Press Release

Manila, December 3, 2008 — A Filipino priest, known in the Philippines as the “running priest”, held a solo protest inside the Philippine Congress in Quezon City on December 2 calling upon legislators to consider as a priority, the extension of the land reform law. Before he resumed his daily 15-kilometre run together with farmers, […]

(Manila, December 2, 2008) To expose the government’s failure to make good on its promises of land distribution, farmers from the Arroyo lands in Negros Occidental and others commenced ten days of running on Monday. A few others also began an indefinite hunger strike. After completing a six-kilometre run from inside Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, […]

BURMA: Transfers to remote jails are “death sentences”: AHRC (Hong Kong, November 19, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Wednesday condemned the sending of wrongly convicted detainees from the September 2007 protests to jails in all corners of Burma, describing the transfers as “death sentences”. According to reports coming from numerous sources, persons […]

(Hong Kong, November 7, 2008) A man who is under arrest at one of the police stations in Bangladesh was posed with a riddle by the Officer-in-Charge of the station. Here is the riddle: When arresting officers bring you, meaning the arrested person, to the police station our superior officers expect that we will collect […]

(Hong Kong, October 13, 2008) We reproduce below the resolution passed unanimously at a general meeting of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which met on the 11th October. This general meeting was held due to a call made through a petition by over 350 lawyers calling for an urgent general meeting to discuss the […]

(Hong Kong, October 9, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today is urging the government of the Philippines to cause an investigation into the involuntary return of a domestic worker after she complained of being paid a lower salary than that stated in her contract. Thirty-seven year old Maria Mencel Arancanon, a native of […]

(Hong Kong, October 7, 2008) We reproduce below a letter written by a senior lawyer, R.K.W. Goonersekere, who was a member of the delegation of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka that met the Executive President on October 3, 2008, to discuss the grenade attack on the house of Mr. J.C. Weliamuna, a reputed lawyer […]

(Hong Kong, September 28, 2008) Last night at 11:40 pm in Colombo, Sri Lanka a grenade was thrown inside the house of the leading lawyer J.C. Weliamuna, who is the Executive Director of Transparency International in Sri Lanka, and a well- known human rights lawyer. Severe damage was caused to a part of the upper […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission and its sister-organisation have nominated prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights defender, Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, for the prestigious 2008 United Nations Human Rights Prize. Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan is the President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association as well as being a leader in the ongoing Lawyers’ Movement in the country. […]

(Hong Kong, August 8, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today reiterates its concerns, which are also shared by the group of lawyers in Mindanao, of an urgent need for authorities to have cases involving the “vigilante killings” effectively investigated so as to hold the perpetrators to account. In their two-page joint statement, the […]

Hong Kong: August 5, 2008 We are pleased that Prof. Wijesinhe, the Secretary-General of the Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process, has apologised for his statement dated 5th August, ‘Further Generalizations from the Asian Human Rights Commission,’ attributing to the AHRC a report that we did not publish and, in which he made several accusations […]

A Press Release from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) SRI LANKA: A further false report from the ‘Peace Secretariat’ We call upon all those who have received the aforementioned statement by Professor Rajiva Wijesinha of the Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process under the title ‘Further Generalizations from the Asian Human Rights Commission’ to […]

(Hong Kong, July 28, 2008) All the respondents from interviews conducted by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) agreed that the delays in the trial of the Abadilla Five case highlighted the endemic problem in the country’s justice system. A feature that breeds conditions that allows for instances of extrajudicial killings and endorses inequality before […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission today wrote to the UN Special Rapporteur against Torture regarding a case of torture and illegal dentetion for seven days at the Moratuwa Police Station which also filed a charge under illegal possession of drugs to take revenge on the toture victim who made a complaint to the higher police […]

(Hong Kong, July 25, 2008)  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) supports a petition seeking the suspension of a levy, not only for new but for existing contracts of Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs), to avert threats to their job security. On July 17, the Hong Kong Labour Department announced it would seek an amendment so […]

(Hong Kong, July 23, 2007) On March 11, 2008 Shanthigara Suresh Kumar of 21 A, Kandy Road, Balagolla, a teacher at Trinity College Kandy was illegally arrested and detained. Mr. Shanthigara has complained of being severely tortured and implicated in fabricated charges. Mr. Shanthigara was the master in charge of hockey for the primary school […]

(Hong Kong, July 21, 2008) Endemic delays in criminal trials are hastening the collapse of Delhi’s criminal justice system, a new report has found. The 80-page report, “Judicial delays to criminal trials in Delhi”, has been published by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) to emphasise how India’s legal system is failing to cope with […]

(Hong Kong, July 2, 2008) Random interviews conducted by a researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have revealed that the plight of the Abadilla Five is a shared experience and common knowledge amongst respondents. These random interviews, which began in early June, highlights the endemic problem in the administration of justice in the […]

(Hong Kong, June 27, 2008) Several human rights organisations held meetings and other activities to highlight the problem of torture and the sufferings of the torture victims in several locations in Sri Lanka. Janasansadaya held a street protest and meeting to mark the occasion, while Right to Life and Homes for Victims of Torture also […]

(Hong Kong, June 23, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today wrote to the Sri Lankan authorities to provide protection to a family facing death threats to force them to withdraw their petition to the Supreme Court. The husband, wife and their two children are the petitioners in a fundamental rights case (No. FR […]