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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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INDIA: A Dalit youth brutally tortured whilst in police custody at the Njarackal Police Station

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | November 3, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture and inhuman and degrading treatment of a Dalit youth, called Sharavanan, by police officers attach...

INDIA: A suspicious death of a man whilst in the Thrissur Town West police custody in Kerala

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | November 1, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the custodial death of a man named Mr. Shibu at the Thrissur Town West Police Station in Kerala, India on 12 O...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Human Rights Commission of Sri Lnaka decided to transfer the Kandy coordinator

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | November 1, 2004

Torture of 17-year-old boy on 11 August 2003; UP-31-2003: Update on torture of 17-year-old boy, Chamila Bandara, by Ankumbura police on 20 August 2003; UP-38-2003: The security of the torture victim a...

PAKISTAN: A group of human rights defenders charged with sedition in Shikarpur

Urgent Appeal Case | Pakistan | | October 31, 2004

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding approximately 50 civil activists who were charged with sedition against the State by the police after they hel...

UPDATE (Thailand): A list of the victims of the mass killing in Narathiwat province; Immediate international intervention needed

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | October 27, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is sending you a list of the names of the victims of the tragic incident in Narathiwat province, southern Thailand, of this October 25, 2004 that...

THAILAND: At least 84 people killed in Southern Thailand

Urgent Appeal Case | Thailand | | October 25, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that at least 84 people died and more than 20 others were injured on 25 October 2004, when the Thai government security ...

SRI LANKA: A man tortured and prosecuted on an alleged false charges by the Hasalaka Police station

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | October 25, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man named Kadawatha Gedara Dharmasiri (32) was tortured and prosecuted on an alleged false charge by Police Offic...

UPDATE (Thailand): Update on libel suit against media-reform activist Ms Supinya

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | October 20, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission provides you the updated information below regarding the libel case filed by media conglomerate Shin Corp against a media-reform activist Ms Supinya Kla...

UPDATE (Nepal): New ways to legitimize massive disappearance, enforcement of draconian law — TADO

Urgent Appeal Update | Nepal | | October 20, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that in Nepal the situation is under extreme conditions where loss of life is the rule of the day. A large number of cas...

UPDATE (Thailand): Justice Minister responds over case of disappeared lawyer

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | October 19, 2004

Dear friends, In response to the previous update on the case of disappeared human rights lawyer Mr Somchai Neelaphaijit, the Thai Minister of Justice, Mr Pongthep Thepkanchana, has defended himself an...

SRI LANKA: A man arbitrarily assaulted by the SI of the Horana Police Station without any reason

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | October 18, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 42-year-old man named Rathnasiri Senadheera was arbitrarily assaulted by the sub inspector (SI) of the Horana Pol...

UPDATE (Burma): Victims in criminal defamation case jailed; ILO says trying to resolve matter

Urgent Appeal Update | Burma (Myanmar) | | October 18, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to inform you that the International Labor Organization (ILO) has expressed its concern regarding the imprisonment of two Burmese men ...

SRI LANKA: State police serving criminals and organized criminal gangs and NOT the people

Urgent Appeal Case | Sri Lanka | | October 17, 2004

Dear friends It has come to the attention of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that the officers at Ja Ella police station Sri Lanka and their immediate superiors have failed to take any tangib...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Arrest of the family of a man who was allegedly killed by police torture

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | October 14, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the wife and daughter-in-law of Dehiwatte Gedera Jayathilaka, who was allegedly killed by police torture at the Mah...

Nepal: Massive disappearances / impunity

Urgent Appeal Case | Nepal | | October 13, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that in Nepal the situation is under extreme conditions where loss of life is the rule of the day. A large number of cas...

UPDATE (Thailand): Inaction by Thai authorities in investigating the disappearance of Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit

Urgent Appeal Update | Thailand | | October 13, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by the delay in investigating the disappearance of a prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit, who has been m...

MALDIVES: A political activist in solitary confinement after being arbitrarily arrested

Urgent Appeal Case | | October 12, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that political activist Mohamed Yoosuf was illegally arrested by the police in Maldives on 13 August 2004. Mr. Mohamed Y...

INDIA: Custodial death / suicide in West Bengal

Urgent Appeal Case | India | | October 12, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM in West Bengal that a person named Mr. Raja Mondal was allegedly arrested on 11 September 2004 and detained b...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Case of Chamila Bandara; the issue of the Kandy Coordinator and the rights of the people in Kandy for human rights protection

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | October 12, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) refers you back to the case of Chamila Bandara, a young boy who suffered from serious injuries due to being hung and beaten at the Ankumbura Poli...

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): National Police Commission takes actin against a perpetrator of torture

Urgent Appeal Update | Sri Lanka | | October 11, 2004

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received a letter of response from the National Police Commission (NPC) of Sri Lanka regarding the case of Channa Prasanka Fernando. In the ...

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