Rule of law

PAKISTAN: Prominent lawyer tortured, poisoned in detention; two others held incommunicado

[NOTICE: The AHRC has developed an automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via email, fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the […]

UPDATE (Thailand): Army withdraws order preventing hundreds of people from returning to their homes in south

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that hundreds of detainees in a “vocational training” camps have been released and returned home on 18 November 2007 after the Fourth Army chief, Lt-Gen Viroj Buacharoon backed down and reversed a six-month ban prohibiting them from entering for southern provinces (UP-143-2007). This is […]

UPDATE (Pakistan): Human rights lawyer in serious condition after he was brutally tortured by the police

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of the serious medical condition of a prominent human rights lawyer, Mr. Syed Hassan Tariq. He was brutally tortured by the police upon instructions allegedly by the provincial chief minister in Nawabshah, Sindh Province after he was arrested on 8 November 2007. Mr. Tariq […]

UPDATE (India): CPI-M cadres’ blunt attack resumed against villagers in Nandigram with inaction and connivance of the West Bengal state government

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the MASUM, a local human rights organization in West Bengal, India, regarding the brutal attack by armed activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] against Nandigram villagers since 6 November 2007. According to the official government account, at least 3 persons […]

UPDATE (Sri Lanka): List of 53 extrajudicial killings reported for the month of October

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources regarding a list of extrajudicial killings of 53 persons solely for the single month of October 2007 in Sri Lanka. Even though several cases of extrajudicial killings and disappearances have been continuously reported since last year, none of those responsible have […]

GENERAL APPEAL(Pakistan): State sanctioned attack on justices, lawyers and activists challenging the emergency

Dear friends, In addition to what has been widely reported, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the plight of justices, lawyers and activists who had been unlawfully placed under house arrest and detained following the state of emergency in 3 November 2007. The justices and lawyers had been targeted to suppress […]

UPDATE(Philippines): More activists and widows helping victims facing threats in separate incidents

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of continuing threats made on human rights activists and widows of activists who are helping victims. On November 2, activist Olivia Bernardo was followed and photographed by an unknown person while her colleague Mary Guy Portajada started receiving threatening messages on her mobile. In […]

SRI LANKA: Extrajudicial killing of five youths in Vavuniya

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received reliable information regarding the extrajudicial killing of five youths at Thavasikkulam near Vavuniya town on 4 November 2007 in Sri Lanka.  According to witness accounts, the youths had been taken into custody by Army personnel from the Veppankulam Army Camp. The bullet-riddled corpses were found […]

UPDATE (Cambodia): Court orders release of 13 men but seven are still detained

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that on 4 July 2007, a court in Sihanoukville ordered the release of 13 men who were arrested in April 2007 while the Sihanoukville authorities were demolishing houses where 107 families had been staying. Six out of 13 men were released but seven […]

UPDATE (Thailand): Three vocational training detainees rearrested; police threaten others

Dear friends, Further to our recent update on court orders that at least 300 men in southern Thailand could not be held at so-called “vocational training” camps against their will (UP-123-2007), the police have since rearrested three and threatened others to go back to the camps if they don’t also want to be taken back […]

UPDATE (Burma): Appeals against imprisonment of seven human rights defenders rejected; more reportedly jailed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the requests to appeal against imprisonment of the “Hinthada 6” and another human rights defender from the same group have all been thrown out of courts in Burma. Meanwhile, another three have also reportedly been imprisoned, while one who had been was […]

UPDATE (Thailand): Hundreds released from army detention prevented from going home

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned that although over 300 men have been allowed to go free from a number of army camps in the south of Thailand after court orders that they cannot be detained against their will, the army is refusing to let them to return to their homes. […]

SRI LANKA: Several media personnel killed while investigation has failed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources concerning several cases of extrajudicial killings and threats to media personnel in Sri Lanka since 2004. Few cases have been investigated and to-date not a single person has been brought before the court. The AHRC is concerned by the impunity of […]

INDIA: Can courts and media be substitutes for governance?

Statement | India | 25-10-2007

On October 22, 2007 the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) received a communication from the government of Kerala in India. The communication, in the form of a letter, dated September 9, 2007 prepared on behalf of the Additional Chief Secretary to the government informs the AHRC that if the AHRC is concerned about incidents of […]

PHILIPPINES: Killing of three more persons in Negros Occidental; one victim’s body mutilated and sexual organ severed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of the extrajudicial killings of three activists in separate incidents in August and October 2007 in Negros Occidental, the latest in an ongoing series. Two victims: Rodrigo Siacor and Antonio Mercado were shot dead in separate incidents; Siacor front of his son […]

PAKISTAN: Higher police officers have impunity in the torture case of a French researcher

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed from Pakistan Women’s Lawyer’s Association that the police in Pakistan have been involved in beating, torturing and threatening a French researcher on 20 September 2007 and have not been charged. While no action has been taken against them, the police officials threaten local journalists […]

UPDATE (Burma): More details of deaths during protests emerge

Dear friends, In this general update on events in Burma, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) concentrates on the following topics: – Details emerging of more deaths during September  – Denial of medical treatment for injured persons – Family members of wanted persons taken as hostages – Special concerns over women prisoners For all statements, […]

UPDATE (Burma): Family and friends of assault victim jailed instead of perpetrator

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that the family of U Than Lwin, who was assaulted in June after leading a prayer meeting in Burma for the release of political prisoners, has been jailed instead of the assailant. Four members of the family and five other people have been […]

PAKISTAN: Chief Justice of a provincial High Court was threatened by a ruling party

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources that several judges including the Chief Justice, of the Sindh High Court were threatened by a ruling political party in General Musharraf’s government on accepting the bail applications of several arrested lawyers on 29 September 2007. There were a variety of […]

UPDATE (Burma): Three teenage sisters and a young mother of two have disappeared

Dear friends, Further to our previous recent updates on the situation in Burma, this is the first appeal by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) since last week on specific cases of disappearance in Rangoon: it includes details about the disappearance of a 30-year-old mother of two and three teenage sisters, as well as news […]