Judicial system

This article is an attempt to demonstrate that the occurrence of serious crimes in Sri Lanka, could be drastically reduced by doubling the number of High Courts since only the High Courts have the jurisdiction to conduct trials regarding serious crimes. However, prolonged delays in adjudication has undermined the effectiveness of these courts acting towards […]

An oped from the Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Despite Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s attempt to bully the National Human Rights Commission for its report at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Commission – represented by its chair Justice Anup Raj Sharma […]

On March 16, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva reviewed the situation of human rights in Nepal and gave recommendations to improve it. The Council does that with every member of the UN in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Along with the government, non-government organizations and civil society organizations, […]

The rural distress plaguing large tracts of the Indian countryside is no secret. This distress has heightened in the wake of the devastating drought that is affecting more than half of India’s 676 districts. Forget the reports coming in from grass root organizations that showcase the severity of the crisis, data from the government’s own […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned by the Indonesian police’s failure to protect and ensure the right to freedom of expression and assembly of various groups over the past two months. In fact, the police’s negligence and indifference towards vigilante groups that forcibly disperse and intimidate peaceful events organized by these groups amounts […]

An article from Asif Aqeel forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Asif Aqeel Tahira Gill is fighting for her life in Jinnah Hospital’s intensive care unit. The 55-year-old woman was a nurse in the General Hospital, before she got injured in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park bombing on March 27. Her husband passed away some years […]

On 21 March 2016 the commander of the Kyaikmayaw Township Police Station in Burma, or Myanmar, sent a letter to Ma Thandar, the wife of Ko Par Gyi, whom soldiers killed in a remote part of the country’s east in 2014. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has described previously (AHRC-STM-075-2015, AHRC-UAC-145-2014), both a civilian court […]

Bangladesh police have once again killed protestors. This time four out of a few hundred villagers who protested on 4 April 2016 have been killed. The farmers were protesting against acquisition of their agricultural lands without consent or adequate compensation, for the purpose of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Gondamara Village of Banshkhali Upazilla […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly objects to Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s summons to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chair Anup Raj Sharma, Commissioner Mohna Ansari and other members on 3 April 2016, where he sought clarification on Ansari’s statement during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held in Geneva in March. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the forced dispersal of peaceful protesters and their illegal arrest in Kampung Bhintuka-SP13 field in Mimika, Timika district, Papua on Tuesday, 5 April 2016. We have been informed that 12 protesters were taken into police custody in Kuala Kencana for further investigation and questioning. Prior to the protest, […]

This week Just Asia covers the deadly dispersal of protesting farmers in Kidapawan city, Philippines. Suffering from hunger and unable to plant their crops due to the El Nino drought, the farmers organized a protest blockading the main highway connecting North Cotabato and Davao City on March 29. On April 1, police and military personnel […]

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2013, 55-60% of all trafficking victims are women. Pakistan is both a country of origin and destination, as far as trafficking of women is concerned. Women in Pakistan are most vulnerable to trafficking due to poverty, gender discrimination, lack of […]

by Basil Fernando The existence of a mass grave may come to the notice of the public by many different ways; a statement by a witness made during a court hearing – as in the case of Chemmani Mass Graves: discoveries of some scattered remains of bones by workers when digging a site for constructions […]

A group of human rights defenders in northeast Thailand are facing death threats and a defamation case in court over their attempts to protect community resources against a gold mining operation. According to Rights Coalition and Community Resource Centre Foundation (CRC), the Khon Rak Ban Kerd group of human rights defenders was formed in 2007 […]

A Statement from Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The starving and unarmed farmers of Kidapawan cried for rice. They were given bullets. Photo credit to HKCHRPP The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace […]

Interview Part 2 Interview Part 1 On behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission, we are sharing with you the second part of the interview, with Basil Fernando, on the origins of the present political crisis, in Sri Lanka which is being traced to the manner in which the developments that took place in 1931 […]

In medical science a placebo effect means a remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo–or a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution, can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful. These days many people question as to whether the electoral […]

A Press Release from the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has issued the order no. 13/2559 on 29 March 2016 titled, “The Prevention and Suppression of Certain Offences Detrimental to the Maintenance of Public Order or Harmful to the National […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins in Pakistan, where Easter Sunday was marked with a suicide bomb blast killing 78 persons, mostly Christian women and children, and injuring more than 350 others, including Muslims. The blast occurred in a park, devastating families who had come to enjoy their holiday. A local organization with links […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned from the UK media that a Pakistani born Ahmadi was stabbed to death in Glasgow, Scotland by a Pakistani Muslim. Asad Shah was brutally stabbed 30 times with a kitchen knife and had his head stamped on, after posting Easter greetings on Facebook. Shah had […]