Right to food

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that according to the People’s Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR), as well as local media sources, starvation deaths are continuing among the impoverished and ruined weaver community in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh. In June the AHRC reported how a mother […]

Dear friends, The head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) operations in Burma has stated that his organization is struggling to deliver food supplies to areas that are seriously affected by hunger and possible starvation, because of government delays. Although the WFP has been working in Burma since 1994, supporting the food needs of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) informed you on 22 September 2005 that a people’s tribunal hearing on starvation and government neglect will be held at Bankim Niwas in Jalangi, Murshidabad, West Bengal on September 23 and 24, organized by the Howrah-based Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) and ourselves (for further details AS-96-2005). Since […]

A people’s tribunal hearing on starvation and government neglect will be held at Bankim Niwas in Jalangi, Murshidabad, West Bengal on September 23 and 24, organized by the Howrah-based Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Nine panelists, consisting of eminent Indian judges, doctors and social activists will listen to […]

[Re: UA-161-2005: INDIA: Human rights defender physically assaulted, threatened and detained by government officials; HU-04-2005: INDIA: UNICEF still avoiding responsibility in providing assistance to starving women and children in West Bengal; UA-59-2005: INDIA: Police attack on human rights defender and his family in Murshidabad, West Bengal; HA-02-2005: INDIA: Starvation deaths occurring in Murshidabad district, West […]

[HA-19-2005: Starvation and hunger threaten hundreds of displaced villagers following intense fighting in Maguindanao, Mindanao] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by reports that at least three children displaced due to fighting in southern Philippines have died from malnutrition-related illnesses. The small children were all reported to have died on […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information through its local partner MASUM in West Bengal that Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights activist was illegally detained, threatened and assaulted by the officers at the Block Development Office in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal. Mr. Sharma was, at the time of the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing information through the Peoples Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR), a human rights organisation based in Uttar Pradesh, India, about the exploitation and inhumane labour of an entire tribal community in the Chunar and Kodwari villages in the Mirzapur District. The workers are paid […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the starvation and hunger three displaced families are experiencing in Barangay Bawing, General Santos City, Mindanao. One family, in particular, lives in such desperate conditions that they struggle to eat even once daily. Most of the displaced victims, who are from indigenous communities, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing news from Masum of the death of a villager who committed suicide due to poverty and starvation in West Bengal on August 21, 2005. Bighna Bhuiyan, a resident of Bhuiyanpara Village, Kumarganj Block, South Dinajpur District was struggling to provide food for his family and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing news of the starvation death of a 65 year-old woman in Sonbhadra, Uttar-Pradesh. Punvasia, an elderly tribal woman (adivasi), died on June 12, 2005 after suffering months of hunger and malnutrition when her government-allocated ration card expired. Starvation and malnutrition has been an ongoing […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Mindanao People’s Caucus (MPC), a coalition of human rights groups in Mindanao, regarding the threat of starvation and hunger to hundreds of villagers displaced by renewed fighting between soldiers and bandits in Guindulungan, Maguindanao province, Mindanao. The villagers were not able to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the current situation of one adivasi (indigenous) family living in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Forty year-old Ramesh Lakshman Sonawne, who is landless, settled in the Rustapur village over 20 years ago. In recent years he and his family have been struggling to […]

[RE: UP-43-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Questions remain in Sri Lanka’s willingness to save three of its citizens; UP-39-2005: Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia; UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans; UP-34-2005: Death […]

[Re: UA- 50 -2005: INDIA: Three and a half year wait for justice for the brutal murder of an Adivasi (tribal person) by a forest official in Gujarat] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the case of Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava (30), an adivasi who was murdered by an Indian […]

Farmers in parts of Mindanao, southern Philippines, have for the last three years suffered terrible crop losses due to drought and rats. Deep poverty, severe hunger and starvation have followed. Although there are many avenues available for the authorities to intervene and assist the farmers, it was not until this year that they began to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received new information from the Social Development Foundation (SDF) in Delhi on a case involving the hunger and malnutrition plaguing one family in Sonebhadra, Uttar-Pradesh. Despite repeated pleas for food assistance from local authorities, the mother and young children continue to live with extreme hunger. The […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Masum about the case of at least 250 tea garden labourers in Raimatang, Jalpaiguri district, who are suffering from night blindness due to a deficiency of vitamin A caused by malnutrition. According to the information received, the management of the tea garden is […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that some families of tenant farmers in Pigcawayan, Cotabato, Mindanao, have experienced starvation following a severe drought that destroyed their farm crops. The families are dependent on their farm produce for their food, livelihood and basic needs. After the drought they are now having […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received new information from Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) regarding the appalling starvation situation in the South 24 Parganas District, West Bengal. The entire community, mainly made up of villagers belonging to the Munda indigenous group, has been facing hunger for many months. Many are on the […]