Rule of law

For immediate release on 20 June 2013 Press Release Pitsanuloke Administrative Court orders Mae Sot Municipality to provide 750,000 baht as compensation for the death of a migrant workers’ child On 19 June 2013, the Pitsanuloke Administrative Court, Pitsanuloke Province, ruled in the case between Ms. Ma Maw Di Yan, aka “Juju”, the procurator of Zamira, aka […]

The UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims will be observed in Pakistan with a pledge to struggle to eliminate torture from society. Two seminars will be held on this occasion, as well as demonstrations against torture committed by law enforcement agencies, including the armed forces. Human rights activists will urge the government to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning the attack on Ms. Ashcharya Tashini Iddamalgoda. Ashcharya (13) is a brilliant student with a pleasant personality. When she rebuffed the advances of a male student she was attacked during a school interval. Despite the hospital records showing that her injury was the […]

INR 17, or approximately 30 cents in USD, is what an average poor spends a day in rural India. Their urban friends are no better off either; they have to content with spending INR 27 for seeing a day off. Adjust that amount for the cost of living in urban centres and they are just […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young electrician was severely tortured during the police custody in City Police Station. He was forcibly arrested when the policemen asked him to fix a problem with the car of the Station house officer (SHO). The victim of torture was severely injured […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is demanding an explanation as to why the police did nothing to prevent Manila Mayor, Alfredo Lim, from interrogating and torturing a rape suspect in full view of the public. In this report by the GMA News, about five policemen in uniform, including a senior police officer, were present in front […]

In India, death has a myriad ways to prey on hapless children and sniff the life out of them. Often, it has rather trustworthy accomplices: the union and state governments. Take but one way it strikes, killing more than a thousand each year. Since 1978, when it first struck, it has never failed to collect […]

“Out of 4835 Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assembly analysed, 1448 members or 31% have declared criminal cases against them in a self sworn affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India.” This alarming statistic is taken from a report conducted in 2012 by the Association for Democratic Reforms in India (full […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Odhikar that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-11 indiscriminately opened fire in front of a mosque after midday prayers on Friday 1 March 2013. The incident occurred in Mutubi village of Sonaimuri upazila in the Noakhali district. This resulted in the extra-judicial murder of a […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police The Asian Human Rights Commission has written to the Inspector General of Police in order to bring to his notice three particularly brutal acts of torture perpetrated by his officers against innocent civilians. Mr. N K Illangakoon Inspector […]

Dear friends, Kopiya Waththage Don Chaminda Priyantha Kumara was accused of having stolen a mobile phone and arrested by officers of the Kalutara South Police Station. After severely beating him and forcing him to sign a statement which he was not permitted to read they implicated him in further unsolved cases. He was taken to […]

A Statement from a group of civil society actors in India against the ostracisation of Mr. Harsh Mander, by the Chief Minister of Gujarat forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission New Delhi 12 June 2013 With great pride, we would like to put on record that the work of our colleague and friend Mr. […]

“The next day at 9 am the same three police officers took him back to the Crime Branch and told him to sign a document which was already prepared. He signed it due to fear of further ill-treatment but affirms that he had no knowledge of the contents of the document. The officers then took […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received further information regarding several elderly women living in destitution in the Palash Bari area of the Gaibandha district of the Rangpur division. As in the earlier cases reported by the AHRC, most of the victims have no one to look after them and are physically […]

Dear friends, Mr. Madawala Maddumage Don Aruna Nilupul Indika (39) is an interior designer by profession. After he completed a job at the house of Anoma Siriweera, an Attorney-at-law, the lady’s husband approached Nilupul and told him that their house had been burgled and that he suspected Nilupul of having done it. Nilupul denied the […]

Last week the Asian Human Rights Commission reported the incident of the torture of a well-known interior decorator, Mr. Madawala Maddumage Don Aruna Nilupul Indika (39), of Mahagedara, Devala Road, Welipenna in the Kalutara District, by several police officers of the Mataguma Police Station. The officer who played the most active role in Nilupul’s arrest […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Chandila Padmakumara Gurusinghe (35), of Kiripedda, Babuwo Kanda, Karandeniya in Galle District was illegally arrested, tortured and humiliated by officers of the Karandeniya Police Station. The officers tricked him into accompanying him saying that they had a job for him at the […]

“It was in her fate to die this way”, these shameful words were said by a mother after she threw acid on her own daughter. These are the words used commonly by many families in Pakistani society in order to justify their actions and take shelter in this orthodox society. This incident took place in […]

The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Vass Gunawardena is now in remand custody while an inquiry into the conspiracy to murder a businessman for pay is ongoing. Even as he is being interrogated he was reported in the television network, Suwarnawa Hini, in its programme on Mulpituwe (Front Page, which is a commentary on […]

During the first four months of the year 2013 no restraint was observed on the part of the military in their actions. Abductions by unknown persons, disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue unabated in the war torn zone of Balochistan province. During the months from January to April, according to the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons […]