Legislation

UPDATE (Philippines): Police continuously fail to protect wife and two daughters of murdered activist facing threat

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the continuing failure by the police, particularly the Task Force Usig (TFU), to promptly afford necessary protection and assistance to the wife and two daughters of murdered activist Jose Manegdeg III. Although they did assure that they would reinvestigate to gather more […]

UPDATE (Philippines): No protection for family of murdered activist facing continuing threats

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you regarding the continuing threats to the family of murdered activist Jose Manegdeg III (a.k.a. Pepe). They are forced to take security measures by themselves due to the lack of protection and assistance by the authorities for nearly two years on. The police investigating […]

UPDATE (Indonesia): Final review appeal begins on Munir’s death

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had been informed that the final review appeal into the Supreme Court’s ruling acquitting the sole suspect into the death of a prominent human rights activist, Mr. Munir Said Thalib, has began on 16 August 2007. Munir died of arsenic poisoning on a Garuda Indonesia Airways flight […]

PAKISTAN: Two men abducted and their whereabouts still unknown;Police allegedly tortured and threatened family members to withdraw case of abduction

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the abduction of two men by two unidentified persons on 27 July 2007. Police subsequently arrested and tortured a family member to force the family to withdraw their complaint. They even attacked family member’s house. With the lack of investigation into the abduction, […]

SRI LANKA: Man severely tortured by the Badureliya police; Court denies medical examination of torture victim

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture, illegal arrest and detention and the fabrication of charges of a 42-year-old man by the police. He was brutally tortured and denied medical treatment. His lawyer informed court about the torture but despite of the threat to his life the Magistrate […]

PHILIPPINES: Two activists shot dead respectively by armed group

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that two activists were shot dead respectively by armed group. One activist was shot dead in front his wife and children on 17 July 2007. Another activist was dead after a shot on June 15 2007. CASE DETAILS: (based on the Alliance for […]

SRI LANKA: Young woman brutally stabbed to death by members of Armed Forces

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the gruesome stabbing unto death of a 27-year-old woman by Army personnel or members of the Special Task Force (STF) in Paduwankarai, in the Batticaloa District. Accordingly several personnel in military uniform had come to the house she was staying and shouted her […]

UPDATE(Nepal): Torture and sexual molestation victim receives threats from the police for registering a case in court

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by reports that a torture and sexual molestation victim, 30 year-old widow Ms. Kalpana Bhandari, has received serious threats from the police since she registered a case demanding compensation for torture with the Kathmandu District Court on June 11, 2007, concerning her arbitrary arrest, […]

UPDATE(Pakistan): Gang rape victim threatened by local politicians; police exonerates perpetrators before investigation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information on the case of a 15-year-old girl who was gang-raped by more than a dozen attackers from Town Layyah in Punjab province beginning on 30 January 2007 (For details, please see: UA-081-2007). According to the latest information we have received, the victim has been […]

UPDATE (Pakistan): Sindh police threatened gang rape survivor back to her village

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that Sindh police again allegedly threatened a gang-rape survivor to immediately leave the apartment where she and her family have been temporarily staying in Karachi for their safety on 21 June 2007. The police threw their household possessions out of the house provided […]

PHILIPPINES: No action against soldiers who kill youth; another activist survives attack

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that no action has been taken against the soldiers, including a lieutenant, accused in killing youth leader Nelson Asucena, six months ago in Rizal, Cagayan. No investigation was conducted despite the filing of criminal charges against them in court. In a separate […]

PHILIPPINES: Police’ vehicle used in forcibly abducting a man in General Santos City

Dear friends, The AHRC writes with deep concern regarding the forcible abduction and subsequent disappearance of a man, Arnold Aliman, in General Santos City on 27 May 2007. Witnesses have revealed that the vehicle used by the abductors, who were armed, has been traced to the local police Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB). The whereabouts of […]

CAMBODIA: Forced eviction of 229 families in Sihanoukville

[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 […]

PHILIPPINES: Delays in prosecution causes prolonged detention of two farmers

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 […]

UPDATE (Bangladesh): Three detained and tortured leaders have been released from prison in Chapainawabganj

[RE: UP-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Three persons tortured by the Chapainawabganj police; UA-041-2006: BANGLADESH: Eight people killed and at least one hundred injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district; UA-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Two people killed and thirty-five injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj district] ———————————– UP-016-2006: BANGLADESH: Three detained and tortured leaders have been released from prison in […]

UPDATE (Saudi Arabia/Sri Lanka): Renewed plea for commuting the death sentence of Sri Lankan men to the new King of Saudi Arabia

[RE: UP-43-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Questions remain in Sri Lanka’s willingness to save three of its citizens; UP-39-2005: Three Sri Lankans face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia; UP-38-2005: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please send a letter to the King of Saudi Arabia urging his intervention to commute the death sentence of three Sri Lankans; UP-34-2005: Death […]

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Police’s deliberate inaction in a labour case is in violation of court orders

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding 73 workers from the Orex Factory in Ekala, Jaela, Sri Lanka, who were unlawfully dismissed after the owner arbitrarily closed down the factory in 2002. The AHRC previously reported that the owner, Mohamed Mohamed Izzath deprived his workers of the Employees Trust […]

INDIA: Human rights defender physically assaulted, threatened and detained by government officials

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information through its local partner MASUM in West Bengal that Mr. Gopen Sharma, a human rights activist was illegally detained, threatened and assaulted by the officers at the Block Development Office in Jalangi, Murshidabad District, West Bengal. Mr. Sharma was, at the time of the […]

UPDATE (India): No compensation to family of adivasi, murdered by forest official, despite a four year wait

[Re: UA- 50 -2005: INDIA: Three and a half year wait for justice for the brutal murder of an Adivasi (tribal person) by a forest official in Gujarat] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on the case of Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava (30), an adivasi who was murdered by an Indian […]

SRI LANKA: A man tortured and prosecuted with false charges by the Samanalaweva Police Post

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man named Heeralu Mohottalalage Punchi Banda (39) was illegally arrested and tortured by the Sub Inspector (S.I.) Dhammika Bandara of Samanalaweva Police Post in Balangoda on 26 August 2004. Due to brutal torture, the victim still suffers from severe pain on his […]