Victims assistance & protection

PHILIPPINES: Torture victims whose complaints of injuries were ignored by doctors had their case dismissed

SPECIAL REPORT Torture in the Philippines & the unfulfilled promise of the 1987 Constitution Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt that two complaints of torture in Basilan province, Mindanao, which we asked the police to investigate were dismissed because they claimed the victims could not provide medical proof of their torture. […]

PHILIPPINES: Protect journalist facing threats to his life

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that a community journalist had been threatened for condemning the murder of his colleague in General Santos City. The threats made to him sent via his mobile phone cannot be taken lightly as there had been a pattern of targeted attacks against journalists […]

PHILIPPINES: Podcast – lack of legal protection to persons arrested for ‘common crimes’

(Hong Kong, January 26, 2012) In this episode of cast, the AHRC comments on two television reports that illustrate how fundamental rights to the fair trial of persons arrested by the police and held in custody were disregarded. In these reports by the ABS-CBNs local TV Patrol, a man was arrested for allegedly selling illegal […]

SRI LANKA: The New Year Wish List- 2012

All Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in the legal system. People reduced to powerlessness […]

PHILIPPINES: Aftermath of Mindanao disaster in pictures

Dear friends, Further to our earlier appeal, we would like to share some of the select photographs from concerned individuals in cities of Cagayan de Oro  and Iligan, among the hardest hit areas in northern Mindanao, have been posting online and in social networking sites illustrating the immensity of damage left by tropical storm Sendong. The purpose […]

PHILIPPINES: Appeal for relief aid and donations to Mindanao disaster victims

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is sharing with you the contact and bank details of groups in the Philippines who accept donations in cash and relief goods to disaster victims in Mindanao. This list is taken from the list collected by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a national daily newspaper also involved in relief mission. […]

PHILIPPINES: Inability to protect has created a ‘parallel system’

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today published its 25-page report containing its analyses on what it has observed as the irreparable ‘social and systemic impact’ of the ongoing violations of human rights in the […]

SRI LANKA: International human rights agencies failed to notice the collapse of the Sri Lanka’s public institutions of justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The international community, including leading human rights agencies and organisations, has failed to understand the depth of collapse of rule of law in Sri Lanka and have failed to make any effective intervention in this […]

BURMA: Abuses remain “systemic, entrenched”, AHRC warns

(Hong Kong, December 9, 2011) Despite signs of political change and the easing of restrictions on freedom of expression in Burma, rights abuses remain “systemic, deeply entrenched and vast in scale”, the Asian Human Rights Commission said today in its annual State of Human Rights in Asia report.   The 17-page Burma report, entitled “From blinkered […]

PAKISTAN: The government dodges the international community on civil and political rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The full report is available for download at http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2011/AHRC-SPR-008-2011/view. The state has become dysfunctional in providing basic human rights to the people. Though the parliament exists it either cannot assert its constitutional duties or does not […]

SOUTH KOREA: Human Rights in 2011 – Systematic setup to restrict rights vs. systematic failure to protect rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC is publishing the annual report on the State of Human Rights in South Korea in 2011. The full report is available […]

BANGLADESH: State appears bankrupt in protecting rights

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 International Human Rights Day is going to be ‘observed’ in Bangladesh amidst numerous victims facing gross abuses of human rights without an access to legal remedies from the existing criminal justice system. On the eve […]

INDIA: Human rights a utopia without justice

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 The state of human rights in a country is directly proportional to the extent of justice achieved in that jurisdiction. Justice is not a physically quantifiable concept. It is “truth in action” as held by […]

NEPAL: Commitments to accountability and justice continue to be jeopardized in 2011

Statement | Nepal | 07-12-2011

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the 63rd Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission is releasing its annual report on the state of human rights protection in Nepal through 2011. The report is available here. Given […]

INDONESIA: Human Rights in 2011 – The Decay of Pancasila and Constitutional Protections

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011 the AHRC publishes its annual report on the State of Human Rights in Indonesia in 2011. The full report will be made available […]

SRI LANKA: Cancer patient who was trafficked for organ smuggling is facing denial of justice and protection

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information about an attempt by an unknown group of people to illegally traffic the organs of a cancer patient in Sri Lanka. Ms. TC Kanthi (38) of Ibbankatuwa, Dambulla in the Matale District went for medical treatment to the Cancer Clinic at Kandy Teaching Hospital on 16 […]

SRI LANKA: The absence of justice hurts even more than murder

We have received a rather strange comment on our previous statement Duminda Silva is above the law by a Mr. Rohan Salgadoe which we quote below: Please note. This picture might hurt and make the family members of Mr. Lakshman Premachandta aggrieved further which should not be the policy of AHRC. The family had suffered enough and […]

INDONESIA: Abduction and enforced disappearance victims status certificate; a state obligation to search for victims and provide legal certainty

“I cannot answer and confused when people ask about the status of my child who was involuntary disappeared….” (Paian Siahaan, Father of Ucok Munandar Siahaan) Granting a Certificate of Status to Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance is a good move by Komnas HAM in the absence of state accountability in the cases of the […]

SRI LANKA: Narratives of Torture

Fabrication of Charges, delayed for 08 Years.  Pathrage Don Jayathilaka is a 56 years old unmarried farmer. He is a resident of Molkava, a village in the Kalutara district. His brother P. D Sunil, is a stickman and also a drunker. Because of his brother’s illness, the Baduraliya police used to arrest Jayathilaka instead of his brother. In every […]

PHILIPPINES: Another torture and detention of a man in place of the real accused

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern regarding the continued detention of another man whom soldiers illegally arrested and tortured in custody in the place of the real accused. The soldiers, who have no police power to implement an arrest took him into custody supposedly for a bomb blast in […]