Forwarded Article

An article from Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The government has finally formed a Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED) and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as committed to in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006. On February 9, a Recommendation Committee recommended names for the respective commissions with political consensus, […]

More than a month after the deadly attack on Army Public School Peshawar, the tragedy is still under thick impenetrable clouds. The uncertainty about what the Prime Minister termed ‘a national tragedy’ persists with no one even making an effort to fathom. According to umpteen media reports about the December 16th attack, all one could […]

An article from the Kathmandu Post, written by Ram Bhandari forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission On January 13, a Recommendation Committee made public a list of 68 people, mostly lawyers, political affiliates and ex-bureaucrats, for election to two transitional justice commissions—the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission on Enforced Disappearance (CED). […]

Universal Periodic review UPR is one of the significant UN mechanism through which a comprehensive overview of human rights profile of each UN member country is periodically made. The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) made the review of Pakistan at the 11th meeting on 30th October 2012 in 14th session. Whereas the Working Group […]

Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law is once again in the headlines. The world’s media is talking about Aasia Bibi’s enraging and sorrowful story. She was accused of blasphemy in 2009 and since 2010 has been on death row. But on October 16th the Lahore High Court rejected her appeal, and her suffering because of the country’s blasphemy […]

As protests in Hong Kong continue, there are growing fears of a crackdown. But the use of force would not work as it would ruin people’s trust in good governance, human rights lawyer Basil Fernando tells DW.  Despite fear of an escalation, pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong remained peaceful on Wednesday, October 1, as China […]

Two years ago on 11th September  2012 a third degree fire broke out at the Ali Enterprises, garment factory in the industrial area of Karachi, where  259 workers perished – burnt alive. It was one of the most devastating tragedies known in the history of the garment industry. The tragedy sparked a debate but on a […]

by Kee Thuan Chye “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.” I hope this famous quotation that has been variously attributed to Sophocles, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Anderson Scott holds true for Malaysia, where the Barisan Nasional-led government appears to have gone crazy from its recent untrammelled and unreasonable use […]

An article from the ‘The Himalayan Times’ forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission by Govinda Sharma ” Bandi” We just marked one more International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, but without any significant progress in terms of addressing the past disappearances in Nepal. Enforced disappearances were among the most serious human rights […]

French philosopher Michel Foucault, in his book Madness and Civilization, reveals the other side of madness. He links our narrow understanding of madness with the development of civilization, emphasizing that deviance and transgression are all mirrors of society and hence, should be analyzed properly to understand the society we live in. Foucault’s objective was also […]

by Kishali pinto jayawardena The Government’s boast this week that the Colombo High Court’s conviction of a local authority chairman and three of his henchmen for the 2012 Christmas Eve murder of a British tourist and the brutal rape of his girlfriend ‘proves’ the independence of Sri Lanka’s judiciary is grossly inappropriate in the context […]

by Dipendra Jha Courtesy : Kathmandu Post  A cartoon depicting the face of the Chief Justice hovering above a coconut tree was published on 6 November 1996 in the weekly newspaper “Bimarsa“. The CJ was caricatured as being asked to throw a file titled “Tanakpur Agreement” to the opposition and ruling leaders, who were standing […]

An article from the ‘The Island’ forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission by Maheen Senanayake “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another.” – Thomas Jefferson I found Mr. Upul Jayasuriya, incumbent head of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, getting ready for the customary BASL meeting on […]

The writer is the Pakistani Executive Director of the Center for Research and Security Studies, a think tank established in 2007, and an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas, five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa. For every single […]

Dear friends,  We wish to share with you the following article from The Sunday Times, written by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena. Asian Human Rights Commission  Hong Kong ————- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-FAT-017-2014 June 15, 2014 An article from The Sunday Times forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Advocating A Different Political Project by […]

FOCUS ON RIGHTS Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, The Sunday Times, May 25th 2014 It would be a fair guess to say that not even the most perceptive amongst us could have predicted the extreme degeneration of the police service and most unfortunately, the country’s judicial institution, in post-war Sri Lanka. Taking the road less traversed This week, […]

Demands a Commission of Inquiry covering at least last three years May 24, 2014, 7:24 pm The Standing Committee of the Rule of Law of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has issued a strong statement condemning the death of criminal suspects in police custody saying that the “acceptance of such blatant manifest untruths has […]

(Courtesy, Sunday Island of 11th May and 18th May 2014) What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. You might cynically apply this old aphorism to the judicial mind and judicial matters in Sri Lanka. Increasingly, the grey matter of intelligence, erudition, wisdom and independence is becoming too scarce in Sri Lanka’s judicial mind, and […]

I held back on writing about the extremely traumatic experience of Naomi Coleman, 37, mental health nurse in Coventry, England. I am very glad I opted to be less than current since I felt I needed other’s opinions before expressing mine. All I spoke with from senior diplomats and retired government officers who held top […]

JC Weliamuna Ms. Naomi Michelle Coleman, a British Tourist with wide travel experience in many Buddhist Countries who had a large tattoo of the Buddha and of a Hindu God on a lotus flower on her right arm, arrived in Sri Lanka on 21st April 2014. She passed through immigration counters and came out of […]