AHRC News

After Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), or  Philippine Independent Church, was killed on October 3, police investigators were quick to declare his death as a case of...

The Asian Human Rights Commission yesterday (October 9, 2006) wrote to Ms. Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights and Ms. Hanna Roberts, Chairperson, International Executive Committee, Amne...

In A Short History of Thailand, David Wyatt describes how after Field Marshal Phibun Songkhram retook power from an elected government in 1948 he set about retaining “the facade of constitutiona...

The tenure of office of Chandra Fernando as the IGP ended last week.  Throughout his tenure the Asian Human Rights Commission has pointed out the failure of leadership on his part to lift up the poli...

In a September 26 address at a conference on national human rights institutions, the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, said that he supported the creation of a national human rights committee for t...

A few years ago, some senior United Nations staff in Cambodia met with a government minister to discuss the state of the country’s courts. They expressed concern about their lack of independence...

The Indonesia Supreme Court quashed a judgment by the Court of Appeal which affirmed the 14 year jail sentence pronounced by the Central Jakarta District Court last December against Pollycarpus Budiha...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-236-2006 October 5, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission BANGLADESH: What is really needed to maintain law & order The Daily Janakantha newspaper on Oct...

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to bring to the notice of the international donors that no progress of any sort can be made in any area of life in Cambodia until the country’s governmen...

A prominent critic of the wave of extrajudicial killings that have swept the Philippines under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has himself become a victim of these killings. Bi...

The Asian Human Rights Commission is concerned about the negative response of the Sri Lankan government to international requests for the establishment of an independent international human rights mon...

When General Sonthi Boonyaratglin led the armed forces of Thailand to overthrow the caretaker government of Pol. Lt. Col. Thaksin Shinawatra on September 19, the military indicated that it would withd...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-231-2006 October 4, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Only the practice of telling the truth can bring back respect for Sri Lanka’s inte...

Civil society organizations in Sri Lanka made a great advance during the last week when they were able to identify a group of persons who are allegedly involved in the abductions in Colombo.  On the ...

There has been a lot of misunderstanding about the September 19 coup in Thailand. Many foreign correspondents, tourist bloggers and other casual observers have written that the local market is still b...

(The state’s failure to implement the views and recommendations of the Human Rights Committee on individual complaints, and the failure to implement the Human Rights Committee’s and the CA...

On September 27 the Bangkok Post newspaper published an article pointing to the likely shape of Thailand’s new draft interim constitution in the wake of the September 19 military coup. The inter...

It was reported in the Sri Lankan press (Daily Mirror September 27, 2006 – Sri Lanka signs convention on transnational crime and child abuse) that Sri Lanka has recently ratified the Transnation...

At the beginning of this year there were hopes for more freedom of expression and the improvement of democracy in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen had dropped his defamation lawsuits against human act...

On September 21 the Royal Thai Consulate General in Hong Kong wrote to the Asian Human Rights Commission. In the letter, the consul general said that despite the September 19 military coup “the ...