Threats and intimidation

NEPAL: A Dalit man stabbed to death — his family members are under threat following an inter-caste marriage

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Feminist Dalit Organization (FEDO) a human rights group working for the rights of Dalit women and the Dalit National Federation (DNF), regarding the caste-based murder of Mr. Sete Damai and the violence and threats his family has been receiving since Sete’s son, […]

THAILAND: Threats to political freedom intensify with assault on HRD and law professor

On the afternoon of 29 February 2012, Professor Worachet Pakeerut, a law professor at Thammasat University, leader of the Khana Nitirat, and human rights defender (HRD), was assaulted by two men outside the Faculty of Law at Thammasat University.  The two men punched Professor Worachet several times in the face until he bled and his […]

SRI LANKA: A plot to kill or otherwise harm the human rights defender Herman Kumara

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Herman Kumara, a well-respected Sri Lankan human rights defender has received a number of death threats after he helped organize fishermen in protest of rising fuel prices. Soon after, he was followed by a group of people in a white van who […]

BANGLADESH: Rights activists and inhabitants of Mayadip are under threat by illegal sand-miners in connivance with the police and civil administration

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding continuous death threats to environmental rights activists at Sonargaon in Narayanganj district for resisting the illegal mining of sand from the Meghna Rivera that threatens the existence of 900 families living in Mayadip and Nunertek islands under the Sonargaon sub-district of Narayanganj. […]

SRI LANKA: A woman faces death threats after a powerful politician uses his influence to grab her property

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Ms. Warnakula Gunawardhana Sellapperumage Mangalika Jayasooriya, of 120/1, Bogamuwa, Kalagedihena in the Gampaha District is facing death threats after her properties have been forcibly grabbed by the henchmen of a powerful politician and a deputy minister of the ruling government of Sri Lanka. despite making […]

PAKISTAN: A human rights defender suffers an illegal and unwarranted raid by the Rangers

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a leader of a fisher folk rights-based movement and human rights activist was threatened with abduction and death by a Lieutenant Colonel of the Pakistan Rangers on 9 February 2012. At around midnight, 20-25 rangers cordoned off his house and entered it without […]

PHILIPPINES: Protect journalist facing threats to his life

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that a community journalist had been threatened for condemning the murder of his colleague in General Santos City. The threats made to him sent via his mobile phone cannot be taken lightly as there had been a pattern of targeted attacks against journalists […]

PHILIPPINES: Journalist threatened for condemning colleague’s murder must be protected

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned that Ronald Allan Mascardo, editor and publisher of a local newspaper Dadiangas Balita, has received death threats via his mobile phone for condemning the murder of his colleague, Chris Guarin. Marcardo openly criticized those who masterminded the killing of Guarin at his burial ceremony on January 15. […]

PAKISTAN: The former Ambassador to the United States faces death threats from the military and intelligence agencies — the civilian government has shown its inability to rein in the powerful institutions

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding various threats, including death threats, to the former ambassador of Pakistan to the United States of America. He is under virtual house arrest as his movements are restricted not only by the military intelligence agencies but also by the Supreme Court of Pakistan […]

SRI LANKA: The New Year Wish List- 2012

All Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in the legal system. People reduced to powerlessness […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

NEPAL: Commitments to accountability and justice continue to be jeopardized in 2011

Statement | Nepal | 07-12-2011

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here. Given […]

INDONESIA: Human Rights in 2011 – The Decay of Pancasila and Constitutional Protections

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report will be made available […]

PAKISTAN: A journalist was attacked by terrorists from a banned militant organisation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding a journalist and prominent human rights defender that has left the country after an attempt to abduct him by a banned Muslim militant organization, the Jamaatud Dawa, which was allegedly involved in sectarian and terrorist attacks both inside and outside the country. He […]