Human rights defenders

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you to seek your intervention into the case of a human rights defender wrongly detained on fabricated charges by the police in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, India. Gopen Sharma has been held in prison since February 8 on frivolous and fabricated charges. His repeated bail […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from its local parter in West Bengal, MASUM, about Mr. Gopen Sharma, who was illegally arrested and is currently detained based on a frivolous charge (See further: UA-045-2007). We were informed that the bail application for Mr. Goepn was again rejected on February 26, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner the Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), a human rights organisation based in Howrah, West Bengal, India that one their activists have been detained at the Raninagar police station based an a frivolous charge. It is also alleged that Mr. Gopen […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) based in Uttar Pradesh, India, regarding an alleged assault and death threat against a human rights activist. It is alleged that a few men associated with the village-head of Pindra village under […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a human rights defender namely Mr. F M Abdur Razzak and his father, Mr. Nur Ali Fakir, were summoned twice by the Army in Paikgachha under Khulna district on 24 January 2007. The army asked them to meet the army officers following an […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India fails to provide adequate remedy to Dr. Lenin Raghuvansi, who had complained to the Commission regarding an attempted assassination on his life by the police.   He is a human rights activist working for the […]

I refer to the complaint made by Dr. Lenin Raghuvansi [please refer to your case number 5840/24/97-98] of a well planned assassination attempt on his life. The attempt was on 18.02.1998. He has given detailed information that his house was surrounded by police officers from Ramnagar police station in an attempt to assassinate him the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the case of human rights activists associated with Guria, that the case is dragging on in the court in spite of all the attempts to expedite the proceedings. Guria is a human rights organisation based in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the recent developments in the investigation and prosecutory trial of the murder of the late human rights activist, Mr. Munir Said Thalib. Munir died of arsenic poisoning aboard a Garuda Indonesia airways flight destined for Amsterdam on 7 September 2004.  UPDATED INFORMATION: […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the situation of the human rights activists associated with the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) who were charged with a false case on 9 December 2007. The AHRC has been informed that the local administration led by the District Magistrate […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the case of Mr. Abujam Shidam, a college teacher in Mapipur who was arrested on fabricated charges and tortured while in custody by the Manipur State Police. The case reported by the Human Rights Alert, a local human rights organisation based in Imphal, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information on January 7, 2008 that Akash, a human rights defender as well as journalist, has been facing several allegedly false extortion charges in Rajshahi Bangladesh. Even though a vacation bench of the High Court granted him bail on October 16 on one of […]

[NOTICE: The AHRC have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of some of the Cambodian authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the Cambodian authorities are […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a group of indigenous people peacefully marching to protest against land grabbing in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri were dispersed on 19 December 2007. The police used water cannons and briefly took one of the organisers into their custody. This is the […]

[RE: UA-164-2004: INDONESIA: The family receives death threats for demanding an impartial inquiry into the death of Munir; UP-30-2005: INDONESIA: Unveiling of suspect in Munir’s death may end further inquiries; UP-47-2005: INDONESIA: State intelligence officers delay Munir investigation; UP-72-2005: INDONESIA: Mandate of fact-finding team into Munir’s murder should be extended and made more effective; UP-83-2005: […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you about the prolonged detention of two farmers in Davao Oriental province, the Philippines. Both of them have been detained for almost three years without any progress in their case because the prosecution witnesses failed to appear in court on six occasions. One of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from a number of sources on the jailing of two human rights defenders in Burma who were arrested with signatures as part of a petition to have the government release political prisoners (UA-358-2006). The two men, Ko Win Ko and Phyoe Zaw Latt, […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AS-299-2006 December 4, 2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission THAILAND: If not Somchai’s bones, whose bones? According to a news report on the website of The Manager newspaper this Monday, December 4, Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanansunant, acting director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, has said that DNA […]

[RE: UA-219-2005: PHILIPPINES: Threat against an activist priest; bullets offered after a mass in Bulacan, Luzon] ————————————- PHILIPPINES: Surveillance and intimidation of a human rights defender; early warning of possible extrajudicial killing or forced disappearance; inadequate government action; rule of law ————————————- Dear friends, Since the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued its first urgent […]

Dutch and Belgian Lawyers organizations were alarmed by the reports and statements of international and Filipino human rights organizations and various news items about the violence against members of the legal profession in the Philippines. Lawyers and judges are reportedly victims of serious harassment and intimidation while in the exercise of their profession or brutally […]