Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Dr Mizanur Rahman yesterday questioned the sincerity of law enforcing agencies to take necessary steps to stop killing of bloggers one after another. “How long the law enforcers will be sleeping and watching…
US Congresswoman Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D, HI-02), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, has introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on Bangladesh government to increase human rights protections, strengthen democratic institutions, and prevent the…
We the undersigned express our profound dismay and disquiet at the continued official harassment by the central government of leading human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and Jawed Anand. Since the installation of the BJP led government in Delhi in May…
By Sujoy Dhar New Delhi, Jun (IPS) – Although forced prostitution and trafficking of women remains a huge challenge in India, health experts, policy-makers and legal advocates say that most of the country’s estimated four million commercial sex workers join…
New York – Thai authorities should immediately drop all charges and release unconditionally 14 student activists who peacefully expressed opposition to military rule. On June 26, 2015 in Bangkok, police and soldiers enforced a military court warrant to arrest 14…
Twenty-five years after the introduction of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Jammu and Kashmir, the law continues to feed a cycle of impunity for human rights violations, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. The report,…
Bangkok – The governments of Thailand andBurma should immediately end discrimination and other rights abuses against the Moken, sea nomads who are among the few remaining hunter-gatherer populations in Southeast Asia, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today.…
Robert J. Burrowes In an article I wrote a year ago, the following words appeared: ‘If a child is crying and you comfort them, you will (presumably unintentionally) scare them out of feeling their sadness when, in fact, their crying…
Los Angeles – Thousands of families in the United States have been torn apart in recent years by detention and deportation for drug offenses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Disproportionately harsh laws and policies relating to…
Myanmar’s government is using threats, harassment and imprisonment to intimidate the media ahead of national elections later this year, Amnesty International said Wednesday. The London-based human rights group said efforts to restrict freedom of expression have intensified over the past…
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Dr Mizanur Rahman on Tuesday cautioned law enforcers so that they themselves do not become ‘terrorists’ while fighting against terrorism. “It’s the duty of law enforcers to ensure the security of the…
Hasina Ahmed, wife of BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed yesterday again urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to interfere to find out her husband–went disappeared on March 11 from a residence at city’s Uttara. Hasina Ahmed made the appeaifel, 53 days off…
Beirut – The first trial of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy was compromised by due process violations, the appearance of bias and an absence of conclusive evidence. He was convicted on April 21, 2015, and sentenced to 20 years in…
Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh and Myanmar must do more to protect vulnerable refugees – particularly Myanmar’s stateless Rohingya Muslims – from being victimised by human traffickers, says Fortify Rights, a U.S.-based human rights advocacy group. A year-long investigation by the grop…
Emma Daly Roksana and Beauty lingered outside that fateful morning two years ago – neither wanted to go inside to start turning out jeans and shirts in the factories housed in Rana Plaza the day after they had been evacuated…
By Kanya D’Almeida and Naimul Haq DHAKA, Apr 2015 (IPS) – Some say they were beaten with iron bars. Others confess their families have been threatened with death. One pregnant woman was assaulted with metal curtain rods. These are not…
The High Court on Monday ordered the police to continue their regular operation to trace missing BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed and submit their progress report to the Home Ministry over the next six months. An HC bench comprising Justice Quamrul…
Amid the growing demand by all the candidates that the Election Commission must ensure fair polls in the three city corporation elections, Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Monday reaffirmed that their top priority is to hold credible elections…
Meenakshi Ganguly Two new shooting incidents in India where suspects died under fire from the police shows once again the need for urgent reform. During a police operation this week to combat sandalwood smuggling in Andhra Pradesh state, 20 loggers…
Alba Morales The murder charge against Michael Slager, the South Carolina police officer who fatally shot 50-year-old Walter Scott in the back on April 4, is unusual. Between 2005 and 2011 murder or manslaughter charges were brought against just 41officers…
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Ravina Shamdasani made the following statement on Thursday. We urgently call on the Government of Bangladesh to halt the execution of Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, which is reportedly imminent, following…
Hasina Ahmed, wife of disappeared BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed yesterday submitted another memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking her intervention to trace her husband. She handed over the memorandum to an office assistant of the Prime Minister’s Office. Hasina…
New York – The Bangladesh Supreme Court’s rejection on April 6, 2015, of the death penalty review petition for Muhammed Kamaruzzaman permits his imminent execution despite a seriously flawed trial, Human Rights Watch said today. Kamaruzzaman, a leader of the…
A BNP delegation on Wednesday demanded army deployment during the elections to Dhaka south and Dhaka north and Chittagong city corporations to maintain law and order. “We demanded deployment of army in the three city corporations’ polls in he interest…
Sr BJP leader Dr. Subramanian Swamy in a statement issued in New Delhi on Monday has termed Bnp spokesperson Salahuddin’s disappearance episode as shocking, according to a message received in Dhaka The abduction of Bangladesh’s BNP spokesperson Salahuddin Ahmed, on…
The horrifying murder of a blogger who was hacked to death in Dhaka this morning, the second violent killing of a Bangladeshi blogger in a month, must be a ‘wake up call’ to the authorities on the need to create…
As candicates have collected nomination papers for the city elections in Dhaka and Chittagong, the pulse of the atmosphere in the two primier cities of the country have started going up. On Sunday food minister Quamrul Islam in an apparent…
The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law that gave authorities powers to jail people for offensive online posts, a verdict hailed as a victory for free speech in the world’s largest growth market for the Internet. Section…
Chattagram Unnayan Andolon, a citizens’ platform, on Wednesday decided to endorse current Chittagong City Corporation mayor Monjurul Alam as a mayoral candidate for the upcoming CCC mayor election. Andolon convener and Chittagong University teacher Prof Abul Kalam Azad announced this…
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad yesterday turned down a request for extension of deadline for submission of nomination paper of Dhaka and Chittagong city corporation elections by two or three days. Rejecting the Shoto Nagorik Committee proposal for…