State of emergency & martial law

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the death of a man in a military camp in southern Thailand on 21 March 2008. Five other arrestees were transferred to another camp after this incident. The AHRC calls for a thorough police investigation and prosecution of those responsible. CASE DETAILS: According […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been documenting cases of illegal arrest, detention and prosecution since the nationwide protests in Burma last September. In this appeal we give the details of the case of one young man who was arrested because of having some publications linked to those events and after a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned about the case of a young woman who was arrested coming into Burma from neighbouring Thailand and charged with illegal immigration, joining in illegal associations and sedition. The laying of charges and the passing of sentences against Ma Thanda were all in violation of […]

Pakistan is seeing the greatest political upheaval it has witnessed in its history as the people have given a clear verdict in defence of the judiciary. The position of the chief justice, ousted judges, and the lawyers’ movement has been vindicated by the people. In the years to come, the key question in Pakistan will […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following open letter from The Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ——- An Open Letter from the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada forwarded by the Asian Human Rights […]

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed an automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via email, fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the […]

The AHRC is sharing with you a list of the judges and lawyers that have been arrested, tortured or brought under house arrest since the enactment of emergency law in Pakistan by General Pervez Musharraf. However, this list is not complete. We therefore call upon the public to support the lawyers of the democratic movement […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that hundreds of detainees in a “vocational training” camps have been released and returned home on 18 November 2007 after the Fourth Army chief, Lt-Gen Viroj Buacharoon backed down and reversed a six-month ban prohibiting them from entering for southern provinces (UP-143-2007). This is […]

Since General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and dismissed the Supreme Court of Pakistan on November 3, appointing a mock bench in its place, over 3000 lawyers have been held in remand and many of the best known lawyers in the country are in hiding. Outspoken political leaders are under detention, while others, […]

Pressure applied by the government of Pakistan has caused officials in Dubai to order that the broadcasts of two popular television channels, Geo News and ARY, be cut as of midnight on November 16. Both channels are based in the UAE but for the most part broadcast news about Pakistan. According to the press reports […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the serious medical condition of a prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Syed Hassan Tariq. He was brutally tortured by the police upon instructions allegedly by the provincial chief minister in Nawabshah, Sindh Province after he was arrested on 8 November 2007. Mr. Tariq […]

Dear friends, In addition to what has been widely reported, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the plight of justices, lawyers and activists who had been unlawfully placed under house arrest and detained following the state of emergency in 3 November 2007. The justices and lawyers had been targeted to suppress […]

Dear friends, Further to our recent update on court orders that at least 300 men in southern Thailand could not be held at so-called “vocational training” camps against their will (UP-123-2007), the police have since rearrested three and threatened others to go back to the camps if they don’t also want to be taken back […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned that although over 300 men have been allowed to go free from a number of army camps in the south of Thailand after court orders that they cannot be detained against their will, the army is refusing to let them to return to their homes. […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the husband of a human rights defender in the south of Thailand has been shot dead. Ma-usoh Malong’s wife has been organising and supporting the victims and families of the Tak Bai incident. Other human rights defenders in Thailand believe that the killing […]

Dear friends in the solidarity movement, Today, about 200,000 people rallied the streets in Burma (in Rangoon and different cities). The Buddhist monks are leading the pro-democracy rallies, defying military junta’s order for them to stay away from the street rallies or face legal action by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. With the escalation of […]

BURMA: Lawyers, monks determined to defy “forced politics” (Hong Kong, September 26, 2007) Lawyers in Burma on Tuesday established a new union to introduce “genuine politics” to the country and defy what they called the regime’s “forced politics” as protests continued for a tenth day despite harsh warnings in the media and through loudspeakers on […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you concerning the dramatic and rapidly worsening events in Myanmar of the last few weeks, about which you are fully aware. Many persons around the world maintain that Myanmar’s neighbours are largely responsible for the propping up of its military dictatorship, which but for the Association […]

Dear friends, The recent dramatic and historic developments in Burma, with thousands of monks taking to the streets, have received a lot of international attention in recent days. Here the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) gives a short summary of some of the latest events and also add comments and information on some incidents and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in collaboration with the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) wishes to announce the publication of a pictorial book that documents the development of the lawyer’s movement throughout the recent tumultuous months in Pakistan. The book covers all the events that occurred between March and July 2007. The publication, entitled “People’s […]