Migrant workers

THAILAND: Social Insecurity for Migrants Legally in Thailand

MAP FOUNDATION STATEMENT 2nd August 2013 Since November 2010, the Social Security Office of Thailand has promised social security benefits to migrants holding temporary passports. This promise became policy under the Cabinet Resolution of January 15th 2013. Migrants who persevered through all the steps and all the fees to regularize themselves believed that it would […]

THAILAND: Pitsanuloke Administrative Court orders Mae Sot Municipality to provide 750,000 baht as compensation for the death of a migrant workers’ child

For immediate release on 20 June 2013 Press Release Pitsanuloke Administrative Court orders Mae Sot Municipality to provide 750,000 baht as compensation for the death of a migrant workers’ child On 19 June 2013, the Pitsanuloke Administrative Court, Pitsanuloke Province, ruled in the case between Ms. Ma Maw Di Yan, aka “Juju”, the procurator of Zamira, aka […]

PHILIPPINES: Vendors face forced eviction and food insecurity

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Defend Job Philippines about an eviction notice served on the vendors of Luneta Park (also called Rizal Park) in Manila. The proposed eviction will not merely leave the vendors jobless but also jeopardize their food security. It would also render many of them […]

PAKISTAN: UPR report lacks objective realism and denies the reality concerning human rights

For the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Pakistan, the country presented a four-year working report of how the government improved the state of human rights in Pakistan. Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar, the foreign minister leading the Pakistan delegation, presented the report to the UN. The UPR is a process in which the UN […]

SRI LANKA: Will Sri Lankan maid on death row in Saudi be discussed at Summit?

The picture shows Rizana’s mother and sisters Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa to Meet With Gulf Heads of State Source: Migrant Rights Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is set to participate in the first Asian Corporation Dialogue Summit in Kuwait on the 16 and 17 of October. The summit is aimed at “consolidating Asia’s strength and […]

INDIA: Stop exporting gender based violence

Statement | India | 23-07-2012

After the sexual assault upon a woman in Guwahati, in Assam state early this month, a shocking event the national media in India competed in telecasting, and the despicable ‘culture’ discussion that followed, the country has scored again, internationally, for similar criminal conduct by Indian men. Impelled by sexual lust and contempt to women, the […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: The AHRC writes to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II seeking intervention to save the life of Rizana Nafeek facing the death sentence in Saudi Arabia

(Hong Kong, June 5, 2012) On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II the Asian Human Rights Commission has sought Her Majesty’s kind intervention to save the life of the Sri Lankan housemaid languishing in Dawadami Prison in Saudi Arabia and facing the death sent for a crime she did […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Open letter to President Rajapakse on the need of diplomatic effort to save Rizana Nafeek

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to His Excellency, the President of the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka His Excellency the Hon. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa President Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka C/- Office of the President Temple Trees, 150 Galle Road, Colombo 3 SRI LANKA Tel: +94 112473873, +9411235435, +94112326309 […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Royal intervention needed to save Rizana Nafeek from imminent beheading

Dear friends, Rizana Nafeek of Muthur, Trincomalee in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka left to Saudi Arabia as a domestic helper when she was 17 years old. She became a victim of a recruitment agent who altered her date of birth in her passport, making her as 23-years old and was sent to Saudi […]

SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Nothing is moving to save Rizana Nafeek who awaits beheading at Dawdami Prison, Saudi Arabia

We reproduce below a news item that appeared in the Asia Tribune. The article describes the pathetic plight of Rizana Nafeek, who may be beheaded at any time. Ever since the initial verdict of the Dawdami High Court sentencing her to death, the Asian Human Rights Commission has maintained that she is innocent of the […]

INDIA: Judgments cannot replace good governance

Statement | India | 24-05-2012

India will be evaluated at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Switzerland today. The three countries (Troika) involved in the review are Kuwait, Mauritius and Mexico. That these countries have worse records of human rights in comparison to the country they would collectively review suggests how firmly, and perhaps blindly, such processes are […]

SRI LANKA: Sentenced to death in S Arabia in 2007, Rizana Nafeek’s life hangs by a thread

Falsely charge of murder, the young woman has been in jail since she was 17. The European Union is closely monitoring the case. For Saudi authorities, the “case is not yet closed.” Sri Lanka is trying to get the victim’s family to pardon her. Saturday, May 12, 2012 By Asia News  Colombo — Rizana Nafeek, […]

INDIA: A corpse of rights without justice at its soul

Article | India | 29-02-2012

One of the sad truths that we have to live with today is that the people’s struggles for human rights are highly fragmented in India. Equally disheartening is the fact that whenever or wherever human rights comes up for discussion, it is addressed in piecemeal, ignoring and leaving far behind a comprehensive approach to rights […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]