Threats and intimidation

Dear friends, Mr. Dissanayaka Mudiyanselage Sarath Dissanayaka of Piliyandala, Colombo District was illegally arrested, detained and tortured by police officers attached to the Colombo Crime Division on 5 May 2016. His son also was arrested and tortured by the same team of police. While he was tortured at the CCD office, he was accused of […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding two juvenile suspects tortured by police in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Thailand. According to the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF), three suspects were accused of a criminal offense. While they were in custody, the police tortured two of them in order to obtain […]

The hasty passing of laws and emergency regulations particularly with the intention of encouraging law enforcement officers to commit acts which amounts to serious crimes is not an unfamiliar practice in Sri Lanka. How Sri Lanka became second in the world with regard to committing the heinous crime of enforced disappearances is an example of […]

This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where 25-year-old Jatupat Boonyapatraksa is continuing his hunger strike at Phu Khiao District Prison, Chaiyaphum province to protest against the country’s broken justice system. Jatupat was arrested on August 6 for distributing anti constitution flyers. The Resistant Citizen group have invited ordinary Thai people to write post cards […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) joins everyone who is shocked and dismayed by the senseless and brutal attack on civilians in Quetta, Balochistan on Aug 8, 2016. According to the leaders of the Balochistan Bar Association, the attack has killed 97 persons which includes 63 lawyers, and two journalists, the photographer of Dawn and […]

Thailand acceded to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) on 2 October 2007. Nearly ten years later, on 26 May 2016, the Thai government issued a Cabinet Resolution stating that it will pass a Prevention of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act. However, the Asian Human Rights Commission […]

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward an appeal from the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) regarding the three human rights defenders who are to meet with an inquiry official at the Muang Pattani Police Station on July 26 in the defamation case filed against them by the ISOC Region 4 Forward […]

On 8 July 2016, the Supreme Court, in the case of Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) & Anr. v. Union of India & Anr., ruled that victims of extrajudicial executions have the right to know the truth. The AHRC’s partner organization in Manipur, Human Rights Alert, was the second petitioner in this important […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information revealed by the young victim herself, which we wish to bring to your notice. On the 7th of July when she went to the Haputale Police station, a police woman constable, had beaten the young girl, and told her that when she is […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the harassment of the members of the TINDOGA (Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association), a Lumad organization, by private security guards belonging to Pablo Lorenzo. Lorenzo is claiming the ancestral land of the Lumads. CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by the Katungod Lumad […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) and Protection International Thailand (PI) regarding military harassment of human rights defenders in Thailand. On 17 May 2016, the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 sought power of attorney from the Royal Thai Army and submitted a complaint […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned that the authorities continue to harass and intimidate the illegally detained farmers in Kidapawan city, Philippines, even after bail for their provisional liberty was posted. Eighty-two farmers were arrested on 1 April 2016 during a violent dispersal of a peaceful blockade conducted by 6000 […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward an appeal from Karapatan Alliance for Advancement for People’s Rights regarding thousands of farmers who have received harassment, threats and have been subjected to extrajudicial killings from the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines, North Cotabato Region, for demanding relief funds […]

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 […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned about the continued harassment, assault and torture of indigenous villagers by several military forces of the 73rd Infantry Battalion Philippine Army in separate incidents. In one incident, the villagers were forced to evacuate due to the encampment of military forces. In another incident, a […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding a police officer having orchestrated the killing of his own daughter, Arifa Babbur, 21, in the name of honour to get property, cash, and a minor girl in compensation through a jirga, an illegal parallel judicial system. The murder has been facilitated […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that 21 members of an indigenous community group were harassed by security guards on a ranch. The perpetrators pointed their guns at the victims, who belong to a group actively opposing the expansion of an oil palm plantation in Opol, Misamis Oriental. CASE […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that a group of Banwaon tribesmen were threatened, harassed and accused of being members of the New People’s Army by the 23rd Infantry Battalion and Civilian Armed Forces geographical Unit (CAFGU) identified as Mama Manpinsahan. CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of the killing of five indigenous persons in Bukidnon, Northern Mindanao. The victims were mistaken for New People’s Army rebels by the military. CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples Rights (KARAPATAN)) On 18 August 2015, Herminio […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you about the killing of three civilians in Davao City, while the whereabouts of a couple who escaped the shooting remain unknown. The victims were allegedly killed by members of the 69th Infantry Battalion. CASE DETAILS: (Based on the documentation by Alliance for […]