Right to health

How does one deal with a 42% spike in suicides by farmers/cultivators in a country where “development” has been the buzzword for the last couple of years? If the question isn’t creepy enough to send a shiver down one’s spine, consider that “Bankruptcy or Indebtedness” and “Farming Related Issues”, i.e. non-personal reasons, account for 58.2% […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day The year 2016 has proved to be a difficult year in terms of food and livelihood security for the poor and marginalized communities across Asia. There have even been reverses in food security of the people in countries like Sri […]

By Avinash Pandey Even if one puts the cacophonous debate on the merits and demerits of demonetisation of Rupees 500 and 1000 currency notes aside, one thing is clear: it has hit hard the farmers all set to sow Rabi crops. Almost entirely dependent upon cash transactions for everything, starting from buying seeds and fertilisers, […]

Srikant Dixit, a 40-year-old farmer did not die of hunger, claim authorities in Uttar Pradesh. These authorities base their conclusion on the post-mortem report, which states that there was 50 grams of food in the man’s stomach. Yes, for authorities, finding 50 grams of food in the stomach of a man starving for 12 days […]

Avinash Pandey One doesn’t often see a respected international media house asking a democratic republic’s prime minister to break his silence in an editorial. Even more rare is it to see this “silence” tagged with the adjective “shameful”. The New York Times did exactly that today, 8 August 2016. The editorial forewarns Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of […]

Naseer Memon The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have released a report “Multidimensional Poverty in Pakistan” which depicts a grim picture of social well-being in the country. The concept of poverty has evolved over time. As knowledge about the complexity of human societies is growing, poverty has […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns racism, insults and assaults against indigenous Papuan students in the Papuan students dormitory at the Kamasan I Jalan Kusumanegara, Yogyakarta province, Indonesia. Since Friday morning, July 15, police officers have surrounded and forcibly closed the Papuan students’ dormitory. Inside there were approximately 100 Papuan students. The police did […]

Beginning with Thailand this week, Just Asia covers three human rights defenders who have been accused of criminal defamation and violation of the Computer Crime Act for publishing a report detailing 54 cases of torture by the Thai Army in the country’s southern provinces. The three defenders, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Director of the Cross Cultural Foundation […]

After monitoring 20 months of the human rights situation in Papua and West Papua provinces under President Joko Widodo’s administration, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is dismayed at the utter lack of progress in the protection and realization of people’s rights. Since President Widodo’s inauguration on 20 October 2014, there were considerable expectations for […]

The Supreme Court’s rap to the Union and to various state governments for their apathy to drought victims is welcome. But, it is akin to a few drops sprinkled onto a parched desert under the oversight of unconscious executive governance. The verdict in the writ petition, filed by Swaraj Abhiyan on 11 May 2016 (Swaraj Abhiyan v. Union […]

The pattern on display in the Bombay High Court yesterday, 9 May 2016, was not that of the cycle of drought affecting millions. It was that of callous – bordering on malicious – governance. According to media reports, like this one, the Maharashtra state government informed the Court that it would declare drought in over 29,000 […]

For millions of Indians hit by the devastating drought, death comes in myriad forms. Farmers’ suicides – oft reported by the media and denied by the State – are one of them. A recent and surprising pattern of drought death is heart attacks to those waiting in water collection queues. This is what killed 12-year-old Yogita […]

This episode of Just Asia begins with Indonesia, where a public protest called for the dissolution of Indonesia’s Anti-Terror Police Unit. The protest followed the death of Mr. Siyono, one day after being arrested by the Police Unit on March 10. Although the police claimed Siyono died from fighting police personnel, an independent autopsy revealed […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Cutting off electricity, water, and Internet facilities, closing down messes, chasing all the media persons out, and then calling in the Paramilitary to swoopdown on students in the campus sounds like routine work in a dictatorship, not a democracy. Yet, this is exactly what the University of Hyderabad administration, which works under the Union Ministry […]

Avinash Pandey “A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.”  John Dryden, English Poet The picture showing two Muslims – one of them a teenaged boy – hanging by a tree in Latehar, Jharkhandis going to haunt the Republic for a long time. Nothing indicts the failure of a criminal justice […]

A Press Release from Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) On 13 March 2016, the Cho-airong Hospital was laid siege by an unknown group of armed insurgents. It was further reported that more than 20 armed men with war weapons have raided and taken control of the hospital and […]

An oped from the Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission On September 15 2015, twelve-year-old Ranjana Singh Kshetri, a resident of Bethari in Rupandehi district, received a bullet in the neck when she stuck her head out of the kitchen to see what was happening outside. On the same day, BinodLakaul, 48, […]