Statement

The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad this August 19 is a profound tragedy for the entire world community. Its immediate victims included Iraqi civilians and United Nations staff, among them the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq, Mr Sergio Vieira de […]

Two months after the brutal attack on the National League for Democracy convoy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo at Depayin, northern Burma, both leaders remain under detention, while arrests and disappearances continue. To date, the actual number of victims killed or injured, captured or missing remains a mystery to […]

On July 21 about one hundred police and security personnel demolished houses and destroyed crops belonging to indigenous Adivasi people in Maharashtra, India. They burnt down hundreds of huts and more than a thousand acres of crops. About two hundred families now have no homes, no food, no livelihood and no place to go. ‘There […]

Sunil Hemechanra was arrested on the night of 23 July by the Morahahena police and his family alleged that when they visited him the next morning he was unconscious and bleeding from the nose. After some intervention he was taken to a hospital, where he was immediately taken for surgery. He died the morning of […]

We bring to your attention the case of Sunil Hemachandra, a 28-year-old rubber taper who recently won a lottery but who thereafter died in the General Hospital in Colombo on July 26 from injuries received at the Moragahahena police station. The relatives allege that in the days preceding his arrest he had been approached and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea (ROK),  Ms. Kang, Kum-sil, has given a guideline to the prison officers to prohibit consecutive solitary confinement in prisons in June 2003 after a inmate who was in solitary confinement at Andong Prison committed suicide in May […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) renews its earlier demand to the administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to drop its proposed national security laws to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-Constitution. The protest march yesterday was a clear message that […]

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners  must end immediately Prisoner kept in handcuffs and in a straitjacket for 466 days  in violation of ROK’s international obligations 27 June 2003 AS-22-2003 A Statement By the Asian Human Rights Commission – AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that JEONG Phil-ho has […]

The ongoing military operation by the Indonesian government against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) raises great concern. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received increasing number of reliable reports that about 200 persons have been killed and almost 40,000 civilians been displaced since military operations which began on 19 May 2003 intended to wipe […]

An Approach Different to The Organized Crimes Bill   10 June 2003 AS-20-2003   A Statement By the Asian Human Rights Commission – AHRC A Special Operation Unit (SOU), established under the instruction of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to bust organised crimes, commenced its service officially last week. The SOU comprises 30 members […]

The military rulers of Burma have in this past week again shown that their pretensions to human rights and political change are utterly fraudulent. The Asian Human Rights Commission has received with concern increasingly reliable reports that at least 70 persons were killed in the attacks on members and supporters of the National League for […]

Thailand’s dangerous slide into barbarism The six migrant workers murdered in Thailand this week were the victims of a monster that threatens to consume an entire society and its democracy. The monster was let loose by the current government when in February it launched a “war on drugs” and granted the police a licence to […]

In November 2000 the Government of India set up the Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System, purportedly to fairly assess and propose changes to the way criminal trials are conducted in India. This April, the true objectives of the Committee have been revealed. A summary of its 158 recommendations shows that despite its […]

Due to harassment by militia gangs and political elites connected to the Soeharto military rule, Indonesia’s first preliminary investigations into the 1965-66 Massacre and the 1998 May Riot by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) are both in danger of being shelved.  The Commission was given a limited six-month timeframe to complete these inquiries.  […]

The right to life is at the centre of all human rights, and all efforts of the community should be geared toward its protection and promotion. All medical, nutritional, environmental, educational and legal services of the community should promote and uphold this sublime right to life. The people in the medical profession, particularly those that […]

A Comment by the Asian Human Rights Commission – AHRC The killing of the Hamer family in Dehiwela in Sri Lanka has added to the list of horrible crimes that are taking place in the country on almost a daily basis. The murder of the 79-year-old father, 35-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter took place in […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission Since 2000, the Kwangju Human Rights Award is presented yearly in honor of the 1980 Kwangju Uprising, where the Kwangju people fought against the military take over of their country and 240 Kwangju citizens were martyred for the cause.  The award  ris presented to a person who […]

Burma is a fertile country with abundant resources. In years gone by it was said that nobody ever starves in Burma. This has long ceased to be the case. Empirical evidence suggests that every day millions of people there go hungry, hundreds of thousands are seriously malnourished, and that some are indeed starving. This May, […]

——————–The justice system of Sri Lanka: What a damn mess—————— A Bill entitled Prevention of Organized Crime was gazetted on 24 January 2003. There was hardly any publicity to the Bill and thus there was no public debate on the matter. The speaker presented it to the Supreme Court for opinion on constitutionality and two […]

Ambedkar’s Anniversary 2003 The work of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been very much influenced by the work of B. R. Ambedkar, who in recent history was the undisputed leader of the Dalits (formally called Untouchables) and perhaps the most far-reaching thinker about democratisation in South Asia. It is the latter aspect upon […]