Labour rights

INDIA: Future Imperfect-Hungrier and indebted than ever before

Article | India | 15-05-2018

Despite all the tall claims of development by authorities in India, the data from Government bodies shows that there are little, if any, improvements in tackling alarmingly high levels of malnutrition. Add to this the worrisome fact of a sharp increase in the indebtedness of households and the situation becomes even bleaker. The data from […]

INDONESIA : Peasants in Rokan Hilir brutally attacked to force them to hand over their land

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding a brutal attack against a local famer in Rokan Hilir Regency, Riau Province. Mr. Rajiman, a local palm oil farmer along with his wife and child are victims of torture, ill-treatment, terror and intimidation. These actions were committed by an employee of Mr. […]

PHILIPPINES: Military harass trade unionists in Compostela Valley

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the harassment faced by residents and trade unionists of banana plantations affiliated to the May First Labor Movement (Kilusang Mayo Uno) in Mindanao. They were tagged by the military as New People’s Army (NPA) rebel group supporters, and are being summoned to military […]

PAKISTAN: Statement on the occasion of International Day for human rights

Pakistan is a signatory to several international human rights conventions. The country has in its constitution a good set of fundamental rights. Yet, the human rights situation in Pakistan is deteriorating. All human rights are violated in Pakistan with impunity. Rights of women and children; access to justice; labour rights; rights to: housing, life and fair trial, education, […]

INDIA: Farmers in border areas must be allowed access to their lands

Statement | India | 04-12-2017

The border regions of India are manned by members of the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, who are always heavily armed, and wield significant power over the residents of these border villages. Recent events have demonstrated the highhandedness of these personnel in dealing with civilians. The primary occupation of the residents of the village is […]

INDIA: Continuous harassment by Police forces Pardhi woman to commit suicide

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Shahri Mazdoor Sangthan about a continuous harassment by Police. They forced Indramal Bai, a tribal woman from the Pardhi community, (earlier listed by the British as a habitual criminal tribe), to commit suicide by immolating herself. The cops, identified as Rameshwar Yadav, Sandeep […]

INDIA: Protesting Farmers hold their Parliament, passing bills as real one looks away

Article | India | 22-11-2017

by Avinash Pandey More than 3 lakh (300,000) suicides in thirty years and millions of other lives ruined, would qualify as a national disaster, forcing the Government to tackle it all guns blazing in any democracy. Alas, it does not in the one that claims to be the largest democracy of them all-India. In fact […]

INDIA: Authorities demolish 100s of houses in Kathputali Colony, resulting in death of infant

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Countercurrents and other media regarding the demolition of more than a thousand houses in Kathputali Colony in New Delhi. The demolition rendered thousands of people homeless just before the onset of winter. Also, the use of brutal force by the police during the […]

SRI LANKA: Lawful Public Protest not protected by Police who guarded attackers instead

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to inform you about an incident on 13 July 2017. The pepper farmers organized a Protest March from Pallebedda to Palmadulla in the Ratnapura District, marching towards Embilipitya-Ratnapura-Colombo Road. They walked peacefully, respecting the Law and protecting the lives and properties of the public. Unexpectedly, […]

PHILIPPINES: Ming John Plastic Ware Workers dismissed from work and evicted from their homes after forming a union

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Defend Job Philippines (DJP), a social movement working to promote the human rights of the urban poor in Manila, about the dismissal of the workers of Ming John Plastic Ware. The AHRC has also been informed that the workers were evicted from their […]

SRI LANKA: Human Rights Defender illegally arrested for allegedly participating in Protest against Police

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding Mrs. Kariyawasam Aarachchilage Ramani Kusumalatha (46), a resident of the Kantale Police Division. She was well reputed as a human rights defender in the area. On 13 June, Kusumalatha assisted three torture victims at the Kantale Base Hospital. Then she asked the Police […]

SRI LANKA: Female migrant-worker expresses harassment in Saudi Arabia

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information regarding Mrs. K A Nilanthi Karunarathna. A resident of Baddegama Police Division, she migrated to Saudi Arabia as a domestic helper on 19 January 2015. Within several months at her employer’s house she started to experience severe harassments and complaints. She requested her family members […]

INDIA/BANGLADESH: Stop the Unlawful Detention of Bangladeshi Migrants

In May 2017, a young boy was apprehended by Border Security Force(BSF) officers in Dinajpur, West Bengal. MASUM, our partner organisation in West Bengal conducted a fact-finding mission and discovered that almost 18 months before the incident, his father had come to India, searching for a job, with the help of a middleman. The boy, […]

INDIA/WORLD: Release female Indian Migrant Worker and others of various nationalities trafficked and illegally Confined in Abu Dhabi

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Alternate Law Forum (ALF), Bangalore, concerning the plight of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, particularly an Indian woman. Thousands of Indian migrant workers in the Middle East region suffer from deprivation of liberty and inhuman working conditions, and often do not have […]

INDIA: Two Sikkimese domestic workers stranded, tortured in Saudi Arabia

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding two Sikkimese women, employed as domestic workers, who are stranded in Saudi Arabia, They have made an emergency call to their family begging to be rescued, alleging that they are being tortured, their passports confiscated and that they are confined to a […]

INDIA: IT industry the new killing farms, techies the new farmers?

Article | India | 24-07-2017

Avinash Pandey Gopikrishna Durgaprasad, a 25-year-old gainfully employed young man, committed suicide a few days ago in Pune, Maharashtra. With Maharashtra seeing thousands of suicides every year, and being the state with the most farmer suicides annually, Gopikrishna’s death would not have been significant news on its own. What was different about this case though, was that […]

INDIA: Curious case of anti-farmer, anti-consumer, self-pricing tomatoes

Article | India | 14-07-2017

Avinash Pandey Looking at the pattern of tomato pricing in India, year after year, could lead one to believe that tomatoes are pricing themselves, evilly conspiring against the farmers producing them and the consumers buying them, helping only the intermediaries in the process. As of now, tomatoes are being sold for more than Rs. 80 […]

INDIA: Immediately stop demolition drive against Dalit and tribal hamlets in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information from the Samaj Chetna Adhikar Manch, Dabhaura about the demolition drive against Dalit and tribal settlements in Chhipiya, Khairaha, Jirahua, Genduraha and Kota villages in Jawa block of Rewa District, Madhya Pradesh. The AHRC has been informed that the administration has flouted all rules and […]

PAKISTAN: Travesty of justice in the name of jirga

Women in Pakistan continue to be prey to jirgas, a parallel justice system held by the influential and landed aristocracy. Rape victims and their parents are forced by jirgas to make out of court settlements or otherwise the rape survivors will be declared as Kari, liable to be killed by anyone. In the latest such […]

PAKISTAN: International Labour Day – Government must align itself with the ILO conventions

Given the lack of any basic medical care, health teaching, affordable housing, universal education, clean drinking water and a decent way of life including the right to life–the demand for labour rights sound hollow and meaningless. Feigning regard for this class, society is deeply prejudiced against celebrating Labour Day in Pakistan. Hardly any respect is […]