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Urgent Appeals

Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries. Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings. Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere. People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person. And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm. There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances. Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly. In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate. Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle. In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates. For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.
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SRI LANKA: Need for inquiry into police and inquiring officers conduct in investigating a torture victim’s complaint

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | April 14, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding misconduct displayed by a police official and an officer of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) during...

SRI LANKA: Torture of a man by the Wattegama police

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | April 13, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the illegal arrest and torture of Vidana Arachchige Norman Krishantha Jayawardana (43), the assistant regional manager of Ma...

PAKISTAN: Persons kill their 30-year-old cousin and a visiting relative on the pretext of honor killing

Urgent Appeal Case | Pakistan | | April 13, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by yet another honor killing case from Shikarpur District, Sindh Province, Pakistan. According to the information we receive...

UPDATE (India): District Magistrate was directed by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission to inquire into the police attack on a human rights defender

Urgent Appeal Update | India | | April 12, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, regarding the case of Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights d...

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Questions remain in Sri Lanka’s willingness to save three of its citizens

Urgent Appeal Update | Saudi Arabia | | April 11, 2005

[RE: UP-39-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia; UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his inte...

SRI LANKA: A father of three assaulted and killed by the Panadura police

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | April 11, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the death of Nallawarige Sandasirilal Fernando, a 36-year-old man who died of serious head injuries after he was assa...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): A torture victim’s life is in danger due to threats by the torture perpetrators

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | April 10, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission urgently requests your intervention to provide special protection to torture victim, Mr. Nimal Silva Gunaratne! Mr. Gunaratne was arrested by the Panadu...

INDIA: Police attack on human rights defender and his family in Murshidabad, West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | April 10, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, regarding a police attack on a human rights defender, Mr Gopen S...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Frightened torture victim refused to give evidence because of police threats

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | April 7, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a torture victim, R. Don Nawaratne Bandara, refused to give his statement in the Panadura Magistrate Court fearing ...

UPDATE (Philippines): Several protesters, including four priest, beaten by police during a peaceful demonstration in Malate Church, Manila

Urgent Appeal Update | Philippines | | April 7, 2005

[RE: UP-29-2005: PHILIPPINES: Two more leaders from the Bayan Muna party are killed in Baguio and Tacloban City, UA-34-2005: Killing of a labor rights activist for the Hacienda Luisita farm workers in...

NEPAL: Illegal detention of a pregnant woman by Nepali security forces

Urgent Appeal Case | | April 6, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to draw your attention to a particularly disturbing case involving a Mrs Nisha Neupane from Prithvi Nagar, Chitwan, who was arrested by Se...

UPDATE (Saudi Arabia/Sri Lanka): Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia

Urgent Appeal Update | Saudi Arabia | | April 6, 2005

[RE: UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans; UP-34-2005: Death sentence for t...

SRI LANKA: Threats against union leaders of G.P. Garments (Pvt) Ltd by the factory management and the police

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | April 5, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the chief organiser of the branch of the Progressive Union in G.P. Garments (Pvt) Ltd in the Export Processing Zone...

SRI LANKA: Assault of a police constable by several other police personnel

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | April 5, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received disturbing information regarding the assault of a police constable by several other personnel at a police post in Andiyagala on 3 Fe...

INDIA: A detainee died due to lack of medical assistance in Maldah District Jail, West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | April 5, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, about the death of an Under Trial Prisoner (UTP) due to lack of ...

INDIA: Police’s deliberate inaction in a murder case despite court directives

Urgent Appeal Case | Indonesia | | April 3, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, about the complete disregard for a court orders by the Beldanga ...

UPDATE (Saudi Arabia/Sri Lanka): Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans

Urgent Appeal Update | | April 3, 2005

[RE: UA-49-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Death sentence to migrant workers requires urgent intervention by the Sri Lankan government; UP-34-2005: Death sentence for three migrant workers requires ur...

UPDATE (Thailand): Paltry compensation for victims of Narathiwat killings, and still no prosecutions

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | March 31, 2005

[Re: UA-143-2004: THAILAND: At least 84 people killed in Southern Thailand on 26 October 2004; UP-65-2004: THAILAND: A list of the victims of the mass killing in Narathiwat province; Immediate interna...

SRI LANKA: Hotel owner and cashier assaulted by five police officers for asking payment for food that the police had taken

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | March 31, 2005

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a reliable source regarding the assault and illegal detention of a hotel owner and cashier by five police officers....

INDIA: Assault of adivasi (tribal) person and general denial of rights to adivasi community by the upper caste of Nandav village, Gujarat

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | March 30, 2005

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a reliable source regarding the assault and abuse of two adivasis by the upper caste of Nandav village, Gujarat, In...

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