Statement

On 21 January, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics has unanimously adopted a draft anti-torture bill. PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar moved The Torture, Custodial Death and Custodial Rape Bill, 2014, last August and the Chairman Senate referred it to the Committee. The objective of this Bill is to prevent and protect all persons from […]

India is celebrating its 66th Republic Day today. The national capital territory is under a layered security blanket, to ensure the celebrations will not be marred by any inconvenient incident, and that the foreign as well as national dignitaries will return home safe. Some amongst the millions of Indians watching today’s celebrations may wonder why such […]

Police excess is quiet a norm in Pakistan but on January 23 police transcend their authority and baton charged school children who were demanding that their school run by trust be reopened and administration not handed over to government. The students of Government Islamia High School near Bhati Gate Lahore along with their parents were […]

India has never been known for investing in the health of its citizenry. The nation’s public expenditure on health hovers around 1% of its gross domestic product; it is among the lowest in the world. This makes the recent decision to slash the health budget by 20% appalling. The move will not just deflate citizen […]

Public places in Bangladesh have become unsafe today for the people when protest rallies are held. Even without a public protest, person and property in the country does not have any guarantee to their security. The overall breakdown of law and order is of such state, that a pro-government group, or those protesting against the […]

2014 was the deadliest year yet, for the children of Pakistan. The year began with the killing of 19 school children on 15th January 2014 – all pupils of the Bright Future High School in Daulatpur, in the Sindh Province. They were returning home after winning a quiz competition, when their van was crushed under the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), in coordination with the Terai Human Rights Defenders (THRD) Alliance, has been monitoring the human rights situation in Nepal in the lead up to 22 January, the deadline for the Constituent Assembly (CA) to draft a constitution. The Maoists, along with the alliance of 30 opposition parties, have resorted […]

Since 15 January 2015, the Bangladesh government has deployed “Joint Forces”, comprising the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), and the police to conduct operations against the opposition. Houses and shops of those identified as opposition supporters in northern Bangladesh are ending up demolished. Hundreds of people, including women and children, have been […]

The 100-day reform programme of the new government is an opportune moment for rebuilding the legal structure of Sri Lanka, a precondition for achieving the “good governance” that has been promised. The legal structure of Sri Lanka has suffered a great fall, due to what has been termed as “tomfooling with the constitution”. From 1972 […]

Following the gruesome incident of the massacre of children at the Army Public School on 16th December 2014, within the military Cantonment, in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtoonkha Province, the government under pressure by the military immediately lifted the moratorium on death sentences which were continued since August 2008. During the period from 22ndDecember 2014 to date, 21 […]

Citing lack of evidence against those accused of killing 22 Dalits in Shankar Bigha of Jehanabad, the district civil court acquitted all of the suspects. Coming a full 15 years after the massacre on the eve of 26 January 1999 – ironically the Republic Day – the verdict is not a standalone case of justice […]

This is a second interview in a series of interviews by the AHRC which seeks views and  comments from jurists on the amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan to establish military courts. Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, former judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan criticized the establishment of the military courts in order to curb […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wrote to the newly appointed Minister for Finance Ravi Karunanayake, congratulating him on his appointment, and stating that the establishment of good governance as promised by the new government requires budgetary allocations for law enforcement, and the prevention of corruption. The AHRC stated in the letter that “… As the […]

The Asian Human Right Commission and Asian Legal Resource Centre has developed  a handbook on torture titled “Let’s Stop torture together” the book is first of its kind in South Asia to have reached out the victims directly and to help them cope with the aftermaths of torture and how to seek legal redress. Our […]

In recent weeks, the Bangladesh government has intensified its crackdown on the media and the opposition. The country’s media is being forced to censor the news and plight of opposition parties, amidst the spree of arbitrary arrest and detention of opposition supporters. The police raided the office premises of New Age, a national English daily, on […]

The AHRC has started collecting the comments from jurists on the amendment to the constitution to establish military courts and the following is the first interview in the series. This is a war of religious ideology that cannot be won using force. It is time the government does some soul searching and bury the political […]

ENGLISH ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදය සහ නීතියේ ආධිපත්‍යය සඳහා ශ‍්‍රී ලාංකිකයන්ගේ කැපවීම දැඩි ලෙස තහවුරු කරන ජනතා තීරණයේ ප‍්‍රතිඵලක් ලෙස ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාවේ දේශපාලන දිවියේ තීරණාත්මක නව අදියරක් උදා වී ඇත. නව ජනාධිපති මෛති‍්‍රපාල සිරිසේන සහ නව ප‍්‍රජාතාන්ති‍්‍රක සන්ධානයේ ජයග‍්‍රහණය පොරොන්දු වූ ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාමය සහ සෙසු ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සිදුකිරීම සඳහා ජනතාව විසින් ලබාදුන් වරමකි. සියල්ලටම පෙර මේ වරම,  ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ […]

A decisive new stage in the political life of Sri Lanka has arisen as a result of the people’s verdict, which overwhelmingly affirms the commitment of Sri Lankans to democracy and the rule of law. Victory to the new President Maithripala Sirisena and the New Democratic Alliance is a mandate given by the people to […]

Today, on 7th January 2015, three human rights activists have received death threats over telephone from sources that have refused to identify themselves, but have appeared to be connected with security authorities. The human rights activists who received these death threats are Mr. Brito Fernando, Mr. Phillip Dissanayake and Mr. Prasanga Fernando – all of […]

Yesterday, 6th January 2015, the National Assembly of Pakistan passed an amendment to the Constitution allowing the formation of military courts. The Pakistan Senate adopted the same amendment with a limiting clause that the amendment will be valid only for a period of two years. In responding to the 16th December 2014 massacre of 148 […]