Violence against women

INDIA: Release NBA activists now, stop drowning people without rehabilitation

Statement | India | 08-08-2017

The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly condemns yesterday’s late evening attack on Narmada Bachao Andolan’s peaceful sit-in and fast by the Madhya Pradesh state police. The police forcibly arrested Ms. Medha Patkar and 11 others and have detained them. The activists were protesting against Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to submerge the area violating the Supreme Court of […]

PAKISTAN: Without respect for law, legal profession will flounder

The darker side of Pakistan’s lawyers’ cartel has been exposed in the case of law student Khadija Siddiqui, who was stabbed 23 times by her class fellow, Shah Husain, the son of a senior Supreme Court lawyer. After this horrific attack, Khadija could not find a single lawyer to take up her case. Being the […]

INDIA: Inter-caste marriages attract familial vengeance and apathy from authorities

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Love Commandos, a New-Delhi based volunteer organization dedicated to assisting couples who face familial or societal opposition to their marriages regarding the case of Uma Bharti and Ravi Kant Meena, who married of their own free will, and are now being violently separated […]

INDIA: Two Sikkimese domestic workers stranded, tortured in Saudi Arabia

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding two Sikkimese women, employed as domestic workers, who are stranded in Saudi Arabia, They have made an emergency call to their family begging to be rescued, alleging that they are being tortured, their passports confiscated and that they are confined to a […]

PAKISTAN: State failure allows jirga to order ‘revenge rape’

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is horrified by the news of the rape of a 17-year-old on the orders of a jirga (tribal council). The girl from the Rajpur area of Multan, Punjab province, was raped to avenge the rape committed by her brother. When a jirga was convened and informed that Umer sexually […]

INDIA: Woman in Kerala shamed by police when reporting a case of molestation

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from Nervazhi, our partner organization in Kerala, regarding the abusive behaviour of the police towards a woman who complained about sexual assault in Thrissur, Kerala. CASE NARRATIVE: The complainant S, (40), is a social worker who fights for issues related to women’s rights. […]

PAKISTAN: Young woman gang raped and blackmailed into marriage by traffickers

Dear Friends The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the gang rape of a young woman. The rape was recorded and she was blackmailed into marriage. The perpetrators have links to a trafficking gang operating under the patronage of the Gujrat city administration and police. The modus operandi of the gang […]

PAKISTAN: Family of extra-judicially killed Bhutto brothers needs protection

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the abduction of a minor from the Bhutto family home. Previously, two brothers from this family were abducted, disappeared and extra-judicially killed. A video of their sister went viral on social and electronic media. She was narrating how persons from military intelligence […]

PAKISTAN: Call for action against district police officers in gang rape of constable’s daughter

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the gang rape of a constable’s daughter by influential persons. The district police of Jacobabad, Sindh province, are trying to protect the perpetrators. They have tampered with evidence and are making it difficult for the victim’s family to seek justice. At the same […]

AHRC TV: Videos of police brutality in Pakistan and other stories in JUST ASIA, Episode 178

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. […]

INDIA: Abduction and sexual abuse of an actress, and the cacophony so far exposes the putrid social culture in Kerala

Statement | India | 06-07-2017

On 17 February 2017, in Kerala, a criminal gang abducted and sexually assaulted an actress. The lady was travelling in a car, when a group of persons brought the car to a stop creating an accident, and forced themselves into the vehicle in which the lady was travelling. It is alleged that the men sexually […]

PAKISTAN: State sanctioned police brutality against women must stop

A video has recently surfaced in Pakistan, where a contingent of police officers can be seen baton charging a group of unarmed women mill workers protesting in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. The scuffle occurred inside the district court of Muzaffargarh in broad daylight, yet the judicial officer never took any action against the erring police officers, nor […]

INDIA: Weed out the rogues in uniform rather than trivialising rape

Article | India | 30-06-2017

by Avinash Pandey ‘Why do armed women cut off a particular organ of Indian soldiers engaged in combating armed insurgencies across India, be it Punjab, Kashmir, Arunachal, Assam, Bengal or Jharkhand?’ asked senior opposition leader Azam Khan. The insinuation was unmistakable, and it had a basis: armed Maoists had indeed chopped off private parts of Central Reserve […]

SRI LANKA: Woman sexually assaulted in her home by a Police Officer seeks Justice

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received reliable information about a woman, Mrs. X, resident of Kebithigollewa Police Division in Anuradhapura District. She was sexually assaulted by a Police Sergeant attached to the Public Relations Unit of the Kebithigollewa Headquarters Police Station. This police officer allegedly entered the woman’s house without any legitimate […]

INDIA: A ‘stain-less’ government amidst bloodstains on the streets

by Avinash Pandey ‘There are no stains on my government,’ said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the United States of America. This can only mean that the Prime Minister thinks the bloodstains of innocent Indians are not stains. In actual fact, no one can remember another time when so much blood was […]

PAKISTAN: Government before UN committee reluctant to make law against torture

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture The government of Pakistan has stated before the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT) that it does not intend to set-up legislation against torture and ill-treatment. On May 13, 2017 during the UN review, […]

INDIA: Release Rohingya Muslims languishing in Bengal prisons

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information from its partner organization, MASUM in West Bengal regarding the abuse of Rohingya Muslims in Bengal. They have fled their homes in Burma to escape the violence and human rights abuses but have been arrested on charges of coming into India without documentation. […]

PAKISTAN: Travesty of justice in the name of jirga

Women in Pakistan continue to be prey to jirgas, a parallel justice system held by the influential and landed aristocracy. Rape victims and their parents are forced by jirgas to make out of court settlements or otherwise the rape survivors will be declared as Kari, liable to be killed by anyone. In the latest such […]

BURMA/MYANMAR: Soldiers who raped teenage girl not punished for crime

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained information that two soldiers in the north of Burma (Myanmar) raped a 17-year-old girl. Although the girl and her family complained promptly after the rape, in April 2014, up to now they have no evidence of action being taken against the soldiers. The whereabouts of […]

INDIA: Arbitrary death sentencing policy must go

Statement | India | 22-05-2017

On May 5, 2017, the Supreme Court of India(SC) passed the much-awaited judgment in the case of Mukesh & Anr. Vs the State for NCT of Delhi & Ors. or more colloquially known as the ‘Nirbhaya’ case. The gangrape and murder of the 23year old physiotherapy student in New Delhi on the night of Dec 16, 2012 shook […]