Kolkata-based human rights orgnaisation Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) of West Bengal has condenmed a police raid in its office on 27 September 2008. Issuing a press statement, MASUM said the raid from three policemen in plain clothes was related to a writ petition filed by MASUM challanging the police authority to file a case [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA's Pakistan based member Human Rights Commission for Pakistan (HRCP) has called on the authority to address the plight of the people living in the militancy-hit area of Swat. The statement, issued on 25 September 2008 and undersigned by Chairperson Asma Jhagir, said that the human rights situation in the area was alarming and was [ Read more ]

Think Centre joins the nation in mourning the loss of Singapore's indomitable lion in politics today. Veteran opposition MP and former Secretary-General of Workers' Party (WP), Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam or JBJ as we fondly know him as, died of heart failure at the age of 82. JBJ received his training in law and was at [ Read more ]

The Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Union (KCTU), who representated 18 civil societies in the Republic of Korea, recently conducted a research on the human rights in Orissa, India.  Conducted from 26 April to 6 May, the research was related to the establishment of a steel plant by [ Read more ]

Concerns have been raised over the enforced disappearance of five monks from the Ramoche Temple in Lhasa, whose whereabouts have been unknown since a midnight raid carried out by Public Security Bureau (PSB) and People's Armed Police (PAP) on 7 April 2008. According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), three of [ Read more ]

September 23, 2008 marked the 1,700th day that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun have spent in prison for a crime they did not commit. Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, the two men continue to serve 20-year prison sentences for the murder of trade union leader Chea Vichea. Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, [ Read more ]

Odhikar, a Bangladeshi human rights organisation and FORUM-ASIA's member based in Dhaka, has published a nine-month report on the human rights situation of the country on 1 October 2008. The report, from 1 Januarny to 30 September 2008, stated that the extrajudicial killings remain a major challenge to human rights in Bangladesh that saw a [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA member based in Dhaka Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) has released its 2007 human rights report on the country situation. The report lays out key developments related to human rights and citizens' security – most particularly the State of Emergency – as they unfolded in 2007. It outlines legislative and institutional developments and judgments [ Read more ]

Under the regime of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the small island nation of the Maldives has suffered 30 years of repression through the use of patronage and subservience, coercive institutions of the State and systematic abuse of religion. Human rights defenders, in particular, have been targeted and face brutality, torture and a muzzle on their freedom [ Read more ]

FORUM-ASIA’s member in Nepal, Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), reported that four human rights defenders (HRDs) have been killed this year, while in 2007, a journalist, three social activists and eight teachers were killed. In the same year (2007), a total of 378 HRDs were victimised by the state and non-state actors; while in 2006, [ Read more ]