Right to life

BANGLADESH: Rights activists and inhabitants of Mayadip are under threat by illegal sand-miners in connivance with the police and civil administration

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding continuous death threats to environmental rights activists at Sonargaon in Narayanganj district for resisting the illegal mining of sand from the Meghna Rivera that threatens the existence of 900 families living in Mayadip and Nunertek islands under the Sonargaon sub-district of Narayanganj. […]

INDONESIA: A young man died suspiciously in custody after illegal arrest

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that Yusli, a 23-year old man, died while in custody of the Cisauk sub-district police station, Tangerang, Indonesia on 26 December 2011. Several wounds and bruises were found on Yusli’s body, in addition to a shot wound on his chest. The police claimed that […]

INDIA: Rotten corpses symbolise a fallen system

Statement | India | 13-02-2012

Rotten and maggot-ridden corpses lie scattered in compounds; dogs, crows and other rodents run around with human body parts; tables made of broken wooden planks where putrefied human bodies are cut open by Doms (members of a Dalit community known in India for dealing with dead bodies) with crude tools like a chisel or nail […]

INDIA: Assam government failed to ensure the right to life with dignity of tea plantation workers leading to ten deaths

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC), a human rights group based in Assam state that 10 workers died from starvation after their health deteriorated due to working conditions that failed to guarantee their life with dignity for decades. After a private company, […]

PAKISTAN: Love marriage couple greeted with ‘shoot-on-sight’ order from Jihadi groups

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple from Pakistani held Kashmir has threatened with being shot on sight by Jihadi militant groups whenever they are seen at any place in Pakistan. The militants from the Jihadi groups (Islamic holy warriors) have been following the couple from their hide […]

PAKISTAN: The courts and the government bear responsibility for extrajudicial killings in military torture cells

By Baseer Naveed The disappearances, killings in military detention centers and dumping of bullet-riddled bodies including torture marks on the bodies of the victims, by the spy agencies particularly by ISI and military intelligence are no longer a secret. This was exposed during the case of Abdul Saboor (29), which was taken in custody illegally […]

PAKISTAN: The former Ambassador to the United States faces death threats from the military and intelligence agencies — the civilian government has shown its inability to rein in the powerful institutions

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding various threats, including death threats, to the former ambassador of Pakistan to the United States of America. He is under virtual house arrest as his movements are restricted not only by the military intelligence agencies but also by the Supreme Court of Pakistan […]

PAKISTAN: Two journalists and members of their families face death threats from religious militant groups — police make no effort to arrest the perpetrators

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding threats to the lives of two producers-cum-investigative journalists of a private electronic media house for unearthing a private detention centre run by a Muslim fundamentalist group. It is being operated under the guise of a rehabilitation center where people, from 4 to 50 […]

SRI LANKA: The New Year Wish List- 2012

All Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in the legal system. People reduced to powerlessness […]

INDONESIA: Massive Indonesian Offensive Displaces Thousands In Paniai As Helicopters Attack And Raze Villages

Thousands of people have reportedly fled in terror from a large area in Paniai, West Papua as a massive combined Police and military offensive attacked villages on December 13, attempting to break armed resistance from pro-independence guerrillas. Credible human rights sources are claiming up to 20 local people have been shot dead by Indonesian security […]

SRI LANKA: Body of a custodial death victim was dumped in a river by Chunnakan police

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information a regarding a twenty-eight-years old man’s body was dumped in a river by the Chunnakan police on 26 November 2011. Previously, the Jaffna police arrested the victim, who was identified as Sri Skandaraja Sumanan, and handed over to the Chunnakan police. The Sri Lankan […]

PAKISTAN: Brother of a teenage pregnant rape victim was murdered in the court premises-a complete failure of rule of law

The brother of a rape victim, Alamzeb Khattak, 25, a was shot dead on Friday, December 9, in the court premises of Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkha province allegedly by relatives of police officials who were involved in the rape of a teenage girl. Uzma Ayub was repeatedly raped whilst being held captive by an […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

PAKISTAN: A couple was murdered in the name of honour for refusing to hand over two minor girls

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple was murdered along with the father of the groom in an honour killing. The order for the killing was issued by a Jirga, an illegal tribal court. During the Jirga it was ordered that the couple cancel the marriage and if […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]