Rule of law

The rural distress plaguing large tracts of the Indian countryside is no secret. This distress has heightened in the wake of the devastating drought that is affecting more than half of India’s 676 districts. Forget the reports coming in from grass root organizations that showcase the severity of the crisis, data from the government’s own […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the Indonesian police’s failure to protect and ensure the right to freedom of expression and assembly of various groups over the past two months. In fact, the police’s negligence and indifference towards vigilante groups that forcibly disperse and intimidate peaceful events organized by these groups amounts […]

On 21 March 2016 the commander of the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station in Burma, or Myanmar, sent a letter to Ma Thandar, the wife of Ko Par Gyi, whom soldiers killed in a remote part of the country’s east in 2014. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has described previously (AHRC-STM-075-2015, AHRC-UAC-145-2014), both a civilian court […]

Bangladesh police have once again killed protestors. This time four out of a few hundred villagers who protested on 4 April 2016 have been killed. The farmers were protesting against acquisition of their agricultural lands without consent or adequate compensation, for the purpose of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Gondamara Village of Banshkhali Upazilla […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly objects to Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s summons to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chair Anup Raj Sharma, Commissioner Mohna Ansari and other members on 3 April 2016, where he sought clarification on Ansari’s statement during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held in Geneva in March. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the forced dispersal of peaceful protesters and their illegal arrest in Kampung Bhintuka-SP13 field in Mimika, Timika district, Papua on Tuesday, 5 April 2016. We have been informed that 12 protesters were taken into police custody in Kuala Kencana for further investigation and questioning. Prior to the protest, […]

This week Just Asia covers the deadly dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan city, Philippines. Suffering from hunger and unable to plant their crops due to the El Nino drought, the farmers organized a protest blockading the main highway connecting North Cotabato and Davao City on March 29. On April 1, police and military personnel […]

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2013, 55-60% of all trafficking victims are women. Pakistan is both a country of origin and destination, as far as trafficking of women is concerned. Women in Pakistan are most vulnerable to trafficking due to poverty, gender discrimination, lack of […]

by Basil Fernando The existence of a mass grave may come to the notice of the public by many different ways; a statement by a witness made during a court hearing – as in the case of Chemmani Mass Graves: discoveries of some scattered remains of bones by workers when digging a site for constructions […]

A group of human rights defenders in northeast Thailand are facing death threats and a defamation case in court over their attempts to protect community resources against a gold mining operation. According to Rights Coalition and Community Resource Centre Foundation (CRC), the Khon Rak Ban Kerd group of human rights defenders was formed in 2007 […]

A Statement from Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The starving and unarmed farmers of Kidapawan cried for rice. They were given bullets. Photo credit to HKCHRPP The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace […]

Interview Part 2 Interview Part 1 On behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission, we are sharing with you the second part of the interview, with Basil Fernando, on the origins of the present political crisis, in Sri Lanka which is being traced to the manner in which the developments that took place in 1931 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 14-year-old girl was gang raped by influential persons from a political party, and the matter was settled with compensation of 1200 kilograms of wheat through the illegal jirga system. The girl’s father says he had no choice but to accept the compensation, […]

In medical science a placebo effect means a remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo–or a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution, can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful. These days many people question as to whether the electoral […]

A Press Release from the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has issued the order no. 13/2559 on 29 March 2016 titled, “The Prevention and Suppression of Certain Offences Detrimental to the Maintenance of Public Order or Harmful to the National […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins in Pakistan, where Easter Sunday was marked with a suicide bomb blast killing 78 persons, mostly Christian women and children, and injuring more than 350 others, including Muslims. The blast occurred in a park, devastating families who had come to enjoy their holiday. A local organization with links […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information provided by Padang Legal Aid (LBH Padang) regarding the civil service police unit (Satpol PP)’s brutal attack on public lawyer Mr. Asrul Azis Sigalingging, and seven students of the University of Andalas, in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The police has not shown any significant […]

Twelve years after the disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) calls upon the Thai authorities to begin a new investigation into Somchai’s case, and to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Somchai Neelaphaijit was a noted a lawyer and human rights defender in Thailand. […]

An article from International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) has published a Primer on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance for NGOs. Prof. Emmanuel Decaux,President of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)has written the Preface of […]

Nuclear armed Pakistan is falling into the hands of Islamic militants who continually threaten India and other neighbouring countries with nuclear power Photo by AFP, courtessy to Dawn The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the Easter day carnage in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, and urges for a high powered judicial inquiry […]