Right to life

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward an appeal from Karapatan Alliance for Advancement for People’s Rights regarding thousands of farmers who have received harassment, threats and have been subjected to extrajudicial killings from the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines, North Cotabato Region, for demanding relief funds […]

Bangladesh police have once again killed protestors. This time four out of a few hundred villagers who protested on 4 April 2016 have been killed. The farmers were protesting against acquisition of their agricultural lands without consent or adequate compensation, for the purpose of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Gondamara Village of Banshkhali Upazilla […]

This week Just Asia covers the deadly dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan city, Philippines. Suffering from hunger and unable to plant their crops due to the El Nino drought, the farmers organized a protest blockading the main highway connecting North Cotabato and Davao City on March 29. On April 1, police and military personnel […]

A Statement from Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The starving and unarmed farmers of Kidapawan cried for rice. They were given bullets. Photo credit to HKCHRPP The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace […]

In medical science a placebo effect means a remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo–or a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution, can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful. These days many people question as to whether the electoral […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins in Pakistan, where Easter Sunday was marked with a suicide bomb blast killing 78 persons, mostly Christian women and children, and injuring more than 350 others, including Muslims. The blast occurred in a park, devastating families who had come to enjoy their holiday. A local organization with links […]

Nuclear armed Pakistan is falling into the hands of Islamic militants who continually threaten India and other neighbouring countries with nuclear power Photo by AFP, courtessy to Dawn The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the Easter day carnage in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, and urges for a high powered judicial inquiry […]

This week’s episode begins with Indonesia, where the trial of 26 human rights defenders began on March 21. The criminal charges against them are believed to be part of the government’s effort to end demands for labour welfare and for the cancellation of Government Regulation No. 78, which supports cheap labor in Indonesia. Just Asia […]

Cutting off electricity, water, and Internet facilities, closing down messes, chasing all the media persons out, and then calling in the Paramilitary to swoopdown on students in the campus sounds like routine work in a dictatorship, not a democracy. Yet, this is exactly what the University of Hyderabad administration, which works under the Union Ministry […]

Avinash Pandey “A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.”  John Dryden, English Poet The picture showing two Muslims – one of them a teenaged boy – hanging by a tree in Latehar, Jharkhandis going to haunt the Republic for a long time. Nothing indicts the failure of a criminal justice […]

The bail finally granted to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya is welcome. Despite the media gaze, it took almost a month for the students, who are accused of sedition on flimsy grounds, to be released. This showcases the nature of Indian Magistracy, and yet the repeated rejection of their bail […]

A Press Release from Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) On 13 March 2016, the Cho-airong Hospital was laid siege by an unknown group of armed insurgents. It was further reported that more than 20 armed men with war weapons have raided and taken control of the hospital and […]

One year after the assassination of human rights defender Mr. Chai Boontonglek, a member of the Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand (SPFT), the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned about persistent impunity in human rights murder cases. On February 11, the AHRC received information from Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) and Protection International Thailand […]

The government’s trend of arresting political leaders and cadres at the forefront of recent Madhes protest, in order to weaken the ongoing Madhes movement, continues. Earlier, 11 front-line leaders and cadres were arrested by the government in the Terai, something the Asian Human Rights Commission addressed its statement released on 24 February 2016. Thereafter, last week, two […]

March 12, 2016 is the twelfth anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) marks this date by bringing attention to the ongoing failure of the Thai judicial system to establish the truth behind his disappearance and to call for justice in his case and that of other disappeared […]

Reports of a series of killings attributed to underworld elements have sent shockwaves amongst all Sri Lankans, whether living in Sri Lanka or outside. Almost everyone was speculating as to what these killings aimed to achieve. Some thought the killings were mainly directed towards witnesses of serious crimes being investigated, or already brought to court. […]

Burma has experienced its first democratic election in November 2015, and is going to have a newly elected civilian government this April, after half a century under military government. But, despite the historic election having taken place, peaceful protestors have continued to be subject to rights violations. Former political prisoner Nilar Thein of the 88 […]

The government of Maharashtra has finally woken up to the agrarian crisis that has, according to official statistics, already ensnared the lives of 124 farmers in the state in the first 45 days of the year. Awoken, the government has decided to take action. And, the action that the government has decided to take is […]

Domestic violence is rampant throughout the world. In Pakistan, however, female victims of such violence are left without reprieve, as they have to suffer the dogma of being labelled loose women if they decide to stand up to their abusers, who are usually male family members. So Pakistani women have been staying in abusive relationships, […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with the re-arrest of Indian activist Irom Sharmila, two days after being acquitted of attempted suicide charges. On hunger strike for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act causing widespread abuses in Manipur, Sharmila has been arrested and released several times over the past 15 years. […]