Open Letter

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has, like you, watched with great alarm at the spiralling effects of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) and the apparent inability of the global community, despite good efforts, to respond effectively to what is evidently a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions: unprecedented, because the long-term consequences may exceed even […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes your intervention for the people of Burma but is saddened by how meagre the assistance the Government of the Philippines ought to provide. As it has been widely reported, you have already ordered that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Health (DOH) to create […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the news that Thailand has given some assistance for the people of Myanmar (Burma) in the aftermath of the cyclone that has devastated the lower part of the country, but strongly feels that far more could be done. According to the information we have received to date, the […]

by the Chairperson of the AHRC SRI LANKA: Justice and peace: a reply by the AHRC Chairperson to the Secretary The secretary general, SCOPP, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, has written a letter regarding several comments on peace and justice written by the Asian Human Rights Commission and signed by its Executive Director Basil Fernando dated May […]

May 5th 2008 Mr. Lasantha Wickramatunga – The Editor The Sunday Leader Leader Publications (Pvt) Ltd. 24, Katukurunduwatte Road, Ratmalana  Sri Lanka Fax : +94-75-365891  email : editor@thesundayleader.lk Dear Mr. Wickramatunga, We are sending the reply of the Asian Human Rights Commission to the column written by Pachoris. Since Pachoris refers to the AHRC and to […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has been informed by your letter dated 9 April 2008 to Danilo Reyes, programme assistant of the AHRC, of the case of Maricel Mahinay and her son, John Paul. As you are aware, Maricel died on 31 October, 2007, due to illness aggravated by lack of food and medicines and […]

April 14, 2008 Mr. C.R. De Silva the Hon. Attorney General  Attorney General’s Department Colombo 12 SRI LANKA Fax: +94 11 2 436 421 Dear Mr. De Silva, Re: Case No. HC326/03 – Request for appeal against the acquittal at the Negombo High Court in the judgement – denial of right to an adequate remedy […]

We reproduce below a letter written to the Vice Chancellor of the Sri Jayawardenapura Univestiy and the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission regarding the complaint of several academics who fear foul play which will result in discrimination against them in the appointment of an associate professor who does not meet the required qualifications.   […]

Case against Makavitage Suresh Gunasena and five others vs. The State  We wish to bring to your notice that in the aforementioned case the High Court judge of Negombo acquitted the six accused in this case blaming the failed prosecution on the Attorney General’s department. We believe the judgment to be clearly wrong in law and […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to congratulate you on your appointment as the Minister of Justice of South Korea last Friday, 29 February 2008. The AHRC welcomes your inauguration remarks in which you stressed the realisation of human dignity and human values by way of protecting human rights in the process of investigation. […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you today to express grave concern regarding information it has received that witnesses and victims in cases where the police are the alleged perpetrators are from the end of the month to be offered protection by police rather than officers under your Ministry. According to the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing this special appeal to you out of grave concern that a person currently being detained in Myanmar is going blind as a result of being denied urgently needed medical treatment. The detainee in question is U Than Lwin, 70, who was an elected member of parliament (National […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) congratulates you on your appointment as Minister of Justice of Thailand. You will be aware that in recent days a number of cases have surfaced that have again brought considerable negative attention to the work of the police force and paramilitary groups in Thailand. Among them is the widely-reported […]

January 21, 2008 I am writing this as a recipient of the Gwangju Human Rights Award to discharge an obligation I owe as a recipient of this award. One of the reasons for granting this award has been the interest to promote the spirit of the Gwangju uprising. The people who sacrificed their lives in […]

Mr. Mohmoodul Hassan, son of Mohammad Hassan, residing at Lohta village, Varanasi district has been suffering from tuberculosis for the past 22 years.  Mohmoodul was diagnosed of having tuberculosis by the Banaras Hindu University Hospital in Varanasi. Mohmoodul is a handloom weaver.  Because of abject poverty and the lack of a proper income due to […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you today to draw your attention to the systematic targetting of members of a human rights group by the authorities in Myanmar, and to call for you to work closely with other United Nations special procedures and bodies on their behalf. As you are aware, there […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has obtained an account of how a Singaporean citizen, living and working in Burma, was arbitrarily fired upon by Myanmar soldiers even though he and his wife were not involved in any demonstration and in fact, were not anywhere near a demonstration in Yangon on September 27, 2007. The following […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you concerning the dramatic and rapidly worsening events in Myanmar of the last few weeks, about which you are fully aware. Many persons around the world maintain that Myanmar’s neighbours are largely responsible for the propping up of its military dictatorship, which but for the Association […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is writing to you further to our letter of August 24 concerning the protests in Myanmar (Burma) following the dramatic increases in fuel prices there of the same month. In our previous letter, we urged you to pay serious attention to the small but burgeoning demonstrations in August, and […]

I am writing this to convey some basic concerns of a group of lawyers, judges and human rights defenders who met at Hong Kong from the 17th to the 21st September to discuss the impact of delays in the administration of justice on the lives of people and on the protection and promotion of human […]