Labour rights

SOUTH KOREA: The AHRC strongly urges the police to allow workers on strike access to basic needs

Ssang Yong Motor Company fired around three thousands workers. The labour union tried to negotiate this matter with the company, but both parties failed to agree. Subsequently, the workers and the labour union occupied the working place and protested against the dismissal. They also demanded that the government and the company take a genuine step […]

PAKISTAN: Small Hands Big Work-Female Child Domestic Servants in Karachi

By Mr. Amir Murtaza. The research was conducted by a group of students headed by Amir Murtaza conducted the research. The use of children as domestic servants is certainly one of the most pervasive forms of child labor in Pakistan. Children as young as five spend 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a […]

BANGLADESH: Rights groups urged the government to probe human rights abuses and reform institutions

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of 17 human rights, women’s rights, labour and indigenous people’s rights NGOs from Bangladesh. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of […]

PHILIPPINES/HONG KONG: Accident compensation for an injured Filipino worker is possible

(Hong Kong, February 26, 2009) After his case was exposed it has been learned that claims for payment of accident compensation are possible.  When Tibio Melvin Delos Reyes, a 20-year-old Filipino worker, and his mother, Cheung Babelyn, were first interviewed after seeking assistance from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), they had no idea as […]

PHILIPPINES/HONG KONG: Injured Filipino worker sought accident compensation

(Hong Kong, February 18, 2009) A twenty-year-old Filipino waiter, who suffered second degree burns to his face and chest caught fire in a work related accident has now sought compensation for the injuries he has suffered.  It was on 21 January 2009 that the waiter, Tibio Melvin Delos Reyes, meet with the accident when a […]

SOUTH KOREA: Police allow thugs hired by a company to assault protestors

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society that thugs hired by a company and members of its staff assaulted workers and demolished their temporary tents while they were asking for reemployment. The workers have been holding a protest near their company for over three years. […]

PHILIPPINES: Soldiers allegedly threaten union leaders and workers to stop their activities

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern about the continuing threats to four union leaders, including a union president, and dozens of other workers. Others preferred not to divulge their names. The soldiers had deliberately warned them, one after another that they would suffer consequences if they not stop their […]

INDIA: A girl kidnapped and forced into prostitution for two years but police do nothing

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed by Guria, a local human rights organisation based in Varanasi, India that a female minor, Maya, was kidnapped and sold by human traffickers.  The girl was sold to the owner of a brothel, held captive, raped, forced to become a prostitute, and tortured with […]

THAILAND: Dismissal of a union leader wearing a protest shirt

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a union leader was dismissed allegedly for wearing a protest T-shirt while outside of work on July 30, 2008. While a protest regarding her dismissal has continued, tens of colleagues who held a protest were threatened with dismissal and suspension. CASE DETAILS: Body […]

PHILIPPINES: Labour department’s complicity in unlawful acts deprives sexually abused workers from creating a union

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that several union leaders and factory workers of a footwear company were illegally terminated when some of their female colleagues exposed their employer’s sexual abuse on them. Their termination had also effectively deprived them possibility from having their union legally recognized. As they […]

SOUTH KOREA: Conscripted policeman ill-treated after expressing opinion on the internet

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about a young conscripted man who has served as a battle policeman. He has been repeatedly ill-treated by way of disciplinary punishment. This started after he expressed his opinion on the internet, and after asking for a change in his position, on 12 June […]

ASIA/HONG KONG: AHRC supports petition to suspend levy of all foreign helper’s contracts

(Hong Kong, July 25, 2008)  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) supports a petition seeking the suspension of a levy, not only for new but for existing contracts of Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs), to avert threats to their job security. On July 17, the Hong Kong Labour Department announced it would seek an amendment so […]

CAMBODIA: Police allegedly extort bribes in arrest in Rattanakiri province

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the police allegedly ordered parents to pay a bribe of 150000 riels (US$37.5) each if their sons were not to be arrested after these youths had damaged a party sign in Soeung commune, Bor Keo district, Rattankiri province. On 2 July 2008, they arrested […]

INDIA: Two manual scavengers killed while working without any equipment in Gujarat

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Navsarjan, a human rights organisation working on Dalit rights in Gujarat about the death of two manual scavengers. It is reported that the deceased were employed by a Municipal Corporation in Gujarat. The two victims died inside manhole at about 10:30 pm, two […]

GENERAL APPEAL (Philippines): Labor office fails to ensure factory pays back wages to workers

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the continued failure of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to implement the order by their regional office requiring a Korean-owned garment factory to pay their workers the back wages and benefits due to them. They have also failed to have the […]

SOUTH KOREA: Two newly elected migrants’ union leaders again deported

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that two migrants workers, newly elected as president and vice president of Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU) were again arrested on 2 May 2008 and deported without due process on May 15. CASE DETAILS: Abdus Sabur has been involved in the struggle for migrant […]

PHILIPPINES: Soldiers continuously harass and threaten a union leader and her fellow workers

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that soldiers continuously threatened and harassed a union president and her fellow workers. The workers, presently holding a picket line in front of their factory, were questioned in separate occasions about personal details of their president. The soldiers were falsely accusing their leader as leftist; […]

PHILIPPINES: Government firm terminates three workers; suspends 36 others for holding protest

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that a government owned firm has unfairly terminated three workers, including a union leader, and suspended 36 others for holding a symbolic protest demanding the provision of benefits due to them. Their demand is part of the Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) Incentives which […]

BURMA: Family given paltry compensation for death of porter in army service

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the family of a man who was taken to serve as a porter for the Burma army was paid less than six US dollars as compensation for his death. The victim died in 2006 after he was taken from the central prison. Up […]

INDONESIA: About 300 families of indigenous villagers threatened to be forcibly evicted by the government in West Sumatera

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that around 300 families of indigenous villagers occupying a land since 1918 in Lima Puluh Kota Municipality, West Sumatera, had been threatened with forcible eviction by the government. The villagers had been evicted twice before but were forced to return having no other means […]