Women's rights

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where fighting has broken out once again in the state of Rakhine. Clashes between Burmese security forces and Rohingya militants have led to some 89 people killed, including 12 security force personnel. This is the worst violence to hit the area since October 2016, when a military crackdown […]

Divya Bharathi, a filmmaker recently released her debut film ‘Kakkoos’, a documentary on the plight of manual scavengers in Tamil Nadu, a South Indian state. In the past one month, there have been two reports of deaths of workers engaged in manual scavenging, both from New Delhi, India’s capital city. Seven manual scavengers died due to the inhalation […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Alternate Law Forum (ALF), Bangalore, concerning the plight of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, particularly an Indian woman. Thousands of Indian migrant workers in the Middle East region suffer from deprivation of liberty and inhuman working conditions, and often do not have […]

This week Just Asia begins with Bangladesh, where police have arrested several persons involved in the rape and torture of a teenager, after pictures of the victim and her mother at hospital with shaved heads caused outrage. Tufan Sarkar, a unionist linked to the ruling Awami League party, has been charged with raping the 16-year-old at home on July […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly condemns yesterday’s late evening attack on Narmada Bachao Andolan’s peaceful sit-in and fast by the Madhya Pradesh state police. The police forcibly arrested Ms. Medha Patkar and 11 others and have detained them. The activists were protesting against Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to submerge the area violating the Supreme Court of […]

The darker side of Pakistan’s lawyers’ cartel has been exposed in the case of law student Khadija Siddiqui, who was stabbed 23 times by her class fellow, Shah Husain, the son of a senior Supreme Court lawyer. After this horrific attack, Khadija could not find a single lawyer to take up her case. Being the […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Love Commandos, a New-Delhi based volunteer organization dedicated to assisting couples who face familial or societal opposition to their marriages regarding the case of Uma Bharti and Ravi Kant Meena, who married of their own free will, and are now being violently separated […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding two Sikkimese women, employed as domestic workers, who are stranded in Saudi Arabia, They have made an emergency call to their family begging to be rescued, alleging that they are being tortured, their passports confiscated and that they are confined to a […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is horrified by the news of the rape of a 17-year-old on the orders of a jirga (tribal council). The girl from the Rajpur area of Multan, Punjab province, was raped to avenge the rape committed by her brother. When a jirga was convened and informed that Umer sexually […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from Nervazhi, our partner organization in Kerala, regarding the abusive behaviour of the police towards a woman who complained about sexual assault in Thrissur, Kerala. CASE NARRATIVE: The complainant S, (40), is a social worker who fights for issues related to women’s rights. […]

Dear Friends The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the gang rape of a young woman. The rape was recorded and she was blackmailed into marriage. The perpetrators have links to a trafficking gang operating under the patronage of the Gujrat city administration and police. The modus operandi of the gang […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the gang rape of a constable’s daughter by influential persons. The district police of Jacobabad, Sindh province, are trying to protect the perpetrators. They have tampered with evidence and are making it difficult for the victim’s family to seek justice. At the same […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. […]

On 17 February 2017, in Kerala, a criminal gang abducted and sexually assaulted an actress. The lady was travelling in a car, when a group of persons brought the car to a stop creating an accident, and forced themselves into the vehicle in which the lady was travelling. It is alleged that the men sexually […]

A video has recently surfaced in Pakistan, where a contingent of police officers can be seen baton charging a group of unarmed women mill workers protesting in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. The scuffle occurred inside the district court of Muzaffargarh in broad daylight, yet the judicial officer never took any action against the erring police officers, nor […]

by Avinash Pandey ‘Why do armed women cut off a particular organ of Indian soldiers engaged in combating armed insurgencies across India, be it Punjab, Kashmir, Arunachal, Assam, Bengal or Jharkhand?’ asked senior opposition leader Azam Khan. The insinuation was unmistakable, and it had a basis: armed Maoists had indeed chopped off private parts of Central Reserve […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received reliable information about a woman, Mrs. X, resident of Kebithigollewa Police Division in Anuradhapura District. She was sexually assaulted by a Police Sergeant attached to the Public Relations Unit of the Kebithigollewa Headquarters Police Station. This police officer allegedly entered the woman’s house without any legitimate […]

by Avinash Pandey ‘There are no stains on my government,’ said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the United States of America. This can only mean that the Prime Minister thinks the bloodstains of innocent Indians are not stains. In actual fact, no one can remember another time when so much blood was […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture The government of Pakistan has stated before the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT) that it does not intend to set-up legislation against torture and ill-treatment. On May 13, 2017 during the UN review, […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from its partner organization, MASUM in West Bengal regarding the abuse of Rohingya Muslims in Bengal. They have fled their homes in Burma to escape the violence and human rights abuses but have been arrested on charges of coming into India without documentation. […]