Urgent Appeal Update

NEPAL: Prolonged unabated harassment of a policeman torture victim for nine years require legal redress

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to share with you the latest developments in Hom Bahadur Bagale’s case. This former police officer was initially tortured and illegally detained in 2002. His only reward for attempting to find legal redress has been dismissal from his job, further torture, arbitrary arrest, continuous threats and […]

SRI LANKA: Young Tamil complainant in a bribery case is in fear of assassination

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that Mr. Davarathnam Yogendra, a complainant of the bribery case No. 50600/01 in the Chief Magistrate’s Court of Colombo has been instructed to provide photographs of himself in order to continue his bail conditions to the Hatton Police Station (Please see our original […]

THAILAND: Threats to family follow continued denial of justice in Somchai Neelaphaijit case

Dear friends, The thwarting of justice continues in the case of disappeared human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit. Having postponed reading of the verdict in the appeal case concerning the conviction of one policeman from last year, the criminal court has again ordered a further postponement on technical grounds. Meanwhile, the family of the victim is […]

INDIA: Human rights defenders continue to face threats in Varanasi

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information concerning the case of human rights defenders working with Guria receiving threats for their work against human trafficking. Guria is a human rights organisation working against child prostitution and human trafficking in Varanasi city of Uttar Pradesh state. This is not the first […]

NEPAL: Impunity for those who allegedly tortured three detainees

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the torture case of Gyan Bahadur Balami (Gyanu), Hermin Ratu Lama and Makar Bahadur Gharti Magar (Iman) at the hands of a police team from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division in Kathmandu. Following their arrest under allegations of theft and drug smuggling […]

PHILIPPINES: Ombudsman pledges to resolve Abadilla Five’s torture complaint in a week

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that Merceditas Gutierrez, head of the Office of the Ombudsman, has pledged to resolve the complaint of torture of the Abadilla Five that has been pending in their office since January 2003 “in a week”.  UPDATED INFORMATION:  On January 3, 2011, the family members […]

BURMA: Human rights defender allegedly poisoned in cell

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about threats to the security and worsening health in prison of Ma Sandar, a human rights defender who was imprisoned on fabricated charges after an argument with doctors. According to the latest information about her case, Ma Sandar has been sent to a remote prison […]

NEPAL: Torture victims face further death threats and ill-treatment and are not provided with medical treatment

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the case of police torture of Gyan Bahadur Balami (Gyanu) and Makar Bahadur Gharti Magar (Iman) and of the police torture and sexual abuse of Hermin Ratu Lama following their arrest under charges of drug smuggling and robbery on 31 October and […]

SOUTH KOREA: Prosecutors pleads four to five years imprisonment for two prominent human rights defenders

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that prosecutors have pleaded with the court to imposed four to five years of imprisonment on two human rights activists for organising an assembly. The assembly was to commemorate those who lost their family members in the January 20, 2009 Yongsan incident where five protestors and […]

BURMA: Ailing human rights defender transferred to another prison

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by the transfer of Ma Sandar, an ailing human rights defender convicted on fabricated charges, to another prison without the knowledge of her family. Her family has lost contact with her and do not know where she is presently being held. UPDATED INFORMATION: We […]

PHILIPPINES: Release of financial assistance to torture victim recommended

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Cotabato City, has recommended the release of “immediate financial assistance” to a torture victim whose complaint of torture they had investigated. The CHR investigators also affirmed the accounts of torture the victim […]

REISSUING UPDATE (World): Rizana Nafeek death sentence–concerns being expressed in Sri Lanka

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have been informed of the concerns being expressed within Sri Lanka and outside on the issue of death sentence on Razina Nafeek. His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka made a special appeal to His Royal Highness the King of Saudi Arabia for granting of pardon to […]

UPDATE (Saudi Arabia/Sri Lanka): Death sentence on Rizana Nafeek confirmed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) draws your attention to the appeal made in 2007 into the case of Rizana Nafeek, who went to Saudi Arabia as a maid when she was 17 years old and who was sentenced to death by a Saudi court on the allegation that she had killed an […]

NEPAL: Still no relief for the school teacher dismissed for defending the rights of her Dalit students

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)  regrets to inform you that Ms. Pushpa Karki, a teacher who was fired in 2008 after having spoken against discriminatory practices which persisted in her school, has still not received any justice. For sixteen months, she has not received any relief or help. The persistence of caste-based […]

PHILIPPINES: Torture victim’s mother talks about her first meeting with him in detention

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is sharing with you the interview conducted with the mother of one of the five men we reported to have been tortured and continuously held in detention over questionable charges. The victim’s mother described in tears the visible torture injuries she had seen of her son and […]

PHILIPPINES: Human rights defender speaks about the threat on his life in an interview

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to share with you the interview it has conducted with Bernardino Patigas, one of the two human rights defenders whom we earlier reported to have been receiving threats on his life. In this interview, Patigas explained the nature of his human rights work which he […]

PHILIPPINES: Abadilla Five to appeal Supreme Court’s affirmation of guilty verdict

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the guilty verdict on the Abadilla Five. The SC affirmed the earlier decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) which imposed a penalty of life imprisonment on them. The accused will be filing a Motion […]

UPDATE (Pakistan): A teacher is warned that Christians have no future in the country by school principal and chief security guard of a housing project

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the systematic discrimination faced by a Christian teacher in Lahore. She has now been threatened by the principal of the school and the chief security guard of the housing scheme which runs the school (For further details, please see our original appeal: AHRC-UAC-113-2010). […]

UPDATE (Bangladesh): Police manipulate investigation of custodial murder

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the custodial death of Mr. Mizanur Rahman, who was extrajudicially killed by the Gulshan Police in Dhaka after having been kept in arbitrary detention for two days (For further details, please see our original appeal here: AHRC-UAC-107-2010). The AHRC has received the statement […]

UPDATE (Nepal): Allegations of torture to death of a minor in Rupendehi District must be independently investigated

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the custodial death of 16-year-old Dharmendra Barai on 4 July, which is suspected to have been caused by police torture. An investigation team set up by the District Administration Office has concluded that they could not establish that torture was the cause […]