Rule of law

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the extra-judicial killing of 13 men by the authorities in Sahiwal district, Punjab province on 10 February 2008. Police appear to have carried out the murders in the guise of an ‘encounter killing’. Their bodies were immediately buried without autopsies having been done […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is aggrieved to share the news of the continuing extrajudicial killings of civilian men, women and even children in Sri Lanka. A claymore mine targeted at a bus carrying civilians, most of whom were school children, killed 6 civilians and 12 children in Thatchanamadhu in the Mannar […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the deteriorating health of a Pakistani prisoner detained in a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The prisoner is suffering from a serious heart ailment and his health has worsened since he was first imprisoned there in September 2004. The government of Pakistan […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that since our appeal on the case of a child soldier who was jailed in 2005 (AHRC-UAC-016-2008) a number of persons involved in the case have been threatened by local authorities. His aunt, who made the complaint, is under watch, and two people […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been documenting cases of illegal arrest, detention and prosecution since the nationwide protests in Burma last September. In this appeal we give the details of the case of one woman who was abducted and held at a special military camp and later released but again rearrested […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you that there are several new web resources on the rule of law, democracy and human rights in Sri Lanka which provide information and documents valuable to researchers and concerned persons. www.ruleoflawsrilanka.org This website contains historical reports such as the Police Commission Reports of 1946 and 1970. […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is saddened to inform you that yet another list of killings and disappearances for the month of November 2007 has been reported in Sri Lanka. While the conflict has been going on, it is the citizens who have been affected and who live in fear of threats […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that the government of Thailand is imposing policies which further deprive migrant workers of their rights. The policies, particularly on migrant workers giving birth in the country, are discriminatory as they effectively excuse the government from any responsibility to ensure the welfare of […]

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed an automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via email, fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that hundreds of detainees in a “vocational training” camps have been released and returned home on 18 November 2007 after the Fourth Army chief, Lt-Gen Viroj Buacharoon backed down and reversed a six-month ban prohibiting them from entering for southern provinces (UP-143-2007). This is […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the serious medical condition of a prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Syed Hassan Tariq. He was brutally tortured by the police upon instructions allegedly by the provincial chief minister in Nawabshah, Sindh Province after he was arrested on 8 November 2007. Mr. Tariq […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the MASUM, a local human rights organization in West Bengal, India, regarding the brutal attack by armed activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] against Nandigram villagers since 6 November 2007. According to the official government account, at least 3 persons […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources regarding a list of extrajudicial killings of 53 persons solely for the single month of October 2007 in Sri Lanka. Even though several cases of extrajudicial killings and disappearances have been continuously reported since last year, none of those responsible have […]

Dear friends, In addition to what has been widely reported, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the plight of justices, lawyers and activists who had been unlawfully placed under house arrest and detained following the state of emergency in 3 November 2007. The justices and lawyers had been targeted to suppress […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of continuing threats made on human rights activists and widows of activists who are helping victims. On November 2, activist Olivia Bernardo was followed and photographed by an unknown person while her colleague Mary Guy Portajada started receiving threatening messages on her mobile. In […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received reliable information regarding the extrajudicial killing of five youths at Thavasikkulam near Vavuniya town on 4 November 2007 in Sri Lanka.  According to witness accounts, the youths had been taken into custody by Army personnel from the Veppankulam Army Camp. The bullet-riddled corpses were found […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that on 4 July 2007, a court in Sihanoukville ordered the release of 13 men who were arrested in April 2007 while the Sihanoukville authorities were demolishing houses where 107 families had been staying. Six out of 13 men were released but seven […]

Dear friends, Further to our recent update on court orders that at least 300 men in southern Thailand could not be held at so-called “vocational training” camps against their will (UP-123-2007), the police have since rearrested three and threatened others to go back to the camps if they don’t also want to be taken back […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the requests to appeal against imprisonment of the “Hinthada 6” and another human rights defender from the same group have all been thrown out of courts in Burma. Meanwhile, another three have also reportedly been imprisoned, while one who had been was […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned that although over 300 men have been allowed to go free from a number of army camps in the south of Thailand after court orders that they cannot be detained against their will, the army is refusing to let them to return to their homes. […]