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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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UPDATE (India): Calcutta high court instruct the West Bengal government to inquire into custodial death of a young man

Urgent Appeal Update | India | | February 2, 2005

INDIA: Calcutta high court instruct the West Bengal government to inquire into custodial death of a young man Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission wants to share an update with you regardin...

UPDATE (Thailand): Updated information on the torture of the four men by the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya police

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | February 2, 2005

[RE: UP-04-2005: THAILAND: Repeated torture at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Police Station; UA-170-2004: Anther case of torture to obtain confession at Ayutthaya Police Station, UP-75-2004: Demand immedia...

INDIA: Youth killed by firing by Border Security Force (BSF) in the South Dinajpur district, West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | February 1, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, that Rabin Hansda, a 34 year-old mentally ill man, was killed by...

SRI LANKA: A torture of a police constable by the Bandaragama police

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

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a disabled police constable was brutally tortured by the Bandaragama police after being illegally arrested on 17 Ja...

INDIA: Eight people arbitrarily re-arrested and tortured by the Newasa police despite the court’s release orders

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 27, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two men named Rajendra (Raju) Kale and Anna Lashkare, along with six other persons, were inhumanely tortured on 7 N...

INDIA: Young man committed suicide after the police torture in West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 27, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, that a young man named Kartik Ghosh committed suicide after bein...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Further torture and harassment of a complainant by the Katugastota police

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | January 26, 2005

[RE: UA-03-2004: A man who gave up illicit liquor sale was tortured by police from the Katugastota Police Station on 12 January 2004 and UP-72-2004: A torture victim has received threats by Katugastot...

INDIA: Army soldiers murdered five civilians by pushing them out of a train

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 25, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, that five persons were killed and another seriously injured in U...

INDIA: Extreme abuse of power by the Central Reserved Police Force in Manipur

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 24, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Centre for Organisation Research and Education (CORE), a human rights organisation in Manipur, India, about the...

UPDATE (Burma): Photographs of destroyed houses and internally displaced persons in Papun Township, Karen state

Urgent Appeal Update | Burma (Myanmar) | | January 20, 2005

[Re: HA-08-2004: BURMA: Several thousand villagers fled from army attacks in Papun Township, Karen state on 29 December 2004] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has recently receiv...

NEPAL : Threat to re-arrest a man for the second time following his release on Supreme Court orders

Urgent Appeal Case | Nepal | | January 18, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by new information received by Asia Forum, a local human rights organisation, of the attempted second re-arrest of a person ...

SRI LANKA: A man severely injured by a criminal with the collaboration of the Panadura police

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | January 18, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man named Mr. Tharuka Fernando has been severely injured by a criminal who has a nexus with the Panuadura police ...

THAILAND: Discriminatory relief operations and forced deportation against Burmese migrant workers affected by the tsunami

Urgent Appeal Case | Thailand | | January 18, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is extremely concerned about the discriminatory relief operations against Burmese migrant workers affected by the tsunami by the Thai authorities...

NEPAL: Extra-judicial killings of four Maoists by Nepalese Security Forces

Urgent Appeal Case | Nepal | | January 16, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that four men, namely Laxaman Pun, Prithvi Gautam B.K. (also known as Suraj), Sher Bahadur Budha (also known as Dinesh) ...

INDIA: Police inaction on the rape and murder of a woman by a doctor in Maldah District, West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 16, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organization in West Bengal, that a woman named Mrs. Gedulal Mondal, was raped and then kille...

INDIA: Handicapped torture and rape victim waits ten years for justice

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | January 13, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal, that torture and rape victim Hasna Mondal from East Daukimari, D...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Updated list of items to deal with the aftermath of the tsunami announced by the Ministry of Health Care

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | January 12, 2005

[Re: UA-180-2004: SRI LANKA: Ministry of Health announces list of medical items required to deal with tsunami aftermath; and UP-02-2005: SRI LANKA:  List of items urgently required in Kalutara, Matar...

SRI LANKA: Police Sergeant requests victim to pay his grocery bill in exchange for driver’s licence

Urgent Appeal Case | | January 11, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding bribery and corruption by police personnel from the Mahiyangana Police Station in Sri Lanka. On 18 December 20...

UPDATE (Thailand): Repeated torture at Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Police Station

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | January 11, 2005

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Pol. Lt-Col. Suebsak, who was involved in two other brutal torture cases that the AHRC had reported on (Reference:...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Mt. Lavinia police’s apparent inaction to arrest/prosecute those responsible for the death of a torture victim, Mr. M. Ranson Peiris

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | January 9, 2005

Dear friends, The AHRC has received information that Mt. Lavinia police, who is in charge of the investigation into the death of Mr. M. Ranson Peiris is purposely evading being present at the non-su...

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