Statement

According to reports we have received, a group of criminals allegedly sponsored by a government minister, stoned the High Court and the Magistrate Court of Manner in a coordinated attack yesterday. A very tense situation is reported to be taking place in manner. According to information we have received, a mobile fishing hut was attacked […]

The attack on the Magistrate’s Court and the High Court in Mannar, allegedly instigated by a powerful government minister, has led to a resolve by law court judges and lawyers to boycott all courts today. The Asian Human Rights Commission welcomes this decision as a very important step in the fight back against the serious […]

The AHRC releases a dossier on all relevant documents relating to the campaign to obtain release for Rizana Nafeek.  Rizana Nafeek, arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death by beheading in 2007 is still languishing in the Dawadami Prison in Saudi Arabia as the government of Sri Lanka has failed to take the necessary diplomatic steps to […]

The Presidential Office announced that the current chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) will be reappointed for three-year tenure. According to the office, the main reason for his reappointment is that since Mr. Hyun Byung-cheol has been appointed as NHRCK chairperson in 2009, the NHRCK has played a leading role in […]

Yesterday, July 5, there was an attempt to abduct a web journalist, Santha Wijesooriya, reported the BBC Sinhala Service. The incident is reported to have happened at Nugegoda.  Santha Wijesooriya noticed that he was being followed by a white van and took the precaution of changing his route in order to avoid the van. While […]

A prisoner, Ganeshan Nimalarubin, died in prison custody. Allegedly he was a former LTTEr who had been prison custody for a long time undergoing rehabilitation. His death in the prison has given rise to an important controversy. The BBC Sinhala Service reported yesterday (July 5) that the prisoner’s parents who are old and quite destitute […]

The Government of Bangladesh plans to immediately arrest members of human rights organisations and activists suspected of providing information for the Human Rights Watch Report “Bangladesh: Torture, Deaths of Jailed Mutiny Suspects”. The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned from reliable sources that there are discussions among some quarters in the Bangladesh government of arresting […]

The Union Home Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram, has said that he is “deeply sorry” for the death of any innocent person during the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) firing at Kotteguda panchayat of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh state. Chidambaram qualified his apology however by saying that “… if any girl, or boy or man or […]

Here is the statistics. Nothing less than 14004 farmers committed suicide in 2011 as per the data of the National Crime Records Bureau. That is more than 10.3 per cent of the total number of suicides in India through the year. Factoring the issues like huge underreporting of cases and the practice of never counting […]

The killings of the Shiite Muslims continue un-abated in those areas under the control of the military and Para-Military forces where the banned Muslim organizations operate freely and without hindrance. In the latest killings on June 28 at least 13 pilgrims were martyred and several others injured in a bomb blast attack on Zaireen’s bus […]

Below is a letter written by Cambidian Ambassador for United Kingdom regarding an article written by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). It is one of many articles that he has written in recent year. We publish it with a note from AHRC. A note from the AHRC It is […]

96 hours after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) firing in Kotteguda panchayat of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh state, the union government and the state government of Chhattisgarh are on defensive mode, finding excuses to justify the police action that killed 20 villagers, of which at least five are children. The firing occurred on 30 […]

According to reports the office of a well-known online daily newspaper based in Colombo, Sri Lanka is currently being raided. The raid is being conducted by dozens of security officers of the Ministry of Defense. According to a source quoted in the Sri Lanka Guardian, the security officers entered the offices showing a search warrant […]

Yesterday the world celebrated the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Ironically, it was also yesterday the Government of Kerala reinstated nine police officers to office following their suspension for suspected involvement in an infamous case of custodial torture and murder. The case is still under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation […]

We reproduce below the section on Sri Lanka from the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue. The Report was submitted to the Seventh Session of the Human Rights Council. The Full report can be viewed at: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/alrc-news/human-rights-council/hrc17/ahrc1727.pdf/view  Sri Lanka Urgent […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, June 26, 2012 Torture in custody is a serious problem affecting the rule of law, used as the most common means to obtain confessional statements in Pakistan. It has become endemic and on many […]

Speaking at the 20th session of the Human Rights Council, under the agenda item clustered ID with the Special Rapporteur on Health and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Sri Lanka attacked the United Nations’ role in developing international norms and standards relating to human rights. Speaking on the issue of education, the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that two days ago, a group of people who have identified themselves as members of the Ministry of Defense, visited the neighbourhood in which Dr. Nirmal Raanjith Devasiri, (the President of the University Teachers Union and the Secretary of the Arts Faculty Teachers’ Association of the University […]

The concept of sovereign immunity is incompatible with the notion of democracy. It is an anachronistic relic drawn from the British Common Law principles at odds with the constitutional architecture of a state that claims to respects the supremacy of its people. Integral to democracy is the conviction that a government that draws its legitimacy […]

A response to the article by Jeevan Thiyagaraja on a Fact Sheet: Prevention of Torture The Human Rights Plan that is being talked of in an article by Jeevan Thiyagaraja entitled, A Fact Sheet: Prevention of Torture is no different to Sri Lanka’s Presidential Task Force for Dengue Prevention. Despite the fact that this was […]