Right to life

PHILIPPINES: Immediately relocate the victims of demolition drive in Quezon City

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about allegedly illegal demolition of around 120 houses in Florentino St., Sto. Domingo, Quezon City on April 10-11, 2013. The information sent to the AHRC by Barangay Sto. Domingo Settlers Association through Defend Jobs Philippine asserts that the demolitions were carried out in violation […]

INDIA: कैश ट्रांसफर: राशन के अनाज पर नजर

सरकार ने नये साल में देश के चुनिन्दा 20 जिलों में अभी 7 सामाजिक सुरक्षा योजनाओं में हितग्राहियों के खाते में सीधे नकद राशि पहुंचाने का महाभियान शुरू किया है| सरकार के मुताबिक़ यह एक एतिहासिक कदम है और इससे देश में कायाकल्प हो जाएगा | लोग अब सीधे अपने खाते में राशि पायेंगे और […]

SRI LANKA: Officers of the Karandeniya police torture and threaten to sodomize businessman, insulting him about his ‘low’ caste origin

Several police officers from the Karandeniya police illegally arrested Chandila Padmakumara Gurusinghe of Kiripedda, Babuwo Kanda, Karandeniya in Galle District, apparently on the instigation of a cinnamon trader. He was arrested without being informed of the reason for his arrest and he learned it only after he was brought to the police station by listening […]

INDIA: Indigenous communities of Singda New Bazar, Manipur, facing forced eviction for Singda Dam Area Expansion

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the forced eviction of indigenous communities of Singda New Bazar, Manipur by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Government of Manipur, for expansion of the Singda Dam area. This affects 220 members of around 60 households belonging to Vaiphei, Kharam, Ireng Naga, and […]

PAKISTAN: The Council of Islamic Ideology intends to complete the elimination of the religious minorities

The Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistan held a meeting on May 29, headed by Maulana Sherani, and warned that if the blasphemy laws are amended, the country’s minorities will be unsafe, but how much worse could the situation get? Minorities have been suffering since these laws were introduced by General Zia Ul Haq in […]

BANGLADESH: Penury keeps hounding the old and invalids in Gaibandha

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about several elderly people being pushed into starvation in the Palash Bari area of the Gaibandha district of Rangpur division. Most of these elderly people are living in penury with no family to look after them and are forced into begging or living on […]

INDONESIA: Lenient punishment for police officers who tortured and shot a young man to death

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the punishment of three police officers who tortured and shot a 23-year-old man, Yusli, in 2011. The court sentenced two of the officers to two years of imprisonment and the other one to five years. It found the officers were responsible for […]

INDIA: Judicial Magistrate takes up the witch-hunt against Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswamy, a human rights defender in Madhya Pradesh state

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Badwani, Madhya Pradesh state regarding the continuing witch-hunt against human rights defender Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswamy of the Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS). Having braved an externment notice, followed by attacks from the locally elected Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and then a vilification […]

INDONESIA: Police shoot two brothers to death in Medan, questions arise on the proportionality and necessity of the measure

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received the information from the Medan Legal Aid Institute (LBH Medan) concerning the death of two brothers from Medan, North Sumatera. The two brothers, who were suspects in a drug case, were shot to death by the police who claimed that they attempted to escape and […]

INDIA: Punish the perpetrators of assault on women Human Rights Defenders in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received very disturbing information regarding the assault on five women human rights defenders working with Sahjani Shiksha Kendra (SSK) in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. The women, belonging to the Dalit and backward communities, were physically and verbally assaulted while inaugurating an adult literacy centre for Dalit women. […]

PAKISTAN: A Historical Overview of Blasphemy Laws

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you about the research based report on historical overview of Blasphemy laws in Pakistan the Blasphemy published by Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Islamabad. The research was compiled by Mr. Nafees Muhammad, a writer and research fellow. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has the […]

NEPAL: Resettle inhabitants of Balapur with adequate compensation to save them from imminent inundation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received worrying information regarding the imminent inundation and subsequent loss of livelihood for the inhabitants of Balapur Village, Mahadevpuri VDC, ward no. 6, Banke district. This follows a recent field visit undertaken with colleagues from FIAN Nepal. The inundation, caused by the completion of a canal […]

BANGLADESH: A massacre of demonstrators

News reports from Bangladesh allege that a series of attacks on demonstrators have taken place, at around 3am today, May 6, 2013. The extent of the injuries and death is difficult to be ascertained at the moment. The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, gave the figure of deaths as 5. However, several internet reports have mentioned that the […]

NEPAL: Ensure tapped water supply to Dalits of Duma in Mugu district

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding chronic water shortage plaguing the lives of Dalit residents of Duma village in Mugu district of Nepal during a field visit undertaken together with colleagues from FIAN Nepal. In absence of tapper water supply to their village, they have to fetch their water […]

SRI LANKA: A Slippery Slope

Some call it the land of murder; it is also known as the land of rape; the land of robbery; the land of corruption; the land of criminals and the land of liars! It must be asked if our country has lost its identity with the positive values in life and in doing so has […]

SRI LANKA: The caste base of our cultural roots

Reconciliation has not been treated as an attractive word in Sri Lanka. The government’s view is that forgetting is the best course available. It argues that reconciliation attempts could reopen the wounds and will do more harm than good. Officially therefore, the government policy is to encourage forgetting. This policy does not come under serous […]

INDONESIA: Military shoot four detainees to death and beat prison guards in Sleman

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a local NGO, KontraS, regarding the shooting of four detainees in the Cebongan Correctional Facility by military officers. The shooting was an act of revenge by the officers for the murder of one of their colleagues which took place a couple of days […]

SRI LANKA: Seven-year-old Pushpakumara’s murder and the link between lawlessness and perversity

Basil Fernando A seven-year-old child, Pushpakumara Wijekoon from Kegalle, went to school as usual and left around 1 pm. He walked to the junction where his father usually picked him up on his cycle to bring him home. As the child did not see his father, he started walking back home. The distance was about […]

BANGLADESH: Attorney General Attacks Family’s Right to Represent Prisoners

On 18 April 2013, the Attorney General for Bangladesh Mr. Mahbubey Alam participated in the hearing of a writ petition before a High Court Division Bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. The writ was filed by Mrs. Firoza Mahmud, wife of Daily Amardesh‘s Interim Editor Mahmudur Rahman. Mrs. Mahmud had challenged the order of the Chief […]

ASIA: Professional independence of judges and lawyers central to the protection and promotion of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in Asia

Statement | Asia | 15-04-2013

The following is a statement issued by a group of Asian jurists, who met from 9-11 April in Bangkok, to discuss about threats to professional freedom of lawyers and the independence of the judiciary in Asia. Jurists from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong attended […]