Article

by Avinash Pandey* Aruna Shanbaug’s death does not either present a case for legalizing euthanasia or offer a case against it. Her death has nothing to do with that discourse, legitimate as it may be. Aruna Shanbaug’s case is about the rule of law in India. Her death, following 42 years of life in a […]

An Article by Basil Fernando  This is a speech delivered by Basil Fernando at  The Fifth  Human Rights Cities Forum-  As the Keynote address for the Special  Session on Asian Human Rights – Human Rights in Asia and Vision of Human Rights City- 16th May 2015. It is useful, I think, to recall the aims […]

by Basil Fernando A young man, then 18 years old, filed a communication on 28th January 2003, about an incident that took place on 18th April 2002. The UNHRC came to a finding on 14th July 2006. The UNHRC found that the Sri Lankan Government has violated the rights of the man by its failure to adjudicate […]

by Javeria Younes The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual discourse. The Bill has been presented in Parliament […]

Photograph by CJ Chanco © Note: this article was first published in latest issue of the Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives (Torture Magazine) by Danilo Reyes In August 2014, police arrested a Chinese national caught transporting ten kilos of high grade shabu (poor man’s cocaine) in his car in Quezon City. The suspect was visibly having difficulty understanding […]

Wolfgang Kaleck interviewed by John Clancey Wolfgang Kaleck is a German civil rights attorney and the General Secretary for the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights. Against huge odds he has sought prosecution charges against a number of US officials and personnel in connected with the alleged human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib and […]

බාගෙට හැදූ නිවසක් තුළ පට්ටානි රසීක්ගේ මළ සිරුර වළ දැමීම බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු විසිනි වාලච්චේනේ උඞ්ඩමාවෙලි ප‍්‍රදේශයේ දුර බැහැර ගම්මානයක බාගෙට නිම කළ නිවසක් තුළ පට්ටානි රසීක්ගේ සිරුර වළ දැමීම  ඕනෑම රහස් පරීක්ෂකයෙකුගේ පරිකල්පනය දල්වන සිද්ධියකි. කෙසේ නමුත් 2010 ජූලි 28 වැනිදා ඔහුගේ මළ සිරුර සොයාගැනීමෙන් පසුව මේ සිද්ධිය ද වළ දමා තිබේ. අද දක්වා ද […]

by Basil Fernando  The discovery of the body of Pattini Razeek buried under a half-built private house, in a remote village on Uddamaveli, in Valaichchenai, would have flared up the imagination of any detective. However, despite of the discovery on 28th July 2010, the case itself, remained buried till to date. Mr Pattini Razeek who […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015; this is the third article in the series. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual discourse. The Bill […]

by Javeria Younes The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015; this is the third article in the series. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015; this is the third article in the series. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual discourse. The Bill […]

by Basil Fernando  Last week, 23 April 2014, the television programme ‘Sathyagaraya’ – a Sinhala language programme telecast by the Independent Television Network (ITN) and produced by Upul Shantha Sannasagala – broadcast a long conversation with Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasignhe. Our concern in this article, is about one particular question raised by the producer, Mr […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015; this is the second article in the series. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual discourse. The Bill […]

by Avinash Pandey  Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan hung himself from a tree in the middle of a political rally against the Union government’s indifference to the plight of peasants. His suicide, recorded and broadcast live, has brought the horrors that plague the countryside straight into the discomfort of the homes of everyone with […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has initiated a series of articles on the proposed Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2015; this is the first article in the series. The Bill has draconian provisions that seek to muzzle the freedom of expression and speech over the Internet to discourage dissent and stifle intellectual discourse. The Bill […]

එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම (UNHRC) විසින්, පොලිස් භාරයේදී සිදුවූ මරණයක් සඳහා පොලිසිය, වෝහාරිකව්‍යාධිවේදියා, නීතිපතිවරයා හා, නීති සහන සැලසීමට අසමත් වීමසම්බන්ධයෙන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයද වැරදි බව සොයාගනියි බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු 2015 අප්‍රේල් 1 වැනිදා එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම විසින් නිකුත් කරන ලද එක් නිර්ණයනයකින් හෙළි වන්නේ පොලිසිය, වෝහාරික ව්‍යාධිවේදියා, නීතිපතිවරයා සහ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය යන රජයේ ආයතන, 2003 ජූලි 26 වැනිදා මොරගහහේන පොලිසියේ සිදුවූ රැුකවරණ මනුෂ්‍ය ඝාතනයක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අතිශයින්ම සාවද්‍ය බවයි. ප්‍රශ්නගත සිද්ධිය විමසා බැලීම සඳහා පහත සඳහන් කමිටු සාමාජිකයෝ සහභාගි වූහ: යාද් බෙන් […]

by Basil Fernando A determination issued by the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee on 1st April 2015, reveals extraordinary failures on the part of Sri Lankan State agencies – the police, the forensic pathologist, the Attorney General, and the Supreme Court – regarding a custodial death that took place at the Moragahahena Police Station on 26th July […]

by Tapan Bose*  Justice Dattu’s argument that the meeting was being held to save precious working days and meant no disrespect to the sentiments of India’s Christian minority has not gone down well among the Christians who have been facing violence from the forces of Hindutva. All across the country, churches have been attacked, vandalized, […]

by Danilo Reyes  (Note: this article was first published in the March 15, 2015 issue of the Sunday Examiner) The little girl asked me, “Why did you come here?” She is one of nearly 7,000 people holed up at an evacuation centre in Zamboanga City. Mostly Tausug people, one of the Moro ethnic groups in Mindanao and […]

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු විසිනි කටුගස්තොට, අඹතැන්න ප්‍රදේශයේ අට හැවිරිදි දරුවාගේ (ඇතැම් මාධ්‍ය ආයතනවලට අනුව දස හැවිරිදි දරුවෙකි) කතාව පසුගිය සතියේ ප්‍රවෘත්ති වාර්තා කිහිපයකින්ම හෙළිදරව් විය. සිය නැතිවූ දරුවා සම්බන්ධයෙන් දරුවාගේ මව කටුගස්තොට පොලිසියට සිය මූලික පැමිණිල්ල සිදුකළාය. මූලික වශයෙන්, පොලිසිය පැමිණිල්ල නොතකා හැරි අතර දරුවා සෙවීමේ කටයුතු ආරම්භ කිරීම සඳහා කිසිවක් නොකළේය. පොලිසිය මැදිහත් වූයේ කාන්තාවක් […]