Rule of law

The life of an average citizen in the Philippines these days is beset with fear. Even the expression “rule of law” evokes cynical reactions among ordinary folk, as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo uses the very same expression to justify blatant and brutal repression.  Sloganeering about anti-terrorism and anti-crime drives is used as a weapon to subdue […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission welcomes the resolution adopted by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) to introduce a . BASL appointed a committee comprising a former chief justice and two former Supreme Court judges to draft this code of conduct.  This move by BASL answers a dire need in the country. It deserves […]

[RE: UA-112-2004: BURMA: Complaints against forced labour blocked and victims punished issued on 3 September 2004; UP-11-2005: BURMA: Four officials sentenced to prison for forced labour in Kawmhu Township, Yangon Division; UP-63-2005: BURMA: Local officials seek revenge against villager who obtained first successful forced labour prosecution; UP-68-2005: BURMA: Preliminary hearing against villager who obtained first […]

The AHRC is holding its advanced human rights study programme from October 9-14, 2005 in Hong Kong, at which participants from 10 nationalities will participate. To mark this occasion, the AHRC is launching a series of discussions aimed at drafting an Asian Charter  With a view to drafting an Asian Charter , the Asian Human […]

[RE: UA-34-2004: PAKISTAN: A 13-year-old girl was killed by her in-laws on the pretext of honour killing and her body was not found yet] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to inform you that the President’s Office in Pakistan has sent a special in investigation team to investigate the murder of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information through its local partner MASUM in West Bengal that Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights activist was illegally detained, threatened and assaulted by the officers at the Block Development Office in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal. Mr. Sharma was, at the time of the […]

[RE: UA-136-2005: SRI LANKA: Two persons severely injured after being tortured by iron rods by the Wattegama police; UP-97-2005: A torture victim with serious injuries is chained to his bed due to legal technicality; UP-98-2005: Rohitha remains in chains in hospital due to legal technicalities] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses shock and condemns the killing of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar on 12 August 2005. In direct and indirect terms the Government and many other sources have accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) for the murder. The LTTE has denied this allegation. Though a […]

[Re: UA- 50 -2005: INDIA: Three and a half year wait for justice for the brutal murder of an Adivasi (tribal person) by a forest official in Gujarat] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the case of Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava (30), an adivasi who was murdered by an Indian […]

Strange news has been coming from Thailand, where five police have filed defamation complaints against a reputed forensic pathologist and senior government bureaucrat after they suggested that a man with five bullets in his vital organs probably didn’t shoot himself. The death of Sunthorn Wongdao on May 21 has captured public imagination since the police […]

On May 26, the Danish government announced that it has earmarked 4.5 million Danish Krone (US$ 750,000) for the new office of the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights in Nepal. The office will use this money over the coming two years for active monitoring and investigating of gross rights abuses occurring on the ground […]

Since January 2005, at least 18 human rights and political activists have killed or disappeared in the Philippines. The latest reported attack was on Alden Ambida, a provincial coordinator of the opposition Bayan Muna party in Eastern Samar this April 11. He is now fighting for his life in hospital. In March, three other Bayan […]

The address to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights by the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan this April 7 is a wake-up call to the global human rights movement. This speech marks a moment in the development of global human rights standards of far greater importance than the Vienna Conference of 1993.  For the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, about the complete disregard for a court orders by the Beldanga police in a murder case in West Bengal, India. According to the information received, Mr. Saidul Mullick, a potato vendor, left home on 29 […]

As the Sixty-first Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is taking place in Geneva, we would like to draw attention to the colossal absence of human rights in three countries in the Asia region.  The countries are Nepal, Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia.  While Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia have been on this list for quite […]

In exonerating the three generals identified as having been primarily responsible for the killing of at least 85 persons in Narathiwat province on October 25 of last year, the Thai army commander-in-chief General Pravit Wongsuwan made a surprisingly frank admission. “There is no disciplinary penalty for those holding the rank of general,” he is reported […]

The government of King Gyanendra in Nepal, who took absolute power on February 1, is now mobilising military-backed mobs to engage in extreme acts of violence on the pretext of fighting Maoists. The army-orchestrated burning of hundreds of homes and lynching of about 30 alleged Maoists in Kapilvastu district are methods of control all too […]

[RE: UP-14-2005: The assassin of Gerald Perera has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department, UP-76-2004: Gerald Perera died after gunshot; His family needs urgent protection, UP-74-2004:  No action from the government to protect torture victim even after attempt on his life, UA-157-2004: Torture victim pursuing criminal torture case shot; UP-47-2002 (RE: UA/18 and 19/2002 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the attack on an Awami League rally that killed Bangladesh’s former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, his nephew Shah Manjurul Huda and activists Siddique Ali, Abdur Rahim and Abul Hossain on 27 January 2005. There have been numerous such incidents in Bangladesh recently, and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the attack on an Awami League rally that killed Bangladesh’s former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, his nephew Shah Manjurul Huda and activists Siddique Ali, Abdur Rahim and Abul Hossain on 27 January 2005. There have been numerous such incidents in Bangladesh recently, and […]