Rule of law

A side event at the human rights council organised by the Asian Legal Resource Center (ALRC), Franciscans International (FI), International Coalition for Papua (ICP), Pro Papua Foundation, Tapol, Vivat International, West Papua Netzwerk (WPN), on Thursday, June 12, 2014  14:30 – 16:30 (CEST, UTC+2), Room XXII  Palais des Nations, Geneva Live Webcast West Papua in Indonesia […]

by Bushra Khaliq Like many other poor countries, child labour is a socially acceptable phenomenon in Pakistan. There is a long list of formal and informal sectors teeming with child labour across Pakistan. However, top among these sectors may be agriculture, auto workshops, rag picking and teashops, which harbour significant number of underage working children. […]

Today,AHRC TV releases the 31st Episode of the Human Rights Asia WeeklyRoundup. In this episode, we bring you a panel discussion between three human rights activists, from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, on the causes of systemic and barbaric violence that occurs with impunity in Asia on a daily basis. Gruesome stories of gang rape, custodial deathfollowing […]

Danilo Reyes, deputy director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong, was invited by the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR) to attend the National Consultation Workshop and Writeshop for the National Preventive Mechanism for two days beginning on April 29, 2014, in Quezon City, Philippines. While attending this program […]

The rape of a judge in her residence, located in a high-security area in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, speaks volumes about both the epidemic of sexual violence and the respect for law in India. Such an incident cannot occur in a jurisdiction where a citizen is convinced that the law will play its […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the life of a lady lawyer and human rights defender is under threat for pursuing the murder case of two women who were killed in the name of honour. The murderers quickly tried to bury the bodies claiming that they both committed suicide […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained information that two men who live in an Internally Displaced Persons’ Camp, in Kachin State, in the north of Burma (Myanmar), have disappeared in the area where government forces are active. It has been almost one and half years since they disappeared and their families […]

Today, AHRC TV releases the 30th Episode of the Human Rights Asia Weekly Roundup. The episode opens with analysis of the post-coup situation in Thailand. Tyrell Haberkorn, Thailand expert and Fellow at The Australian National University, speaks with AHRC TV about the military crackdown, continuing arrests, and the ingenious ways of the Thai people to show […]

A young student of 22 year has entered into 46 days of his hunger strike unto death today. His condition is very critical and there are fears of his slipping into coma as he faints most of the time. The government has completely ignored his hunger strike and forget providing medical help has not even […]

The Kathmandu District Court has given a clean chit to Mrs. Surakshya Singh, a.k.a Nikki, on 2 June 2014. Nikki has been the principle suspect in the case of disappearance of Mrs. Chhori Maiya Maharjan, missing for the past two years. In following this case, and the functioning of the criminal justice mechanisms, right up to […]

The Standing Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka on Rule of Law condemns the attitude adopted by the Police when students of the Ruhuna University were brutally assaulted by a mob led by a Deputy Minister and some members of the Provincial Council.  This is another instant where the Police were mere spectators […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to six Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Special Rapporteur on Torture Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful […]

The following article was published as the editorial of the latest issue of Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives by Nilantha Ilangamuwa Sri Lanka is once again on the edge of a political crucible in terms of its international relations as well as in its domestic politics. The country is ignoring calls for an independent and credible investigation […]

The parliament passed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Act on 25 April 2014, and the President approved it on 11 May 2014. This promulgation, however, suffers from a slight problem. The TRC law violates the 2 January 2014 Supreme Court decision, the Interim Constitution of Nepal, and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of Nepal. […]

The following statement based on the speech delivered by Mr. John Joseph Clancey (Jack), a lifelong human rights activist and the Chairperson of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Gwangju, South Korea on June 2, 2014 The AHRC has a policy of remaining neutral in regard to party politics. Therefore, the AHRC is not as […]

Two days after the announcement that martial law had been put in force was made on May 20th, a military junta, named the National Order Maintenance Council (NOMC), led a coup and subsequently installed itself as the government of Thailand. Over the course of the six months of anti-government protests, twenty-eight people had been killed […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that threats against human rights defenders in the Khon Rak Ban Koed Group working to protect their communities from the negative effects of mining in Loei Province in Thailand are facing grave threats against their lives. CASE NARRATIVE: As we described in our original appeal […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that five students have been expelled and four students have beensuspended from the faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences of ‘the University of Poonch, RawalaKot’ Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan, for demanding the accreditation of their faculty. From the nine expelled and suspended […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to express grave concern about the filing of charges against Apichat Pongsawat under Martial Law, the Criminal Code, the 2007 Computer Crimes Act (CCA), and the orders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta that carried out a coup in Thailand on 22 May […]

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) has endorsed the eight nominees for judges to the Supreme Court on 27 May 2014. Six judges, namely Gopal Parajuli, Deepak Raj Joshi, Govinda Upadhyay, Devendra Gopal Shrestha, Cholendra Shumsher Rana, and Jagdish Sharma Poudel, have been elected through voting. Two others, Om Prakash Mishra and Baidya Nath Upadhyay, […]