Statement

Prosecution in the Philippines  http://www.article2.org/mainfile.php/0701/307/ When the five senior public prosecutors, including the chief of the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (OCSP), were placed on an indefinite leave on 11 January 2009 to comply with orders from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it rather exposed the frailties and confirmed the widely acknowledged lack of independence of […]

Large crowds gathered to attend the funeral of the well-known journalist and editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga and protest against his assassination. Many participants wore black arm bands and scarves and in many other ways demonstrated their anger at this assassination and other similar incidents that have taken place in the country. At the funeral, speaker after […]

Ms. Zarina Marri, a 23-year-old schoolteacher from Balochistan province, was arrested in late 2005, and has been held incommunicado in an army torture cell at Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. She has been repeatedly raped by the military officers and is being used as a sex slave, to induce arrested nationalist activists to sign […]

The assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga, a veteran investigative journalist and the editor of the Sunday Leader, who has exposed corruption and abuse of power by the Rajapakse regime, has sparked the most widespread protest in recent times. Despite of the government’s extensive attempts to disclaim responsibility accusing fingers have been pointed at the government from […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission, which two days ago raised the alarm on the possibility of more political assassinations in Sri Lanka is saddened by the confirmation of this within less than 48 hours by the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga, a prominent journalist. The AHRC once more calls on the local and international community to […]

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a political party that has contested elections harnessing the Dalit votes. The BSP’s woman leader, Ms. Mayawati, a dalit herself, has been claiming that her party and the Uttar Pradesh state government she leads, is actively involved in trying to meliorate the living condition of the Dalit community.  The […]

The enquiry into the murder of four traders at Khalid Bin Waleed road, PECHS of Karachi-Sindh province has revealed ‘criminal negligence’ on the part of the police officers. The murder happened on the intervening night of 30 and 31 December 2008, which the police had thus far claimed as an incident of ‘encounter killing’.  The […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) congratulates the new state government of Jammu and Kashmir setup under the leadership of the Chief Minister Mr. Omar Abdullah. By their overwhelming participation, the people of the state have reiterated not only their belief in the pluralistic principle of democracy, but have also shown their lack of sentiments […]

The massive attack on the Sirasa TV station brings gloomy predictions of things to come in the very near future to a country which is already bedeviled by lawlessness, violence and corruption. The leader of the opposition characterised the action as an act of state terrorism. Some of the leaders of the trade union movement […]

The internal security of a country is not an abstract concept. It involves wide-ranging issues, including but not limited to, domestic security and civil defense, societal security and safety, and emergencies arising out of manmade and natural calamities. Recently however, internal security is conceived in narrower terms, often limited to terrorist activities and the prevention […]

Early this morning (January 6, 2009), a group of armed men forcibly entered, attacked and caused serious damage to the MBC-MTV Transmission Station at Pannipitiya. This TV station is popularly known as Sirasa TV and transmits its programmes across the country. In the attack, which took place at around 2a.m., the intruders set the main […]

The defeat of terrorism calls for the shift of attention in resolving lawlessness, corruption and the loss of authority of the public institutions of democracy.  The government’s declaration that the terrorism represented by the LTTE has been substantially defeated, despite of a small area which remains under LTTE control, should provide a much needed opportunity […]

The Government of India has released 67 prisoners of Pakistan nationality from different jails in the country. These prisoners were reportedly detained in Indian prisons for charges ranging from tampering of visa documents to illegal stay in India. Most of the persons released, including minors and women, had spent long periods in custody in four […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-328-2008  December 30, 2008  A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission BANGLADESH: New government must fulfill people’s expectations After the two-year-long military controlled government, Bangladesh yesterday had the opportunity to elect its representatives to the country’s ninth parliament. According to the latest unofficial result, it is expected that the alliance led […]

On December 23, the President of Pakistan appointed Mr. Sana Ullah Abbasi, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Hyderabad range as the inquiry officer in the case of Ms. Taslim Solangi, a 17 year-old girl who was allegedly mauled by the dogs and then shot dead by her in-laws on the pretext of an honour […]

The Sri Lankan government’s Ministry of Defence website published the following caption with a photograph of a President’s Counsel, Romesh de Silva PC. President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, Mr. M A Sumanthiran, Mr. Viran Korea, Ms. Lilanthi De Silva and Chamaine Gunarathne are the team of lawyers who regularly appear for the detainees charged with […]

The constitutional petition no. D-2417/2008, regarding illegal taking of hostages – eight women and four children – by the police of four districts of Sindh province, was heard by the single bench of Sindh high court today. The chief justice of the Sindh high court was sick and unable to attend therefore the case was […]

A former minister of the government and a well-known lawyer, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha, is quoted in Lankadissent (December 22), in an interview given earlier to Lakbima as saying: “I relinquished my ministerial position because I was not allowed to exercise my powers. I was the only minister without a secretary. Then, how could the work be […]

According to the Cambodian Constitution the country is supposed to be a liberal democracy, governed by the rule of law and respecting the international human rights norms and standards. This democracy is a parliamentary democracy with a representative parliament composed of a directly elected National Assembly and an indirectly elected Senate. It is equipped with […]

The India Supreme Court should take to task the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court’s Bar Association and another legal association, the Legal Aid Panel, which have formally resolved not to appear to defend Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is the one survivor out of the ten terrorists who engaged in the rampage in Mumbai on November 26. […]