Statement

This February, the families of Nemai Ghosh and Anesh Das were compensated 100,000 Rupees (US$2200) each by the government of West Bengal for their deaths while under police custody at the Malda Magistrates Court on 1 August 2002. The two, who had been arrested on petty charges, were locked in one of two holding cells […]

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on 9 January 2004 informed the Sri Lankan government that, in pursuant of Rule 86 of the committee’s rules of procedure, the state party (Sri Lanka) should adopt all necessary measures to “protect the life, safety and personal integrity of the author (Michael Anthony Emanuel “Tony” Fernando) and […]

As people read obituaries and find out about the death of someone they know, the first thing many think to do is visit the person and pay their last respects to the dead body. The body becomes a sacred thing, which family and friends venerate by keeping clean and tidy, and ensuring that it is […]

Protecting victims requires defence of principles and effective institutions Asian Human Rights Commission December 10, 2003   Today the very foundation upon which human rights stand is under attack. Challenges to human rights were once largely restricted to relative grounds, such as culture and religion. This is no longer the case. Now the absolute principles […]

The impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka is now before the Parliament with the signatures of a hundred members of Parliament in support.  Meanwhile a proposal by President Chandrika Kumaratunga who has called for the withdrawal of the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice is among the latest proposals to defuse the current […]

Thirty-eight persons from ten Asian countries gathered together at Wattala, Sri Lanka, from November 14 to 24, 2003, for the annual Human Rights School Session jointly organised by the Religious Groups for Human Rights and Human Rights Correspondence School programmes of the Asian Human Rights Commission.  During the session, the organisers aimed to bring the […]

By suspending parliament and calling the police and military onto the streets this November 4, the President of Sri Lanka has undermined ongoing efforts to restore the rule of law to the country by way of institutional reforms.  The victims of this arbitrary action will be the people of Sri Lanka. Their security has suffered a […]

The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato’ Param Cumaraswamy, expressed serious concerns over judicial integrity in Asia during a speech delivered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on October 17. In his speech, Mr Cumaraswamy spelt out the principles of judicial accountability and the need to deal with complaints against […]

This 5 October 2003, the Board of Directors of the Asian Human Rights Commission decided to present its inaugural Human Rights Defenders Award to Mr Michael Anthony Fernando, in recognition of his struggle for basic freedoms. Mr Fernando is today being released from jail in Sri Lanka, where he has been kept since February serving […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) draws the attention of the international community, particularly human rights and civil society organisations, to an act of grave injustice done by the Malaysian courts and the Malaysian government to a human rights defender and civil society activist, Irene Fernandez, by finding her guilty of a charge on Oct. […]

That deep poverty affects the majority of people in the world is a widely accepted fact. Poverty is essentially about food. It is about hunger and thirst. If the world admits the existence of large-scale poverty it cannot escape the conclusion that a vast number of people also don’t get enough to eat. As these […]

Thirty-eight years since the events that propelled General Suharto to power, and five years since his downfall, Indonesians are still subjected to a version of history conceived and propagated by the New Order regime. That version served as both the pretext and justification for one of the largest and least known crimes against humanity of […]

The international community took an important step this September 24, when the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, urged the Security Council to take up rule of law issues. There is now global understanding that without the rule of law, the lofty ideals of the UN Charter are irrelevant. Without the rule of […]

Senior judge’s premature resignation calls for a thorough review of Sri Lanka’s judiciary The leading prelates of Sri Lanka have made strong pleas for Justice Mark Fernando to stay in his post despite the difficulties he has faced. The Mahanayake of Asgiriya and Rammanniya Nikayas, the Catholic Archbishop of Colombo, several Annunayakas of Asgiriya, Amarapura […]

That the Sri Lankan Fisheries Minister, Mahinda Wijesekara, has launched an attack on the National Police Commission (NPC) indicates that the body is already making itself felt. Reacting to investigations against him over severe assaults on peaceful protesters in his electorate, the Minister remarked that, “An independent police commission is not a requirement for backward […]

The news that Justice Mark Fernando has decided to resign from the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka two and a half years early is of grave concern. Observers believe that Justice Fernando has been sidelined and unfairly treated within the Supreme Court. In recent years the Chief Justice has excluded him from hearings relating to […]

The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad this August 19 is a profound tragedy for the entire world community. Its immediate victims included Iraqi civilians and United Nations staff, among them the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq, Mr Sergio Vieira de […]

Two months after the brutal attack on the National League for Democracy convoy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo at Depayin, northern Burma, both leaders remain under detention, while arrests and disappearances continue. To date, the actual number of victims killed or injured, captured or missing remains a mystery to […]

On July 21 about one hundred police and security personnel demolished houses and destroyed crops belonging to indigenous Adivasi people in Maharashtra, India. They burnt down hundreds of huts and more than a thousand acres of crops. About two hundred families now have no homes, no food, no livelihood and no place to go. ‘There […]

Sunil Hemechanra was arrested on the night of 23 July by the Morahahena police and his family alleged that when they visited him the next morning he was unconscious and bleeding from the nose. After some intervention he was taken to a hospital, where he was immediately taken for surgery. He died the morning of […]