Rule of law

During the last few weeks the Sandakada pahanas (Moonstones) in a couple of churches in Kalutara District came under attack from Bodu Bala Sena, a Buddhist militant organisation led by Buddhist monks. They claimed that Sandakada pahana (Moonstone) is a Buddhist symbol found at the entrance to Buddhist temples, and therefore should not adorn the […]

Pakistan Conflict Tracker Monthly Report (June 2013). By Mohammad Nafees   The month of June dawned with lots of hopes and expectations for the people of Pakistan as the new government was to take oath during this month and to offer peace, good governance, and rule of law in the country.  The hope of peace […]

15 July, 2013 Colombo We the undersigned, who stand for justice and democracy,  note with regret and concern the use of State media, especially the Independent Television Network (ITN) that uses its air time to stick labels on and intimidate social and cultural activists who stand for plurality and fair play and for their dissenting […]

Every ninety minutes a woman is raped in Sri Lanka, said Women for Rights at a press conference held in Colombo on July 14. The organisation further said that Sri Lanka is 5thon a list regarding domestic violence. Crimes causing violence relating to women and children is on the rise. In Sri Lanka the citizens […]

The judgment of the Supreme Court of India delivered on 10 July 2013 in Civil Writ Petitions 490 and 231 of 2005, declaring Subsection (4) of Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 as ultra vires the constitution, is a watershed event. The Court on the same day dismissed two other Civil Appeals, […]

The persecution of the Ahmadis, a minority sect, by police and fundamentalist Muslim groups is continuing unabated. In the month of June, two persons from the Ahmadiyya sect were gunned downed by ‘unknown killers’ in Karachi and Lahore. Another Ahmadi was shot and seriously injured. In the city of Sialkot, Punjab province, the Ahmadis were […]

The AHRC staff joins the international community in the celebration of Malala Day and sends sincere greetings to Malala for her 16th birthday “Even if they come to kill me, I will tell them what they are trying to do is wrong, that education is our basic right.” These words are from the well-known, young […]

Arifa, a mother of two, has been stoned to death on the orders of Panchayat (a tribal court) for possessing a cell phone. She was executed on 11 July in the district of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province. The victim was stoned to death by her uncle and relatives on the orders of Panchayat […]

Sachin Kumar Jain Perhaps, I may not arrive at any conclusions in this feature article. I am in a dilemma over the veracity of the data available on the state agriculture. Perhaps you could help me in this effort. Chances are you could be befuddled as me on the matter! In 2012 Madhya Pradesh government […]

On Thursday, July 11, 2013, the verdict in the case of three human rights defenders —  JittraKotchadej, BoonrodPaiwong, and SoonthornBoonyord — will be read at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok. The charges against the human rights defenders stems from peaceful protests they held calling on the government to take action to protect […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that police officers have been exonerated (by their own internal inquiry) from charges of killing a young Christian, who was tortured to death while being kept in illegal detention. After the killing, in a bid to fool the Christian community, senior police officials announced […]

(Phnom Penh, 10 July 2013) On 3 July 2013, a group of civil society organizations (“CSOs”) jointly organized a national political platform debate on “Special Measures to Solve Women’s and Children’s Issues” (the “Debate”).  CSOs were pleased to welcome to the Debate representatives from seven of the eight political parties who are contesting the National […]

“The significance of the protest was no longer defined by the number of people who take part, but by the issues it reflects,” said Hong Kong Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-Leung in a radio interview on the July 1 protests in Hong Kong, a pro-democracy icon in the region. It has been an interesting time […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young businessman named Shamim Reza was tortured to death by police officers of Sonargaon police station in Narayanganj distirct. The police, on 14 May 2013, illegally arrested Shamim without any warrant of arrest issued by Court. In violation of Bangladesh’s constitutional provision, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Sundaramani Sivakumar (36) was illegally arrested and detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division at the Kandy Headquarters Police Station where he was forced, under torture and threats to his life to sign blank pages. The officers then later filed fabricated charges to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that several Pakistani citizens currently incarcerated in Damman Prison in Saudi Arabia face death by beheading for allegedly trafficking drugs into Saudi Arabia. The Pakistanis in question, all hailing from poor families, were in fact forced to carry the drugs. In some cases the […]

International and national researches, surveys and news reports have recognized that the incidence of poverty has been increased in Pakistan during the recent years.  Massive corruption, primarily from top to bottom, mismanagement, unemployment, inefficiency, incompetence, terrorism, extremism, energy crises, torrential rains and subsequent flood and a number of other reasons have resulted that more than […]

To observe UN International Day in Support of Torture victims the Human Development Organization (HDO), a civil society organization that has been struggling for prevention of custodial abuses and rehabilitation of torture survivors in Hazara division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, arranged colorful program at Central Prison Haripur on June 26, 2013. The detainees, […]

The strange riddle that the Magistrate’s Court of Colombo must now untangle is this: what is the plot that the Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) was trying to hatch against the well-known Hultsdorf lawyer Gunaratne Wanninayaka and why was such a plot considered necessary in the first place? Perhaps the more important question is as to […]

As the allegations of illegal interference by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in the presidential election held in December last year drew increasing attention from the public, a search and seizure was carried out by the special investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (DPO) on April 30, 2013. Based on the materials […]