AHRC News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AS-080-2006  April 25, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) SRI LANKA: Civil society in Sri Lanka must learn lessons from the people’s movement in ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) joins hands with the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets of Nepal who have successfully defeated a coup started on February 1, 2005 by the ...

Under sustained international pressure, the government of Cambodia on April 21 decided to remove the custodial sentence of eight days to one year for defamation under article 63 of the 1992 criminal l...

Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) again appears to have lost interest in the case of abducted human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit. After local human rights defenders obta...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 25, 2006 AS-076-2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PHILIPPINES: UN General Assembly must reject the Philippines’ Human Rights Council bid On April ...

After years of unbearable horrors, the people of Nepal are once more in the streets as they were in 1990, demanding democracy and human rights. The recent offer by coup leader Gyanendra to allow for a...

Today, April 24, Thailand’s daily newspapers reported that members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy were attacked in the northeastern city of Udon Thani. According to the news, hundr...

The issues of the non appointment of the Constitutional Council (CC) members and the resultant collapse of all the relevant independent commissions remain unresolved despite unprecedented public prote...

Demonstrations totalling hundreds of thousands of Nepalese citizens have continued unabated since April 6th, 2006, defying curfews and shoot-to-kill orders given to the security forces. The movement t...

On April 12 an unusual story appeared in Burma’s state-run daily newspapers. It said that a man identified as Wai Phyo Naung killed himself in a police lock up in Mandalay after being arrested f...

The human rights, humanitarian and political crisis in Nepal has hit a new low and demands an immediate solution. On the eve of the third week of widespread, legitimate popular protests against the di...

The April 15 decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to commute to life imprisonment the sentences of all prisoners in the Philippines facing death is an important and valuable recognition of th...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) notes with grief the death of Professor T. V. Eachara Varier who passed away on 13 April 2006. Professor Varier has left the legacy of a consistent fight of a ...

Sri Lanka has presented its candidature for membership within the United Nations Human Rights Council. The 47-member Council replaces the now defunct UN Commission on Human Rights, which was abandoned...

The Sri Lankan president’s direct appointment of commissioners to the National Police Commission and Public Service Commission is a serious setback to the little constitutionalism remaining in t...

In its meeting with NGOs on April 6, 2006 to discuss the draft law on demonstrations, Cambodia’s ministry of interior announced a ban on any demonstration to protest against the prime minister. ...

In blatant violation of Sri Lanka’s constitution, President Mahinda Rajapakse took it upon himself to appoint members to the National Police Commission and the Public Service Commission. These a...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 10, 2006 AP-002-2006 A Paper by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) SRI LANKA: A commentary on the recent case of the prime minister’s fundamental rights violat...

We are bringing to your notice a news item that has appeared in several papers recently regarding a girl of 18 years who is said to be a victim of the tsunami tragedy and who, for the lack of any suit...

On March 28 Prime Minister Hun Sen repeated an earlier commitment to decriminalize defamation in Cambodia. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to doubt his promise. In 2005 the prime minister used C...