Right to life

PHILIPPINES: Supreme Court held the State of Emergency in Sulu unconstitutional

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 […]

INDIA: True value of independence

Statement | India | 14-08-2012

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 […]

INDIA: Reform dishonesty first

Statement | India | 13-08-2012

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 […]

SRI LANKA: DIG of Police threatens to kill Municipal Councilor in Negombo

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 […]

INDIA: BSF torturing of a man pushes his family into starvation and leads to death of his daughter

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 […]

PAKISTAN: Government turns a blind eye to the murder of Ahmadiyya Muslims

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 […]

PAKISTAN: Another human rights defender and fisherfolk activist has been abducted and his whereabouts are unknown

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 […]

SRI LANKA: On the 23rd of Black July, one man destroyed his nation

Many things are said about Black July, 1983. That there were many culprits who caused the havoc that virtually destroyed the image of Sri Lanka and which gave justification for a prolonged period of violence. However, there was one man who was the creator of this havoc. It was then-President of the country, Junius Richard […]

INDIA: Stop exporting gender based violence

Statement | India | 23-07-2012

After the sexual assault upon a woman in Guwahati, in Assam state early this month, a shocking event the national media in India competed in telecasting, and the despicable ‘culture’ discussion that followed, the country has scored again, internationally, for similar criminal conduct by Indian men. Impelled by sexual lust and contempt to women, the […]

SRI LANKA: Attack on two courts – It is time for judges and lawyers to fight back

According to reports we have received, a group of criminals allegedly sponsored by a government minister, stoned the High Court and the Magistrate Court of Manner in a coordinated attack yesterday. A very tense situation is reported to be taking place in manner. According to information we have received, a mobile fishing hut was attacked […]

INDIA: Capital punishment by the BSF in West Bengal

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report from MASUM that a group of Border Security Forces (BSF) in West Bengal, India has shot dead 45-year-old agriculture labourer, Mr. Razzak Seikh on 11 June 2012. This is yet another instance of extrajudicial execution committed with impunity by the BSF, contributing to […]

INDIA: Capital punishment by the BSF in West Bengal

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a report from MASUM that a group of Border Security Forces (BSF) in West Bengal, India has shot dead 45-year-old agriculture labourer, Mr. Razzak Seikh on 11 June 2012. This is yet another instance of extrajudicial execution committed with impunity by the BSF, contributing to […]

SRI LANKA: A mirror image of Sri Lanka’s political culture

Basil Fernando The interview of the Defense Secretary Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse with the editor of the Sunday Leader on the airlifting of a dog deserves comment not because of anything surprising contained in the interview. Its importance lies in its banality. It reveals something that has come to be quite common and ordinary in the […]

INDIA: An ode to ‘lesser’ people’s death

Avinash Pandey Come June, and Indian media has a welcome break from the dearth of positive news. They do not need to repeat telecast the same scams, neither they are forced to fill their ‘news programs’ with this soap opera or that comedy show running on countless entertainment channels. They get their OB vans chasing […]

INDIA: BSF cuts down another innocent man, culling conscience and Constitution in the process

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the murder of 21-year-old Jiarul Sardar on 10 June 2012 in yet another case of Border Security Forces (BSF) brutality in West Bengal, India. Torture, extrajudicial killings and acts of impunity are features of everyday life for Indian people living near […]

BANGLADESH: A call for urgent intervention for the protection of Human Rights Defenders in Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh plans to immediately arrest members of human rights organisations and activists suspected of providing information for the Human Rights Watch Report “Bangladesh: Torture, Deaths of Jailed Mutiny Suspects”. The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned from reliable sources that there are discussions among some quarters in the Bangladesh government of arresting […]

HONG KONG/PHILIPPINES: “My life was empty when I was in hiding.”

Hong Kong, July 3, 2012 “For over a year, I was in hiding. My life was empty,” said Myrna Reblando as she shared her story to a group of local and international journalists in Hong Kong. Myrna Reblando, the widow of Alejandro “Bong” Reblando, a journalist murdered in the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, was one of […]

INDIA: Another cruel and callous attack by the Border Security Forces

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the torture of 35-year-old Mr Sudarshan Mondal on 3 November 2011 in yet another case of Border Security Forces (BSF) brutality in West Bengal, India. Torture, extrajudicial killings, religious discrimination and a culture of impunity are features of everyday life for […]

INDIA: Responsibility shot down at Kotteguda

96 hours after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) firing in Kotteguda panchayat of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh state, the union government and the state government of Chhattisgarh are on defensive mode, finding excuses to justify the police action that killed 20 villagers, of which at least five are children. The firing occurred on 30 […]

INDONESIA: Police shot civilians in a petty fight in Papua resulted in one person died and four others injured

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the death of a civilian and the injury of five others after the police shot them in a petty fight in Degeuwo, Papua, on 15 May 2012. The five civilians were having an argument with the owner of a billiard parlour they were […]