Columns

Imbibed in the colonial policies of British Raj prior the partition of India, 1947, whereby, in response to their support to British to suppress and rule the people; the local landlords, Pirs and Mirs, Chaudharis, Sardars and Maliks, were awarded large chunks of land and their fiefdoms were patronized by the British in today’s Pakistan. […]

West Papua, the easternmost island under Indonesia’s control, is a land beset by troubles. Rarely a week goes by without news of some new tragedy in a relentless conflict that has endured and evolved over fifty years. Last June has been a particularly bloody one: troops have gone on the rampage in Wamena, burning houses […]

It was not in my schedule to write an article for publication today. But I sensed anticipation by some readers – and perhaps by the Phnom Penh regime itself. To Cambodians cowed by authorities, this article stands to remind that rights and justice are worth fighting for, and dictators must know it is human nature […]

In a horrifying case, which has recently been displayed widely in national and international newspapers and TV channels, a new born girl buried alive by her father in the city of Khanewal in province of Punjab, Pakistan. The local police have arrested the father accused of burying his daughter. It was informed that due to […]

An article by Ou Ritthy published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Ou Ritthy At first, I could not recognize the group of noisy skinny youths, about 20 in all, with dyed hair, ragged jeans and colorful shirts, drinking beer in this remote village in Pursat where I live. Their clothes and behaviors tell me […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission The West and the East historically have differed in their traditional perspectives on how best to order society. The fundamental Western philosophy prioritizes the inviolability of individual freedom and rights; essential Eastern values favor societal stability and security above all. Over time, […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s victories in local elections were pre-ordained. Hun Sen rode to power under the guns of some 200,000 Vietnamese troops who crossed the border with Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1978, captured Phnom Penh in January […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Driving through America’s southern countryside of green fields and wild flowers, a flurry of thoughts overwhelm me as the words of a song reach my ears: “The banker man grows fatter, the working man grows thin; It’s all happened before and it’ll […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission We may never know what really happened when Cambodia’s eminent environmental activist Chut Wutty (46), father of two, head of the Natural Resource Protection Group, a Cambodian non-governmental organization fighting Cambodia’s deforestation, was shot and killed on April 26 at Veal Bei […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission I wrote in my last article in this space of the accumulating circumstances that compel a change in the current leadership of Cambodia. In Cambodia, the rich are getting richer while one-third of the population lives on less than US$0.61 per day. […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Talking about the need for political change in Cambodia gets “old.” I write aplenty in this space and elsewhere on the topic, yet Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party persists and keeps piling on more reasons why change […]

My article last month in this space brought comforting and kind words in e-mails from some Cambodian and non-Cambodian readers, to whom I am grateful. It’s they who encourage me to have hope in Cambodians’ abilities to find ways to effect change. I continue to receive requests from readers in Cambodia to provide translations from […]

An article by Om Prakash Sen Thakuri published by the Asian Human Rights Commission “Ghus linya ra dinya dubai deshka thula satruhun” “Both bribe takers and givers are the worst enemies of the nation”. King Prithivi Narayan Shah This stringent attitude towards corruption was expressed by late King Prithivi Narayan Shah, founder of new Nepal […]

An article by Lateef Mughal published by the Asian Human Rights Commission It is a fact that uninterrupted supply of electricity is the responsibility of a power utility, mostly owned by the governments across the world, but unfortunately in 2005 the previous government of Pervez Musharraf handed over the management of one of the major […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Something is changing within the Khmer nation. Those storied Khmer characteristics – the broad smile; the gentle, peaceful compassionate nature – and the centuries-old traditions of “korup, bamreur, karpier, smoh trang” — “respect, serve, defend, be loyal (to leaders)” — passed down […]

On February 17, a Karachi based charity ambulance service informed that the bodies of five newborn female children were discovered on a deserted place in Korangi, a densely populated squatter settlement in Karachi. The discovery of newborn dead bodies has been a common happening in Pakistan and such occurrence never received any specific attention from […]

Honour killings locally known as karo-kari are completely against the concept of Islam. The root of honour killings is centuries old and it is a practice followed before the Islamic era called Jahiliyah, the time of ignorance before the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Although such kind of practices are strictly forbidden in Islam it has still […]

An article by Stewart Sloan published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Racial discrimination is alive and well and living in Hong Kong, thank you very much. Although westerners might find this hard to believe, ask any Filipino, Thai, Indonesian or any other member of a minority group. Any one of these people will tell […]

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission My grandson, 12, a seventh grader, read “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror” (2004), a bestseller by a former Soviet prisoner, Natan Sharansky. He passed the book to me, saying I might be interested in […]

An article by Muhammad Boota Sarwar published by the Asian Human Rights Commission Food for All is the main theme of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) but the people living below poverty line are increasing day by day due to price hike and rising un-employment and estimated to cross 40% of the population, majority living […]