Right to health

INDIA: Soft loans for sugar barons, suicide for farmers

Article | India | 04-12-2015

Avinash Pandey By 30 June 2015, 1300 farmers had killed themselves in Maharashtra, according to the state government’s own admission, with half of the year still to go. The ongoing drought in Marathwada was supposed to deepen the crisis, which it did, with the toll reaching 997 there alone by 30 November 2015. The total […]

INDIA: Droughts don’t wait for ‘official declaration’.

Statement | India | 02-12-2015

More than 100 farmers have reportedly committed suicide in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most impoverished states in India, because of a hailstorm that destroyed their crops. The situation will only worsen with 50 of 75 districts being hit by a severe drought. Despite having evidence of the drought, the provincial government took two and […]

INDIA: Attacks on Entitlements threaten food security, Mr. President.

Article | India | 20-11-2015

Avinash Pandey Dear President Pranab Mukherjee, it feels good to see your concern over the imminent threat of food insecurity because of the degradation of large masses of agricultural land. Your insistence upon the urgent need to adopt more sustainable methods of land use systems and soil management practices is really important and must be […]

PAKISTAN: Universal Children’s Day – Children still face high risk to safety and security

A Statement from Roshni Helpline forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Universal Children’s Day is being celebrated today (20th November), world over, with regrettably a majority of Pakistani children still facing a number of threats to their safety, security, and welfare, either due to the lack of or inadequacy of laws, and hazardous living […]

PAKISTAN: 40 killed and 33 missing in another industrial accident

The granting of the General System of Preference (GSP+) status to Pakistan, applicable from 1 January 2014, has done little to improve the condition of labourers in Pakistan, while industrialists continue to disregard minimum wage rule and industrial safety standards. The history of industrial accidents in the country is rife with examples of preventable accidents. […]

AHRC TV: Weekly Roundup, Episode 97

The Roundupthis week opens with a report of yet another targeted assassination in Bangladesh, which pushes the country further into lawlessness and terror. Faisal ArefinDipan, owner of a publishing house, is the latest victim. AHRC TV interviews Md.Ashrafuzzamanabout the killing spree and what is behind it. Next in this programme, BablooLoitongbam, of Human Rights Alert […]

SRI LANKA: පෙළපාලි හා මහජන උද්ඝෝෂණ වල පොලිස් සහභාගීත්වය

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු නොබෝදා පත්කරන ලද ජාතික පොලිස් කොමිසම විසින් ඔක්තෝබර් මස 29 වන දින විශ්ව විද්‍යාල ප‍්‍රතිපාදන කොමිෂන් සභාව ඉදිරිපිටදී ශිෂ්‍යයන් කණ්ඩායමකට පොලිසියේ කැරලි මර්ධන ඒකකය විසින් පහර දීමේ සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පැවැත්වීම ආරම්භ කිරීම සතුටට කරුණකි. එම පරීක්‍ෂණ කොමිටුවේ වාර්තාව සති දෙකක් ඇතුළත නිකුත් කරනු ලබන බවට ජාතික පොලිස් කොමිසමේ ප‍්‍රකාශකයෙකු විසින් නිවේදනය […]

NEPAL: UN Members deeply concerned about caste discrimination and untouchability

A Press Releasefrom the Nepal Dalit National Social Welfare Organisation (NNDSWO), Dalit NGO Federation (DNF), The Feminist Dalit Organisation (FEDO), and the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) on behalf of the Dalit Civil Society Organisations Coalition and by the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN)forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) UN Nepal UPR Review calls […]

ASIA: Weekly Roundup, Episode 94

This week AHRC TV continues its coverage of the 4th annual Asian Alliance Against Torture and Ill-Treatment and for Fair Trial Meeting, which saw parliamentarians, senior policemen, and senior activists gather in Hong Kong last to deliberate on the transformations required in the justice institutions of Asia. The programme includes talks by Sri Lankan Deputy […]

PAKISTAN: Patriarchal culture amongst the lawyers reaches alarming level

Javeria Younes Women in Pakistan are treated as second class citizens. Denied their fundamental rights, the they are often viewed as property, to be dealt with as their owners deems fit. The chauvinism and patriarchy prevalent in Pakistan ensures systematic gender subordination, which perpetuates violence. In a society where the male ego is inflated at […]

INDIA: Nutrition and TB: An Essential but Ignored relationship

Article | India | 30-09-2015

Prashant Kumar Dubey Nutrition and TB are two entities which need to be considered together, not separately. It is unfortunate that our country has not taken any initiative in this area resulting in a disregard for this relationship. If we really want to overcome TB, we need to talk through a package system similar to […]

INDONESIA: Environmental and health damages caused by business remain unpunished

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a national NGO, regarding the environmental and health damages caused by the QL Group Inc in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. QL Group is a foreign investment company in collaboration between QL Malaysia and Trimitra […]

INDIA: Let them eat rasgullas

Statement | India | 24-09-2015

Death of children under its care is nothing novel for the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics located in Cuttack, Odisha. It took 58 of them to die in less than 10 days for it to become scandalous. Over the years, the Institute, popularly known as Shishu Bhawan, has recorded an alarming number […]

NEPAL: Terai deaths blot new Constitution

Statement | Nepal | 18-09-2015

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has repeatedly raised the alarm against the killings in Terai; however, they fail to stop. The police have again opened fire, this time on 15 September, a market day. The police firings have resulted in four innocent citizens in Bethari, Bhairahawa town, Rupandehi District being killed. The mentality of […]

World : Receiving visitors in the ‘Republic of Conscience’

An Article published in the Hong Kong Free Press, on 11th September 2015, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission By Basil Fernando Perhaps the most touching moment broadcast through international media in recent times is the warm welcome people fleeing Syria through Hungary received from large German crowds on arrival. When citizens of one country […]

ASIA: Weekly Roundup, Episode 89

This week’s Roundup begins in Bangladesh, where the breakdown of the rule of law is in an ever-worsening downward spiral. On International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances, intelligence agencies in the country threatened family members of the disappeared and 27 out of 35 scheduled meetings were cancelled. Next, AHRC TV reports on the shocking […]

PAKISTAN: Establishing Child Rights Commission

Iqbal Ahmed Detho The debate around legislating child protection laws and creating institutional mechanisms has got sympathetic constituency both among public and policy makers after the gory incident of raping the children and making their videos in Kasur, Punjab. Before this incident became public, Federal Government had moved a draft bill in the parliament for […]

PAKISTAN/ASIA: Collective failure of world leaders

Who will account for the death of three year old Aylan whose dead body was washed up at the Aegean beach in Turkey, the photo of the toddler called upon world’s conscience. The photo that went viral over social media sparked a fresh debate on the Syrian refugees facing civil strife since 2011. As mentioned […]

PAKISTAN: Experts, civil society oppose the construction of Karachi nuclear reactors

A Statement from Pakistan Peace Coalition forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission On 20th August, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the next phase in the construction of two large Chinese supplied nuclear power plants next to Karachi. This project is moving forward with reckless disregard for the safety and well-being of the 20 million […]

NEPAL: Police escalates violence

Statement | Nepal | 18-08-2015

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), along with the Terai Human Rights Defenders (THRD) Alliance, condemns the use of excessive force by the police in the Bhardah area of Saptari District. Today, in Bhardah, the police fired 100 rounds, in addition to tear gas shelling. The shootings have resulted in the death of Rajiv Raut, […]