Statement

There has been a lot of misunderstanding about the September 19 coup in Thailand. Many foreign correspondents, tourist bloggers and other casual observers have written that the local market is still busy, people are smiling politely as usual, and life seems to be going on like normal. The coup has been described as “courteous” and […]

(The state’s failure to implement the views and recommendations of the Human Rights Committee on individual complaints, and the failure to implement the Human Rights Committee’s and the CAT Committee’s recommendations after periodic reviews.  The resulting situation of the bewildering absence of protection to the citizens and the total absence of effective mechanisms to investigate, […]

On September 27 the Bangkok Post newspaper published an article pointing to the likely shape of Thailand’s new draft interim constitution in the wake of the September 19 military coup. The interim constitution is expected to grant amnesty to the coup leaders. It will set up a 250-member legislature with limited powers, and a 2000-member […]

It was reported in the Sri Lankan press (Daily Mirror September 27, 2006 – Sri Lanka signs convention on transnational crime and child abuse) that Sri Lanka has recently ratified the Transnational Organized Crime and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and […]

At the beginning of this year there were hopes for more freedom of expression and the improvement of democracy in Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen had dropped his defamation lawsuits against human activists whom he had arrested in 2005, pardoned two opposition parliamentarians whom he had had convicted in the same year, and had removed […]

On September 21 the Royal Thai Consulate General in Hong Kong wrote to the Asian Human Rights Commission. In the letter, the consul general said that despite the September 19 military coup “the courts… function as normal, with the exception of the Constitutional Court”. The Constitutional Court has been suspended in the absence of the […]

We refer to the recent Supreme Court (please see below for reference) and our subsequent statements on this matter. As there has been considerable interest in this case and also some confusion we are reproducing below the written submission filed on behalf of the Petitioner which may clarify certain matters. This application to the Supreme […]

The September 19 military coup has been described by some persons as benign. Their reasoning goes that the government of Thaksin Shinawatra was bad and intransigent. Whatever way it could be removed was good. Even normally well-informed news media have evoked images of a quiet and non-violent coup that is expected to just “slip in […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission reiterates its condemnation of the military coup in Thailand and calls for immediate restoration of the constitution and civilian government. Since this morning, September 20, the coup group headed by army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin has made a series of pronouncements under martial law. These include that: 1. The democratic […]

Earlier the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) circulated the complete text of this judgement (please see AS-217-2006).  Among the many completely baseless legal positions on which this judgement is premised there are some outstanding issues.  The AHRC intends to explore a comprehensive critique on this judgement soon.  In the meantime we would like to mention some […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the military coup in Thailand and calls for immediate restoration of civilian government. At approximately 10pm on September 19 a group of officers headed by army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin took power while Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was attending the UN General Assembly in New York. The group, […]

The Bangkok Post newspaper of Tuesday, September 19 cited Vasant Panich, the human rights commissioner charged with investigating killings that occurred during the 2003 “war on drugs” as saying that the victims in cases he had investigated were mostly innocent persons whose deaths have never been properly investigated. Vasant, chairperson of the Subcommittee on Legislation […]

We reproduced below a judgement made by a bench of five judges, presided over by the Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, of Sri Lanka, which leaves no doubt that the court wishes to nullify the impact of Sri Lanka being a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as […]

A judgment made by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Friday, September 15 has all but removed the country from the international human rights community. The court declared that neither United Nations conventions signed by Sri Lanka nor the directives of monitoring bodies are binding on the country. The decision has tremendous ramifications both […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that army Lieutenant General Rukmangat Katuwal was appointed as army Chief of Staff of Nepal on September 10, 2006, by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Mr. Katuwal, who was set to retire before this appointment took effect, stands accused of being responsible for a plethora of […]

In Sri Lanka a white van without a number plate is a symbol of terror and the disappearances that occurred in all parts of the country.  Commissions on Disappearances in the South during the last few years of the 1980s have documented at some length how armed men, travelling in white vans without number plates […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned by reports emanating from the Philippines concerning alleged attempts to provide one of the most notorious members of the armed forces of the Philippines, Major General Jovito Palparan Jr., with de facto immunity from questioning with regard to investigations into widespread extra-judicial killings. Palparan has reportedly […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission welcomes the European Parliament Resolution on Sri Lanka which was distributed on Thursday, September 7, 2006.  The full text of the resolution is reproduced below: P6_TA-PROV (2006)0356 Sri Lanka PE 378.328 European  The European Parliament, –        having regard to its previous resolutions on Sri Lanka of 18 May 2000[1] , […]

The journal entry of the magistrate’s court of Muttur for September 4, 2006, regarding the case of the killings of the 17 aid workers in Muttur belonging to Action Contre La Faim reads as follows: Hon. Mr. Suhada Gamlath through phone directed me to send the file to Hon. Magistrate Anuradhapura to handle the file […]

There is a saying in India that, “If a dog goes mad it can be chained; but what can be done if the chain goes mad?” Applied to law enforcement, criminals are the dog, the police are the chain. So applied, the question is very appropriate for India today, and not least of all, West […]