Rule of law

(Note: We are reproducing the report published on June 14 2007 by the International Crisis Group. The Executive Summary and Recommendations follow below). ____________ *INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP – NEW REPORT* Colombo/Brussels, 14 June 2007: The international community must press the warring sides for urgent action to address wide-spread human rights abuses in Sri Lanka as […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that on 8 June 2007 the Minister of Information, Mr. Khieu Kanharith, reportedly issued a warning letter to the Sralanh Khmer newspaper to stop its publication of the Global Witness report on illegal logging. The GW report, released on 1 June 2007, reportedly exposed the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partners in Uttar Pradesh – The Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties [Uttar Pradesh Chapter] and Guria Sansthan – regarding the forceful and illegal eviction of poor and helpless families in Mau city of Uttar Pradesh. It is alleged that the families […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned about the situation of a group of Burmese human rights defenders who were assaulted with the backing and involvement of local authorities and the police last April (UA-135-2007). Six have been charged upsetting public tranquillity and have been refused bail (UP-062-2007). Meanwhile, the criminal […]

The Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF) composed of donors and the Cambodian government will convene on 19-20 June to discuss the progress in the implementation of Cambodia’s development plan and its funding. This meeting is yet another occasion for all participants to honour their human rights obligations towards the Cambodian people under the Paris Peace […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the detention of Dr. Binayak Sen, a medical doctor and human rights activist based in Chhattisgarh, India has been extended to a further period of 14 days. The AHRC had in the past forwarded an appeal issued by the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that another two peasants were killed while six others were wounded when security guards of an influential landlord open fired on them on 4 June 2007. The guards started shooting at the farmers to prevent them from entering a portion of the […]

Abductions, killings and robbery have become regular incidents in Sri Lanka. The telltale symptoms of a broken down rule of law and a system that has failed to address it. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has issued several statements in the past expressing its concern over the widening gap between the fact and fiction in Sri […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Advocacy Forum, one of the leading human rights organizations in Nepal providing legal aid services to detainees that a woman was brutally tortured and suffered and sexually molested by the police on grounds that she was involved in setting fire to a government […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that 92 families were forcibly evicted from their 120 hectares of land in Sangkat (commune) O’ Tress, Khan (district) Stung Hav, Sihanoukville by more than 100 armed police, military police and 20 gangsters on 23 May 2007. They were allegedly led by Khann Stung […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the continuing failure by the leadership of the military to surrender their men, including a sergeant who is subject to arrest for the murder of a couple, Bacar and his wife Carmen Japalali nearly three years ago in Tagum City, Mindanao. Even […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is very concerned about the lack of progress in the investigation prosecution of three army officers identified by a court as responsible for the killing of at least 28 young men. Meanwhile, one of the officers, General Pallop Pinmanee, is reportedly going to be reappointed to a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that the Sihanoukville governor, Say Hak, lodged a file complaint against Mr. Chhim Savuth, a human rights investigator for Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) based in Sihanoukville for attempting to create a secession area in Mitapheap district in order to oppose the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had previously received information that the Ratanakiri provincial governor allegedly rejected the prosecutor’s decision, made on 16 November 2006, of halting the planned bulldozing of 115 hectares of disputed land in Chrung and Kachok villages, Kok commune, Bokeo district, Ratanakiri province. The land belongs to the local […]

Mr. I. G. Pushpakumara (30) a navy officer said to be assigned to VIP security who was on home leave was beaten to death by a mob who believed that he was trying to escape after committing the theft of a mobile phone. When a crowd chased this navy officer, as some people shouted ‘thief’ […]

[NOTICE: To facilitate your intervention of the urgent appeals issued by the AHRC, we have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of all the Indian authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that on 2 May 2007 at around 5:30 pm, a local journalist named Chim Chenda, who works for Kampuchea Thmei (New Cambodia), a news paper company based in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces, allegedly received a death threat in a local restaurant K.O in […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner the PVCHR, a human rights organisation based in Uttar Pradesh state, regarding the horrible living conditions of more than 100,000 Muslim weavers in Varanasi city of Uttar Pradesh. It is alleged that the district administration and Varanasi Municipal Corporation have […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the brutal murder of Mr. Suherman, for reasons yet unknown, by Police Officers of the Medan District Police on the 11th April 2007. On the 11th April 2007, at around 3:30a.m., around 30 yet unidentified men claiming to be Medan District Police Officers […]

On March 3 2007 Prime Minister Hun Sen received from his party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), full power to eradicate the land grabbing that has been plaguing the country for many years. With this full support, Hun Sen set out to wage “a war against land grabbers” whom he has identified as “CPP officials” […]