Threats and intimidation

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights defender is under death threats from retired army men for arranging a love marriage for a girl from a higher caste with a person from a lower caste. The police of the area could not provide security for the couple […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture and extrajudicial murder of a young man in Pakistan. The man was reportedly beaten and abused in a number of police stations and Karachi central prison for not paying bribes in the lead up to Eid, and was beaten unconscious in […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has discovered that Koyra police are working to support a man who threw acid at a teenage girl, and have pressured her to marry him. The police investigator allegedly used intimidation to try and get the case withdrawn, following bribes from the accused, and the attacker appears […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that intimidation tactics are being used against a group advocating labour rights. Men giving a military impression have been openly surveying the office in shifts and photographing visitors to the building. Three of the men also beckoned a volunteer to them, late one night. These […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police and government officials have refused to look into a case of corruption and sponsored thuggery in a Varanasi village, where leaders are abusing a government scheme to relieve poverty. Human rights activists and villagers were beaten by an organised gang in a village […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you that a Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Davao City, southern Mindanao, has denied a human rights lawyer temporary judicial protection via a Writ of Amparo petition. The court ruled that he failed to prove ‘by substantial evidence’ that the inclusion of his […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights lawyer who offers free legal counsel to victims of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, has escaped an attempt on his life and is receiving continual death threats from Muslim fundamentalist groups. Local police officers have repeatedly rebuffed his requests for […]

Dear friends, Though the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to note the start of a long-awaited investigation into the illegal arrest and torture of a rickshaw puller and a day-labourer after an Urgent Appeal was issued, the investigation is seriously flawed. The torture took place at Paikgachha police station in 2008 and the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Navsarjan, a human rights organisation based in Gujarat that the only Valmiki (lowest Dalit sub-caste) family living in Shampara (also known as Khodiyar) village is in danger of being forced out from their home. This action is due to a boycott imposed on […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from QIC-AC Uttar Pradesh (QIC-AC UP), a human rights association that in Bahraich district a 14-year-old girl was sexually abused then shot by a member of a mafia. At the time, she was alone in her home as her only remaining family member, her […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Navsarjan Trust, a Gujarat-based human rights NGO, that there has been a social boycott put into place by the entire non-Dalit community against the Dalits of Nesda village. This was in response to the Dalits’ refusal to dispose of dead animals, a […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that no investigation is being done into the rape and murder of a woman last year by a group of men, which included two police officers. Station heads have allegedly requested bribes from the victim’s family and accepted large sums from the accused, and […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a couple who belong to different religious sects and who chose to marry freely are currently in hiding due to threats on their lives. The groom’s immediate family (his mother, father, sister and two brothers) were arrested on false charges, yet after the […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you that members of a ruling party have grabbed land that was donated for a hospital project in Punjab province. When the donor made an official complaint, hired thugs attacked his property and a witness to the event, and threatened the donor and […]

Dear Friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you that the three human rights defenders who are leading a campaign against the operation of a nuclear power plant in the province of Bataan, have received threatening messages on their mobile phones. The threats began when they started assisting three other campaigners […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the safety of three Human Rights Defenders, who are grassroots labour leaders that advocate protection of labour rights. The three persons have been the object of continuing threats, intimidation and surveillance by soldiers in their village for defying the former’s demand to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) that two cars are belonging to the family of Angkhana Neelaphaijit, a prominent human rights defender, were broken into this month. The break-ins followed her urging a special investigation unit under the justice ministry to […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to inform you that the three human rights lawyers, whose names were included in the list of targets in a leaked document reportedly created by the military, have filed a petition for a Writ of Amparo to seek judicial protection. The writ is a remedy […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to share brief profiles of those listed as targets in a recently a leaked document, allegedly belonging to the Philippine military. Many are human rights defenders, and knowledge of their work and backgrounds may help give some insight into why members of their government may […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Human Rights Alert (HRA), a human rights organisation based in Imphal, Manipur state, concerning the threats to life faced by the a witness to torture and murder, committed by the Assam Rifles. On 16 May the Assam Rifles arrested Mr. Pebam Gunendro […]