Rule of law

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Women in Governance (WinG-Assam), a network of women human rights defenders in Assam, about the custodial torture of a youth, Mr. Siddharth Kaushik Dutta in Jorhat Sadar police station, Jorhat, Assam. According to the information received, Mr. Rishikesh Hazarika, Officer in Charge (OC) […]

Torture of detainees must end Center for Human Rights and Research (CHR) and Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) strongly condemn the assault, arrest and the alleged torture on the Allied Health Sciences students by Slave Island police and hopes that the judicial system will do justice to the arrested students. 18 students were […]

‘Lawyers for Democracy’ condemns the brutal attack on university students for demonstrating and the subsequent assault and torture at the Slave Island police station causing physical injury to some of the students. We reiterate the fundamental rights of students to protest or demonstrate in a peaceful manner. We deplore the actions of the police in […]

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an application in a CBI Special Court seeking approval for criminal charges to be framed against the Director General of Police, Mr. Sumedh Singh Saini, of the Punjab state police. The accusation against Saini relates to his conduct of defence in a criminal case in which Saini […]

(Courtesy, Sunday Island of 11th May and 18th May 2014) What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. You might cynically apply this old aphorism to the judicial mind and judicial matters in Sri Lanka. Increasingly, the grey matter of intelligence, erudition, wisdom and independence is becoming too scarce in Sri Lanka’s judicial mind, and […]

A Reflection on religious freedom with justice Puzzling Decisions and worrying trends The recent government decision to appoint a special police unit to deal with inter-religious conflict adds to the prevailing confusion on the freedom of religion and the rule of law. While the decision implies seriousness in arrestingthe current religious tensions, the government’s reluctance […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) congratulates the people of India and the Election Commission for successfully concluding a free and fair national election. This election has shown once again that the people of India value their ballot and are capable of changing governments through democratic and peaceful means.The task now falls upon the political […]

(Note: this article was first published in the May 4, 2014 issue of the Sunday Examiner) I am a Filipino but I see myself a Hong Konger. If we are to take the guidelines of Hong Kong Unison, a non-profit organisation advocating for the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, a Hong Konger is any person […]

Human rights defenders are continually being made targets of abduction in Bangladesh, actions that are symptomatic of a kind of insanity. Yesterday (May 15,2014 ), Mr. Md. Nur Khan (Liton), a prominent human rights defender narrowly escaped being abducted. A group of men in plain clothes attempted to abduct Mr. Nur, who works as Director […]

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, interpreted the much talked about blasphemy law in a timely and appropriate manner. He made an observation in a sou moto case of the desecration of places of religion belonging to the minorities, that there should be thorough and impartial investigations into complaints of blasphemy so that […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses its concern over the recently passed Truth and Reconciliation Law in Nepal. The law violates international standards, the Supreme Court verdict of January 2, 2014, and also the Interim Constitution and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of Nepal itself. The last time the government came up with the […]

The citizens of Pakistan watched a video recording of a police encounter on all the television channels where a man who had been pronounced dead started crying and screaming that he was alive. The police ignored his cries for help and dragged him by the hair into a police van. He was taken to a […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Nervazhi – a human rights organization based in Kerala, concerning the custodial death of a young woman aged 23 years. It is reported that the police took the victim in the case, Ms. Hanisha, into illegal custody on 23rd March 2014. The police […]

The killing of senior lawyer, Rashid Rehman, on May 7, 2014 in his office in Multan has once again brought into focus at home and abroad how little the Pakistani state values those who risk their lives for the promotion and protection of fundamental rights for all. Rehman was killed despite having earlier expressed serious […]

The attempted murder of an anchorperson of a popular media house triggered the open discussion on the role of the ISI in dealing with the freedom of expression and the media as a whole. Indeed, this is not the first occasion that the role of the ISI was brought up as a conspirator in the […]

JPF press release On 21 May 2014, the Supreme Court will read the Court Decision of Somchai Enforced Disappearance that Somchai’s family appeal to the Supreme Court (The Attorney General did not appeal). Contact: Angkhana Neelapaijit 084-728-0350 Background: Somchai Neelapaijit a prominent human rights lawyer was abducted and disappeared in Bangkok on 12th March 2004 […]

I held back on writing about the extremely traumatic experience of Naomi Coleman, 37, mental health nurse in Coventry, England. I am very glad I opted to be less than current since I felt I needed other’s opinions before expressing mine. All I spoke with from senior diplomats and retired government officers who held top […]

The frenzy of land grabbing in Burma (Myanmar) amid the country’s transition to nominally democratic government shows no signs of abating. Reports of the number of cases and scale of “land confiscation”—a euphemism for theft by government authorities and army-linked cronies—continue to grow. At the same time, conflicts over land have escalated as farmers attempt […]

The rule of law does not exist in Bangladesh. The way the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) abducted seven men, including a senior lawyer and a member of the mayoral panel of the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC), on 27 April 2014, and murdered them, allegedly on behalf of a feuding faction of the ruling party, in […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. G Piyal Sanjeewa Perera a  30 year old man and a  father of two children is being beaten up at the Pandura Police Station at this very  moment.  We are writing to urge you to act to intervene to stop the torture […]