Freedom of religion

PAKISTAN: Muslim leaders who issued decree to kill a Christian woman should be prosecuted

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission received information that Muslim fundamentalist and extremist groups have advocated publicly that a Christian lady, Aasia Bibi, sentenced to death under the blasphemy laws should not be pardoned. Some have offered a cash reward for Aasia’s assassination. Since the introduction of 295-C to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) […]

PAKISTAN: The Christian community in Karachi needs immediate protection from imminent attacks by extremists

Around a dozen Christian youths were arrested and tortured and their houses searched by their Muslim neighbours in the presence of police officers to arrest a young Christian man, Zohaib alias Noami, (20), the son of Pervez Rahi, who was in love with a Muslim girl, Anum, (18), the daughter of Muhammad Abid. Noami and […]

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). […]

PAKISTAN: Two more Ahmadis murdered in target killings

Two more Ahmadis, Dr. Najam al-Hasan and Pir Habib al-Rehman have been murdered in religiously motivated killings. Once again, no one has been arrested and the likelihood of anyone being prosecuted is virtually nil. Dr. al-Hasan was leaving his clinic in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, and had just entered his car when he […]

PAKISTAN: Christians observe black day

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from Pakistan Christian Post. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from Pakistan Christian Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission PAKISTAN: Christians observe black day Karachi: August 12, 2010. (PCP) 20 million Pakistani Christians and Pakistani Christian Diaspora in Europe […]

SRI LANKA: An Appeal to the women’s movement against inhuman treatment of a young woman on religious grounds

This is a narrative of the husband of the victim, a 17 year old woman with a two month old child, who was subjected to the horrible experience of being beaten about 100 times with the hard centre stem from a coconut frond in the presence of the committee members of the mosque situated in […]

PAKISTAN: A Christian teacher faces systematic discrimination at work and is dismissed without valid ground or lawful compensation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the systematic discrimination faced by a Christian teacher in Lahore. After being repeatedly abused allegedly by her principal, she was dismissed without valid ground or lawful compensation. Her case is another example of the discriminatory treatment that members of religious minorities – and […]

PAKISTAN: The tragedy continues — the killing of more than eighty Ahmadis by Muslim extremists

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has repeatedly drawn the attention of the world’s community to the blatant abuse of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan. This ongoing abuse is neither investigated properly nor remedied by the government who are effectively depriving them of their fundamental freedoms and Human Rights. The Ahmadi Muslims do not have the […]

PAKISTAN: A young Hindu girl is detained and forcibly converted by a Madrassa; police refuse to act

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police and officials are refusing to respond to the abduction of a fifteen-year-old Hindu girl by a neighbour in December last year. Her parents found her captive in a Muslim seminary and were told that she was married and had converted to Islam. The […]

PAKISTAN: A Hindu girl has been abducted by a landlord and forcibly converted to Islam; the authorities have refused to intervene

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the abduction of a 15-year-old Hindu girl in October last year. Police and state officials refused to look into the case. After the victim was found in captivity with her parents’ employer – a local landlord – they were told that she had […]

PAKISTAN: Three more Ahmadis murdered in target killings. No arrests have yet been made

Three more Ahmadis, including two brothers, were killed for their religious belief in target killings by unknown persons in Faisalabad city, a province of Punjab. This year so far, five Ahmadis have been killed whereas in the year 2009 eleven Ahmadis were murdered in target killings. Police have yet to investigate the incidents of killings. […]

INDONESIA: CAVEAT Vol. 9 released — Freedom of Religion, Book Banning and Rights in Asia

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you about the release of vol.9 of CAVEAT, a periodical about human rights in Indonesia published by the Indonesian Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat). This month’s edition includes a regional page Rights in Asia from the AHRC. The publication can be downloaded here. More editions are available […]

MALAYSIA: Stop Unacceptable Religious Violence Immediately. No ISA!

Dear friends, We wish to share two related press statements with you from Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) and Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI). The Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- Two statements from SUARAM and Gerakan Mansuhkan forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission MALAYSIA: Stop Unacceptable Religious Violence Immediately! Press Statement 8 January 2010 […]

BANGLADESH: Police allow three women to be beaten by a mob during a land dispute

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police officers allowed a lawyer, her mother and domestic helper to be beaten by a group armed with sticks. The women and their family are being harassed by their neigbours over a land dispute, and a judge has already ruled for the status quo […]

PAKISTAN: Witnesses killed within prison walls: a Christian boy is accused of blasphemy and murdered — Asian Human Rights Commission

The criminal nexus between Pakistan’s government administration, police and Muslim fundamentalist organizations has once again brought to the limelight in the extra-judicial torture and killing of a Christian boy following a hate campaign against Christians in Jethki village, Sialkot district, Punjab province on September 11. Please refer to our previous AHRC statement: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2224/. The killing of […]

UPDATED APPEAL (Pakistan): The family of a human rights lawyer and fatwa target is attacked; police continue to refuse protection

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has heard that the violent campaign waged by Muslim radicals against a human rights lawyer who defends minorities has intensified in Faisalabad.  It would also like to make an amendment to previously issued information, to note that while the Daily Pavel printed a fatwa that named advocate Rao […]

PAKISTAN: Police illegally arrest and continue to detain a shopkeeper cleared of blasphemy

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a young Christian grocer has been wrongly arrested under the blasphemy law after another shopkeeper advised him to burn some old papers, then reported him for burning the Quran. The blasphemy law is regularly misused by people with vendettas against minority persons and police […]

PAKISTAN: Government that surrenders to the militants destroys the writ of the state

The government of Pakistan has entered into an unconstitutional agreement with the Islamic militants operating in the country to implement an Islamic code of practice, the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (NAR), through a resolution passed in the national assembly on April 14, 2009. The President signed the resolution immediately. The resolution, passed without any debate in the […]

PAKISTAN: Two persons murdered after an anchor person proposed the widespread lynching of Ahmadi sect followers

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an anchor person working for a prominent television channel has incited Muslims in Pakistan to kill – to devastating effect. The targets are followers of the Muslim Ahmadi sect, a group which has been declared non-Islamic under the constitution of Pakistan. The first […]

INDIA: Ongoing violence against the Dalits in Orissa must be prevented immediately

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and the International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) hasten to bring to your urgent attention the ongoing violence reported from the state of Orissa, India. It is reported that as of now in Orissa, particularly in parts of the state […]