Right to food

BANGLADESH: State cannot deny freedom of expression by suspending media telecast

The government of Bangladesh on Monday blanked out three satellite television channels – Ekushey Television, Bangla Vision and Islamic TV – almost an hour before the leader of the opposition Begum Khaleda Zia started her speech at a four-party grand rally today, March 12, 2012. According to a Daily Star report, viewers could not watch these TV […]

INDIA: GHE fear at New Delhi

Statement | India | 09-03-2012

INDIA: GHE fear at New Delhi Reading the proposed draft resolution mooted at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concerning human rights in Sri Lanka, one cannot help wonder why India did not propose such a resolution before? Today by delaying in arriving at a decision, whether to support the resolution or not, India has once […]

INDIA: WOMEN’S DAY — Rhetoric guarantees no equality

Statement | India | 07-03-2012

Today, the world’s largest democracy along with the rest of the world would celebrate international women’s day. The media will reproduce public statements and the promises made. Institutions like the National Commission for Women would reiterate its mandate to protect, promote and guarantee women’s rights and thus ensure gender equality in the country. The President […]

INDIA: A corpse of rights without justice at its soul

Article | India | 29-02-2012

One of the sad truths that we have to live with today is that the people’s struggles for human rights are highly fragmented in India. Equally disheartening is the fact that whenever or wherever human rights comes up for discussion, it is addressed in piecemeal, ignoring and leaving far behind a comprehensive approach to rights […]

INDIA: Two more estate workers die from starvation while the government denies responsibility

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that two more residents of the Bhuvan valley tea garden of Assam died, having denied medical attention. Belbati Bauri in her 70s died on 18 February 2012 and Jugendra Bauri in his 50s died on 22 February 2012. (Please see the previous hunger alert raising human rights […]

INDONESIA: Police killed two villagers and injured 82 others in anti-gold mining protest

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) received information that the police shot local farmers who were demonstrating against the gold exploration plan in several sub-districts in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara Province, on 24 December 2011. Two villagers died and 77 others were injured in the shooting. Five others were also injured by police […]

INDIA: Assam government failed to ensure the right to life with dignity of tea plantation workers leading to ten deaths

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC), a human rights group based in Assam state that 10 workers died from starvation after their health deteriorated due to working conditions that failed to guarantee their life with dignity for decades. After a private company, […]

INDIA: Don’t preach awareness without remedies

Statement | India | 12-01-2012

The Prime Minister of India referring to the 42 percent malnutrition among children under-five in the country as a ‘national shame’ has created a flurry of reports and debates, most of them accusing the United Progressive Alliance government. It has been widely held, as a whitewashing exercise by the ruling coalition, before the elections. Some […]

INDIA: More villagers may face starvation death due to corrupt administration

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the administration authority has been neglecting their duty to implement social security schemes for the poor thereby failing to ensure freedom from starvation and hunger. After Mr. Laxman Jagat, a resident of Kuliadongri village Karanbaheli Panchayat, Sinapali block of Nuapada district died of starvation […]

INDIA: Government fails to prevent or acknowledge starvation deaths

[RE: AHRC-HAC-101-2011: India: Government’s failure to ensure food and health security led to death of widow] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the Puri administration’s visit to children who lost their parents due to hunger and sickness in late September and early November respectively. Mr. Babaji Sethi, the […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]

NEPAL: Commitments to accountability and justice continue to be jeopardized in 2011

Statement | Nepal | 07-12-2011

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here. Given […]

INDONESIA: Human Rights in 2011 – The Decay of Pancasila and Constitutional Protections

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report will be made available […]

INDIA: Government continuously fails to provide proper remedies leading to starvation and death

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt of the death of Mr. Jagabandhu Ghadei on 12 November 2011, due to a lack of proper medical treatment and nutrition after being diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Jagabandhu worked as a fishing assistant in Purbakhanda village, Niali Gram Panchayat, Cuttack district, Orissa earning 100 rupees per […]