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by Basil Fernando It must have been somebody’s idea that judicial independence in Sri Lanka must be destroyed. When the idea was first generated we do not know. It is possible that it arose more or less at the same time as the 1962 coup. Those were wild times for some people who had enjoyed […]

by Basil Fernando On the 19th October 2014 BBC Sinhala Service broadcast, the United National Party Member of Parliament Ranjan Ramanayake, complained that there was a plan to assassinate him due to his participation in a televised debate. On air, he had provided details of the information he had received regarding the alleged assassination plan. […]

भारत के कैलाश सत्यार्थी और पाकिस्तान के मलाला दोनों को बच्चों के अधिकार और शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में काम करने के लिये संयुक्त रुप से नोबल पुरस्कार से नवाजा गया है। भारत, पाकिस्तान जैसे पिछड़े देशों में बच्चों की शिक्षा एक बड़ी समस्या रही है। पिछले सप्ताह राजस्थान के बगड़ में शिक्षा पर काम करने […]

by Danilo Reyes (Note: this article was first published in the October 12, 2014 issue of the Sunday Examiner) Poverty reflects a failure of the government not the person. Seven years ago, my first cousin, 22-year –old Maricel Mahinay, died from an illness aggravated by severe malnutrition. She was three months pregnant. Her death came […]

by Basil Fernando As the possibility of an election has become a “hot topic” of the day, with it has emerged the problem of the 1978 Constitution and the system of the Executive Presidency, as a sharp point of contest and debate in Sri Lanka. In the midst of this unfolding scenario, President Rajapaksa, in […]

by Avinash Pandey They did not speak Kannada, the language of the state they live in. They, therefore, were “legitimate” targets of violence in a city that has benefitted the most from India’s shift from Nehruvian Socialism to free market economy. The fact that they contribute to the city, and the province’s income, meant nothing. […]

The right to a fair trial is a universally recognized human right, enshrined in international law in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the “UDHR”) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the “ICCPR”). Fair trial rights are also guaranteed in Article 24 of the Interim Constitution of Nepal. The right to […]

by Laksiri Fernando “Autobiography is about change; it narrates a series of transformations. This is an expectation we bring to any autobiographical text.”  –  Carolyn Barros When I picked Basil Fernando’s Nitignayekuge Papochcharanaya hewath Mage Kathawa(A Confession of a Lawyer or My Story), admirably written in excellent Sinhala, I got what I reasonably expected. It […]

A tribute by Bushra Khaliq Well done, Malala! Every Pakistani is proud of you. Today you have made our head high. After Dr. Abdus Salam, Malala is second person who has shown other side of Pakistan and introduced terror-torn Pakistan’s soft face to the world and provided us a moment of real joy. For all […]

by Jack Clancey During this past week, Central was occupied by thousands of demonstrators, as was Admiralty, Wanchai, Causeway Bay, and other parts of Hong Kong. The key question being asked is: What needs to be done to end the demonstrations? One of the two key demands of the leaders of the Occupy Central movement […]

वि.सं. १९९७ मा बाग्लुङगका भगवत सर्वजित विश्वकर्मालगायतले सुरु गरेको छुवाछुतविरोधि जनै अभियानदेखि नेपाली दलित आन्दोलनको सुरुवात भएको मानिन्छ । त्यसपछि २०११ सालमा सहर्षनाथ कपाली, सिद्धीबहादुर खड्गी र गणेश योगीको सक्रियतामा पशुपतिनाथको मन्दिर प्रवेश आन्दोलन, २०१७ सालमा तिखे नगर्ची र टीकाराम पार्कीको नेतृत्वमा डोटीको शैलेश्वरी मन्दिर प्रवेश आन्दोलन, २०२१ सालमा भोजपुर जिल्लामा पदम सुन्दास र लालकुमारी […]

Following is a poetic response to ASIA: Wounds in the souls of the members of disappeared people’s families can never be cured, which appeared yesterday (September 26, 2014) by John Joseph Clancey Will there be another tomorrow? Or, just another wife’s sorrow, caused by her husband’s disappearance? Will I hear my new-born baby’s cry? Or, […]

by Basil Fernando – Right Livelihood Award laureate 2014 (An article issued on the occasion of receiving the Right Livelihood Award – 2014) There are many ways of looking at poverty and its causes. The most common way is to see poverty as the absence of the most meagre of resources for living. In other […]

by Basil Fernando – Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2014 (This is an article issued on the occasion of receiving the Right Livelihood Award-2014) In 1989 when I learned that some people, due to malice or some other reason unknown to me, had entered my name into a list of persons to be disappeared, a stream […]

by Bushra Khaliq The 2014 floods in Pakistan is the fifth in series of floods since 1973, 1988, 1992 and 2010. This time the late monsoon rains [in the early part of] September unleashed terrific floods in Central Punjab. Swollen rivers, particularly the Chenab breached floodwalls, sweeping away thousands of villages and the Government despite […]

[On 22nd of September, last year] was the day when peaceful Christians of Kohati Gate, Peshawar  assembled for the Sunday prayer service inside the All Saint’s Church in Peshawar where they were cowardly attacked by a terrorist outfit. The attack resulted in nearly about 130 causalities and over 250 injuries. The world noticed the deadliest […]

by Professor Sunanda Mahendra Basil Fernando is a poet cum lawyer and bilingual writer who lives in Hong Kong. Apart form his day to day legal activities, he writes poems both in Sinhala and English. Several English poems have appeared in foreign learned journals. Quite recently one of his collections of English poems came to […]

by Nilantha Ilangamuwa “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried” ― Oscar A. Romero (1917 –1980) The earlier idea of the destruction of the social system and “establishment” of the social disorder was a systematic ideological option designed and driven by certain elite groups. It was merely an […]

गत १७ साउन राति सिन्धुपाल्चोकको जुरेमा गएको पहिरोका कारण ज्यान गुमाएका १५६ जनाको मृत्युको पीडा कम नहुँदै साउन २९ देखि परेको अविरल वर्षका कारण विशेष गरी बाँके, बर्दिया, दाङ, सुर्खेत र सल्यानलगायत देशका विभिन्न ठाउँमा बाढी पहिरोमा १ सय ५ जनाले ज्यान गुमाए। १ सय ३६ जना बेपत्ता भए भने २० हजारभन्दा बढी परिवार विस्थापित […]

After almost a year of conflict, the 7-article agreement between the CNRP and the CPP allowed 55 CNRP lawmakers-elect to take their National Assembly seats. Both parties claimed victory. But not everyone sees the accord in the same light. Mr. Brad Adams, Director of Asia for Human Rights Watch (HRW) sees the deal as terrible […]