Right to life

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to The Honourable Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapakse and the Honourable Minister of Law and Order & Southern Development Sagala Rathnayake 15 March 2017 Dear Ministers Wijedasa Rajapakse and Sagala Ratnayaka Two more extrajudicial killings at police stations have been reported in Sri Lanka. One of the […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that a prominent activist from Pakistani Kashmir, Mohammad Rafiq Khawaja, who is also Editor of an Urdu daily, is under State repression. He is being victimised for standing up for the rights of the struggle of Kashmiris and for bringing to light the […]

by Avinash Pandey The Supreme Court of India is worried about the continuing havoc of farmer suicides in India. It termed it “a sensitive matter of larger public interest and human rights which covers the entire country” this January. The Court has also wondered why there is no national policy to compensate farmers in cases of crop failure and […]

A Statement from National Fact Finding Mission forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission In light of the apparent information blackout concerning the fire that devoured the House Technology Industries main building (HTI) inside the Cavite Export Processing Zone, various labor institutions and people’s organization initiated a National Fact Finding Mission to probe the extent […]

Barely one and a half months into this year, eight terrorist attacks in different parts of Pakistan have claimed at least 50 lives, including of 24 security officials. The tall claims of the government and military establishment of breaking the back of terrorism are a shambles. Pakistan, with the world’s sixth largest army and more […]

The sudden and inexplicable surge in violence against women this year has sent shivers down the collective spine of the country. Not that previous years had been any different in terms of violence against women. However, the year 2017 appears to be particularly brutal with more than a dozen honour killings occurring in the first […]

घनश्याम चम्लागाई तथा चेतनाथ चौलागाईं  १) विषय प्रवेश नेपालमा तत्कालीन नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट पार्टी माओवादीले २०५२ सालमा जनयुद्धको घोषण गरे पश्चात् सरकार र युद्धरत दुबै पक्षबाट शसस्त्र द्वन्दमा गैर न्यायिक हत्या, बेपत्ता, सार्वजनिक, भौतिक संरचनाहरु ध्वस्त पार्नेलगायतका गम्भीर मानवअधिकार उलङ्घन र मानवता विरुद्धको अपराधहरु भएका छन् । २०६३ मंसिर ५ मा तत्कालीन नेपाल सरकार र नेपाल कम्युनिष्ट […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns in the strongest terms the killing on the evening of 29 January 2017 of prominent lawyer, constitutional expert and advisor to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Ko Ni, and joins with the thousands who attended his funeral to extend sincere condolences to his wife, Daw Tin Tin Aye, […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, which is seeing human rights at its lowest point since 1997, said an Amnesty International report. According to the report, authorities have “failed on many fronts” to protect the city’s rights and freedoms. Amnesty urged the Hong Kong government and civil servants to “make defending […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the alleged enforced disappearance, in the first week of January, of four human rights defenders from different cities. There are two bloggers, a writer and a professor. All four were pro-active on social media against state atrocities on the issues of disappearances and […]

How does one deal with a 42% spike in suicides by farmers/cultivators in a country where “development” has been the buzzword for the last couple of years? If the question isn’t creepy enough to send a shiver down one’s spine, consider that “Bankruptcy or Indebtedness” and “Farming Related Issues”, i.e. non-personal reasons, account for 58.2% […]

BANGLADESH: Mahmudur Rahman should be allowed to travel for medical treatment Paris-Geneva-Hong-Kong, December 24, 2016 – Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has so far refused to grant journalist Mahmudur Rahman, recently released from 1,322 days in arbitrary detention, the right to travel abroad for urgent surgery, despite the serious risk of irreversible neurological damage he faces. The Observatory […]

2016 end-of-the-year commentary on human rights in Sri Lanka The neglect of the right to life within the country is quite symbolically expressed in the failure to address the spread of dengue in any significant manner. While the deaths due to dengue fever is high, a number of areas were declared as being more prone […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where two persons from the Ahmadiyya community were killed when a Muslim mob attacked the community’s mosque on December 12, the day Muslims were celebrating the birthday of Prophet Mohammed. Although the Ahmadi community had written to the Chakwal district commissioner, Punjab, about threats to burn their worship […]

It now seems that the government announcement to finally recognise the services of the great Nobel Laureate Dr. Abdus Salam was mere eyewash. Just three days after the announcement was made to name the Physics Department of Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad after the Ahmadi prodigy, attacks began on the beleaguered Ahmadiyya. The Community had hardly breathed a sigh […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that seventeen supporters of Dr. C.K. Raut have been arrested by the police on 7 December from the Janakpur District. They were organizing a clean-up programme of the city after the Vivahpanchami festival attended by about one million pilgrims. They are still in police custody under […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day This year’s theme for the Human Rights Day is ‘Stand up for someone’s rights today! The statement could not be better suited to what is happening in Pakistan, where human rights defenders are being increasingly targeted for speaking out. Branded […]

This week Just Asia focuses on international human rights day, celebrated annually on December 10. It commemorates the day on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. The UN theme for this year’s Human Rights Day is ‘Stand up for someone’s rights today!’ At a time when intolerance and violence is […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day The year 2016 has proved to be a difficult year in terms of food and livelihood security for the poor and marginalized communities across Asia. There have even been reverses in food security of the people in countries like Sri […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day Just like 2015 and the years prior, 2016 has been no different in terms of human rights, rule of law, and functioning of justice institutions in Nepal. Rather, the legacy of human rights and justice institution collapse has remained intact, […]