Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  AHRC-STM-314-2008  December 11, 2008 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Further politicisation of the Attorney General’s Department expected The Attorney General’s Department is to be further politicised with the expected appointment of Mohan Peiris; a close associate of the present regime and in particular, the Ministry of Defence. […]

The AHRC is publishing its 2008 annual human rights report on Sri Lanka. A pre-publication version of the report can be downloaded at http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-017-2008-SriLanka_AHRR2008.pdf. The human rights situation of today is much when the UDHR was adopted with regard to civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Particularly the denial of […]

The AHRC is publishing its 2008 annual human rights report on Indonesia. A pre-publication version of the report can be downloaded at http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-012-2008-Indonesia_AHRR2008.pdf. How proud can Indonesia be of its reform process? While the country has established a national human rights commission (Komnas HAM) and has also undergone wide-reaching institutional reforms since the end of Suharto’s […]

The AHRC is publishing its 2008 annual human rights report on India. A pre-publication version of the report can be downloaded at http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-011-2008-India_AHRR2008.pdf. Yesterday, the government of India released the pictures of eight suspects who were killed in the Mumbai terrorist attack. Today, India along with the rest of the world celebrates the International Human Rights […]

The AHRC is publishing its 2008 annual human rights report on Bangladesh. A pre-publication version of the report can be downloaded at http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-008-2008-Bangladesh_AHRR2008.pdf. Today being December 10, it is the International Human Rights Day. It is also the 60th anniversary the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations in 1948. […]

Since the three-month occupation of Government House and week-long occupation of the two main airports in Bangkok ended on 3 December 2008 following the dissolution of three parties in Thailand’s ruling coalition, the extent of destruction that the occupiers have caused is now becoming clear. Leaving aside the indirect damage that the invasion caused to […]

Lanka-e-News reported today, December 5, 2008, that a Supreme Court bench consisting of the Chief Justice and Justices Shirani Thilakawardane and K. Sripavan, criticised the Attorney General’s Department for having filed false charges on fake laws. The report stated The Chief Justice thus criticized the Attorney General’s Department suspending two crime charges framed in Colombo […]

Policemen in Sindh province have yet to release eight women and four children who were arrested on the night of November 24, 2008, without charge, and taken away in police vans. (http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1785/) Higher police officers are currently using them as bartering tools, to force relatives to hand over a suspected bandit, Haji Wakeel, who may […]

Negombo is just a short distance from Colombo and is far away from the north and the east. However, the extent of the lawlessness that has spread does not reflect that distance. The law virtually does not exist. You can commit murder and get away with it without much of a problem. The best friends […]

The Mumbai terrorist attack was one more occasion for the Indian politicians to call for calm, peace and national unity. Political parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist) convened a special Politburo session and repeated the rhetoric, in addition to demanding that the Government of India approach the UN Security Council. The Hindu fundamentalists […]

The siege of Bangkok’s airports that is into its sixth day is being accompanied by increasing lawlessness. On Saturday a convoy of armed occupiers attacked a police checkpoint, causing the officers to flee, smashing vehicles and making off with shields and other equipment. One policeman has been taken hostage. Armed thugs set upon a local […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that police from four districts of Sindh province have taken in custody eight women along with their children on the suspicion that a young man from the same family is involved in the abduction of a district health officer. The whereabouts of the women and four minors […]

The following resolution proposed by the president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Mr. W. Dayaratne, was unanimously adopted by the Bar Council at a meeting on November 22, 2008. WHEREAS, in the exercise of his professional duties, Mr. Dothalu Waniga Chinthamani Mohotti (Ranga) Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka is made […]

The participants from throughout Asia gathered for the Fourth Regional Consultation on an Asian Charter for the Rule of Law in Hong Kong from the 17-21 November 2008 studied the state of the prosecution system in the Philippines and its implications for human rights. The Philippines’ prosecution service, though maturing in recent years after being […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the violent attacks unleashed in Mumbai by an underground armed group calling itself the Deccan Mujahudeen. As reports come in, an estimated 107 innocent persons have lost their lives and more than 300 persons injured in the incident. More than 200 persons are currently being held hostage by […]

In the No Fact Zone of Sri Lanka flowers are blooming, the country is flowing with milk and honey and the old paradise still remains the old paradise. Internally displaced people are all smiling and enjoying their lives as never before; under the trees, in the flood, bitten by snakes, they are living as if […]

This week a website maintained by the Ministry of Defence published a report in which they referred to some lawyers as traitors as they appeared for alleged LTTE suspects by filing fundamental rights applications before the Supreme Court on their behalf. It is universally known that it is the job of lawyers to appear for […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) shares in the global outrage that has this week greeted the sentencing of dozens of persons to lengthy jail terms for their parts in the nationwide protests against the military dictatorship there in September 2007. The cases have mostly been conducted in special courtrooms within prisons, and without any […]

Due to its maintenance of a conscription system, South Korea’s military has long been plagued with ill-treatment, resulting in trauma and even suicide for the individuals concerned. After several years of civil society struggle, a law enabling the investigation of suspicious deaths in the military was finally passed, establishing a presidential commission to begin its […]

Due to its maintenance of a conscription system, South Korea’s military has long been plagued with ill-treatment, resulting in trauma and even suicide for the individuals concerned. After several years of civil society struggle, a law enabling the investigation of suspicious deaths in the military was finally passed, establishing a presidential commission to begin its […]