted but because police officers have a connection to the perpetrator, they are refusing to investigate the case and secure protection for the victim and her family. On 12 April 2012, Mr. Gunatunga cut down and stole a […]

INDIA: BSF cuts down another innocent man, culling conscience and Constitution in the process

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the murder of 21-year-old Jiarul Sardar on 10 June 2012 in yet another case of Border Security Forces (BSF) brutality in West Bengal, India. Torture, extrajudicial killings and acts of impunity are features of everyday life for Indian people living near […]

PHILIPPINES: Court fails to conclude an activists’ appeal to dismiss false charges on him made three years on

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that nearly six months after the arrest and detention of Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie, a human rights activist laid with fabricated murder charges, the court has not commence the trial. The court suspended the proceedings due to its own failure to conclude the victim’s petition […]

SRI LANKA: Mundalama Police enjoy impunity despite torturing and detaining a businessman in fabricated charges

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. K. A. Somarathna, a businessman, filed a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police, (SSP) when a water pump and other goods were stolen from his business construction site by a number of police officers attached to the Mundalama Police Station. Two […]

SRI LANKA: Victim of a sexual harassment continuously harassed by the Dikwella Police and denied justice

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Miss S.H. Thushari Dilrukshi of Dikwella in the Matara District was illegally arrested by police officers attached to the Dikwella Police Station. She had earlier made a complaint of sexual harassment by a youth who also attacked and injured her father. Rather than […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Royal intervention needed to save Rizana Nafeek from imminent beheading

Dear friends, Rizana Nafeek of Muthur, Trincomalee in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka left to Saudi Arabia as a domestic helper when she was 17 years old. She became a victim of a recruitment agent who altered her date of birth in her passport, making her as 23-years old and was sent to Saudi […]

PAKISTAN: The life of Dr. Shakil Afridi, who assisted in the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound, is in danger after Muslim fundamentalist have issued a Fatwa against him

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a doctor who helped the American forces to locate Osama Bin Laden, the former chief of the Al-Qaida terrorist group in Pakistan, was illegally arrested and tortured to confess that he was working as a spy for the USA. He was held incommunicado […]

CAMBODIA: AHRC condemns the lawless imprisonment of 13 women who were peacefully demonstrating to secure boundaries to their land

The Asian Human Rights Commission is shocked by the total disregard for fair trial by the Phnom Penh municipal court, which summarily sentenced 13 women activists who engaged in peaceful demonstrations demanding proper demarcation of their land boundaries in the Boeung Kak lake area. Photo: Children crying after their mothers, who are detained inside the […]

BURMA: Plea to release Phyo Wai Aung immediately from the custody, who is critically ill and in the final stage of Liver Cancer

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following letter from the brother of imprisoned torture victim Phyo Wai Aung to the President of Myanmar (Burma) to request the release of his brother, who is critically ill, from custody immediately. The letter is forwarded as written Asian Human Rights […]

INDIA: An Act to suppress democratic rights

Statement | India | 25-05-2012

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is informed that District Magistrate Barwani in Madhya Pradesh state has issued a “show cause” notice to human rights defender Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswami on 10 May 2012 asking her why actions should not be initiated against her under the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Suraksha Adhiniyam, 1990 (Madhya Pradesh State Security, […]

INDONESIA: Police tortured and denied a drug offender’s access to legal counsel and medical examination

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture, allegedly committed by the police officers of Narcotics Department of North Sumatra Provincial Police, on Munawir Alamsyah. The police performed excessive force while arresting him on 7 April 2012 and took him to a house for an interrogation before finally bring […]

INDIA: Judgments cannot replace good governance

India will be evaluated at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Switzerland today. The three countries (Troika) involved in the review are Kuwait, Mauritius and Mexico. That these countries have worse records of human rights in comparison to the country they would collectively review suggests how firmly, and perhaps blindly, such processes are […]

MYANMAR: Release critically ill Phyo Wai Aung without delay — Asian Human Rights Commission

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the President of Myanmar/Burma U Thein Sein President President’s Office Office No.18 Naypyitaw MYANMAR Dear President You will be aware that the case of 32-year-old Phyo Wai Aung, accused of involvement in the April 2010 bombing of the Myanmar New Year festival in Yangon, has […]

INDIA: Jurist, stop preaching

Statement | | 21-05-2012

The observations made by the Supreme Court of India in a case concerning disciplinary action against a former Major of the Indian Army contradict the Court’s own profile. Dismissing the appeal filed by the Major, who had filed the appeal aggrieved by the Army’s action against him, the court held that discipline is paramount in […]

INDIA: Institutional peril and murderous politics

Statement | India | 17-05-2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-104-2012 May 17, 2012 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission INDIA: Institutional peril and murderous politics The assassination of Mr. T. P. Chandrashekharan in Kerala on 4 May is another example of the murderous nature of politics in India. The police investigation has revealed that hired assassins executed the murder. […]

WORLD: Europe’s top human rights court hears rendition case

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights heard today its first case involving a victim of the CIA rendition program. It heard evidence supporting Khaled El-Masri’s claim that he was subjected to torture and ill-treatment in an Afghan prison, after being wrongfully arrested by Macedonian agents and handed over to a CIA […]

BURMA: AHRC condemns death sentence for torture victim

(Hong Kong, May 10, 2012) The Asian Human Rights Commission has described the verdict of a court in Rangoon, sentencing a torture victim to death for his purported role in a bombing, as “farcical” and a “cut-and-paste” job, and has called for his release through the intervention of outside agencies.  District Judge Aung Thein presiding […]

BURMA: Court sentences ailing Phyo Wai Aung to death after patently unjust trial

CAMPAIGN PAGE: FREE PHYO WAI AUNG http://www.humanrights.asia/countries/burma/phyo-wai-aung ——————————————————————— Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that a judge in a closed courtroom at the central prison in Burma on May 8 sentenced Phyo Wai Aung, the accused in a bombing case arising from April 2010 to death after a patently unjust […]

PHILIPPINES: Arbitrary detention resulting from fabrication of charges against five people in Nueva Ecija

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the arbitrary detention of five persons, including a minor, in Nueva Ecija province. The victims were illegally arrested, laid with criminal charges based on evidence taken from a search conducted under questionable circumstances. The charges have no real evidence to support the prosecution […]