Right to life

September 11, 2012 will remain etched in the collective memory of Pakistan. On that day 259 labourers were burned alive inside a garment factory. The incident is unprecedented in the industrial history of Pakistan, and was termed a 9/11 for the laboring class of Pakistan. The fire was caused by a short circuit and quickly […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned about the prolonged general strike that has made life very difficult in the southern plains of Nepal. Curfews have been set in Terai Districts to deter any untoward incidents. There is severe shortage of essentials and medicines. Shops and factories are closed. Daily wage earners have difficulty […]

A campaign has been launched in Myanmar demanding an end to the practice of the appointment of military officers as judicial officers to the court of Myanmar. This movement demands the end to militarisation of the legal system. In Myanmar, four out of the seven Supreme Court judges are former military officers. Their names are […]

Article on 3rd anniversary of the fire at two factories where 325 workers were burnt alive Abbas Haider Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) has become a focus of workers organizations and media in Pakistan following the two factory fires that resulted in the death of more than 325 workers in September 2012. These accidents were […]

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 As human rights and peace advocates in Hong Kong, we are outraged by the spate of killings perpetrated against the lumads (indigenous people) in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. The heightened militarisation […]

A new wave of target killings of journalists and attacking on the media houses have again started. With in the span of 24 hours two media persons were killed by, as usual, “unknown persons”. The score comes to five during the current year. According to Dunya Tv during the last five years 65 journalists were […]

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 […]

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 […]

This week’s Roundup begins in Nepal where the violence that has plagued the small Himalayan nation during the last few weeks has intensified. Clashes between Tharu protesters and police in Kailali District resulted in the death of a 2-year-old child and the lynching and burning of 8 policemen. Next, AHRC TV reports from China. Following […]

An interview conducted by ‘MayZine’, The May 18 Memorial Foundation, Gwangju, South Korea, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 1. You have been active in human rights and social action issues continuously since you were young, did you have any personal experience since you were childhood that makes you devoted your life and time […]

A joint statement by the Commission for the Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS) and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) The Indonesian government is planning to provide an Rp 781 Billion (USD 62 Million) loan to PT Minarak Lapindo Jaya (MLJ), a national company, to complete the compensation to victims of the mudflow disaster […]

A khap panchayat (sub-caste council) in Baghpat District of Uttar Pradesh has allegedly ordered that two dalit sisters be raped and paraded naked as retribution for their brother having eloped with a married woman from another, so called, higher caste. There is nothing much unique in the case. Khap panchayats have been known to issue […]

August 30 marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. Many families of the disappeared await the return of their loved ones; many have waiting for a decade or more. Unfortunately, for families that have had loved ones picked up by security agencies, the ordeal begins when they register a complaint; […]

The undersigned Rohingya Organizations in Europe have strongly denounced the undemocratic actions of the Election Commission against Rohingya parliamentary candidates under the government’s ‘policy of exclusion’ of the Rohingya, debarring them from contesting in the upcoming crucial election scheduled on November 8, 2015, on a false and fabricated charge that their parents were not citizens. […]

This report has been prepared on the basis of THRD Alliance Chairperson Dipendra Jha’s field visit to Bhardah, Saptari District. On August 17, a day before the Bhardah police fired shots at the protesters, tensions ran high between the police and the protestors. In the evening, the superintendents of police of the Nepal Police and […]

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, […]

A three-member team of Women In Struggle for Empowerment (WISE) visited the town of Hussain Khan Wala, Kasur district on 11 August 2015 to gather facts and assess the situation on ground regarding the child sex abuse scandal that has recently surfaced. The team, headed by Bushra Khaliq, the Focal person of Anti-Torture Alliance Pakistan, […]

This week’s Roundup reports on the encouraging re-opening of a three-year-old crime investigation relating to the death of Sri Lankan rugby player Wasim Thajudeen. While it was initially determined to be an accidental death, allegations of it being a murder committed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son have long circulated. The body has now been […]

A Press Release from the Right Livelihood Award Foundation forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Friday, 14 August 2015 Hong Kong The Asia Press Office, Right Livelihood Award Foundation, would like to forward you an appeal on behalf of over 40 Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as ‘The Alternative Nobel Prize’. Laureates […]

An article written by Kishali Pinto Jayawardene and published in The Sunday Times forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Deaths of innocents in Sri Lanka have had a long and terrible history. No political party can wash its hands of this blood despite the hypocritical outrage often professed in public. Such fire breathing rhetoric […]