Right to life

AHRC is deeply perturbed with the crackdown on the Jal Satyagraha in Khardrapani village of Madhya Pradesh’s Harda district. Here, villagers have been staying in neck-deep water for the past 15 days protesting against state’s decision of increasing the water level in Indira Sagar Dam to 262 meters without compensating the villagers for the loss […]

The arrest of Aseem Trivedi, a cartoonist and a member of India against Corruption, is not only ridiculous but also a telling comment on the paranoia that has set in the government circles and deserves all the outrage it has caused. In fact, the only thing more ludicrous than the arrest itself is the reason […]

After 17 days of daring to stand in neck-deep water, the villagers who are protesting against the unjust compensation package offered for the Onkareshwar Dam in Madhya Pradesh is yet to receive any guaranteed assurances from their government. Yesterday, the Madhya Pradesh State Government has reportedly agreed to reduce the water level in the reservoir, […]

The villagers’ protest against the absence of reasonable settlement for the land and livelihood lost to the Omkareshwar and the Indira Sagar Dams in the Narmada Valley project has thus far fallen upon a blind and deaf government. The agitation, though has received wholehearted support from a section of the Indian civil society, has failed […]

(Hong Kong, September 05, 2012) “This is taking the Ghandhian method to the water. To be submerged in water continuously for so many days is more difficult, in fact, than fasting…” Mr. Basil Fernando, Director – Polices and Programmes said referring to the ongoing protest in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India by the villagers who lost […]

The ongoing protest by village communities acting against the increase of water level in the Omkareshwar Dam is unique in several aspects. The protest, which has completed 11 days today, is directed against the Madhya Pradesh state government that has failed to adequately rehabilitate those who have lost their land and livelihood to this ‘development’ […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) that a large group of villagers who have been evicted from their land without compensation for the construction of the Omkareshwar Dam are protesting against the illegal increase in the water level, beyond that is allowed by the Supreme […]

The people of Bangladesh are scared. Incidents of abduction by plain-clothed people, who often claim to be law-enforcing agents of the country, are ongoing, without any indication of being on the want. The people of Bangladesh are scared because their brothers and sons are disappearing. The stories of disappearances are being exposed by the media […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a minor Christian girl, Miss Ramsha, 11, was arrested on the charges of blasphemy when she burned some copies of newspapers which were collected from the garbage. The Muslim population of the slum area attacked her house and beat her mother and sister […]

The Chief Minister of West Bengal is once again in the news. This time the minister is critiqued for her comments on judicial corruption. However, if truth is the best defence, and if such a defence is bona fide, then in public interest none can blame the minister for her ‘expressing opinion.’ In fact, it […]

By Altaf Hussain The mass exodus of minority Hindus from Pakistan particularly from Sindh, has stirred the lethargic and ignorant government authorities who otherwise had kept mum over the security concerns of the Hindu community. Significant number of families of Pakistan’s Hindu community particularly from Sindh, reportedly have started migrating to neighboring country, India, because […]

Dear friends, Ms. K K Neesha Chaturangi (17) of Ambalantota, Baragama, Arawanamulla in Hambantota District was a student of a Ambalantota Kuda Bolana Pajjaseeha Maha Vidyalaya. On 2 June 2012 she ate some cashew nuts after school before taking her lunch. Then she complained of stomach pain. When she was brought to Hambantota General Hospital […]

There is nothing amiss here. The nation is in celebratory mode and it is celebrating with aplomb. The national flag, the tricolour, is everywhere: being waved in the hands of children, tattooed on the cheeks of enthusiastic youth, flying high on the walls. And, it has, for a change, ensured a full meal to the […]

The Free Cocoy Tulawie Movement is happy to announce the Decision of the Supreme Court dated July 3, 2012 which GRANTED the Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition filed by Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie et.al. against Governor Sakur Tan for declaring the Province of Sulu in a State of Emergency last March 31, 2009. Penned by Associate Justice […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) congratulates India and the people of this great country on the eve of the 65th anniversary of independence. Occasions like this are opportunity for the country and its people to reflect and introspect on the promises they made, both 65 years ago, when celebrating newfound freedom, and subsequently. The […]

The government is again planning to change the criminal justice mainframe of the country. Again, the ruse is that of justice to the people and national security. The proposal is open; its true purpose clandestine. If the 2007 report of the Committee on National Policy on Criminal Justice, chaired by Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon, is […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Mihindukulasuriya Anthony Vinisious Fernando is an elected Municipal Councilor of the Negombo Municipality and a businessman by profession. In July he witnessed lease holders in the area he is responsible for taking names of vendors and asked what they were doing. The […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) that the family of Mr. Majim Sardar, a victim of illegal detention and custodial torture, is on the brink of starvation. Mr. Sardar is a tribal man from district of Murshidabad in West Bengal. The victim has already lost […]

It is devastating for human rights activists the world over and those who stand for religious freedom, practise and tolerance, that the Government of Pakistan is not only stone deaf and dumb but also blind to the continuous murders of the followers of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. We have received the dreadful news that on […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights defender and fisherfolk activist has been abducted by the local police. It is alleged 70-80 officials from the police and other agencies along with henchmen of the perpetrators attacked the Kakkapir Village, Karachi, Sindh Province at 3am early in the […]