Administration of justice

PHILIPPINES: Vendors of the Luneta Park forcibly evicted

[RE: AHRC-HAC-004-2013: PHILIPPINES: Vendors face forced eviction and food insecurity] Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information Defend Job Philippines about the eviction of vendors of the Luneta Park. The National Parks Development Committee evicted the vendors from their livelihood places inside Luneta Park on 27 February, 2013 despite the protest […]

PAKISTAN: Shia genocide — What exactly is preventing the military and the judiciary from performing their duties against militancy?

After hearing the accusations of covert and overt support for sectarian terrorism and the terrorists the state institutions, like the judiciary and the army are trying to clarify their positions. There is of course, the involvement of the civilian set up that, after a total of 32 years of collision between the army and the […]

INDIA: The great thamasha

Bijo Francis* Overcoming initial reluctance, the Maharashtra state police have finally registered a case in the infamous Bhandara rape and murder incident. This is a case, not much discussed in India, other than for sparse reporting in a few Indian dailies, of the rape murder of three sisters, all minors. Missing of three miserable village […]

SRI LANKA: Lawyers reject the candidate promoted by the government

At the Bar Association election this year, Mr. Upul Jayasooriya was elected with an overwhelming majority. He won by a margin of over 1,471 votes while the persons who came in second and third received 330 and 77 votes. It was well known that one of the candidates was openly promoted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. […]

SRI LANKA: The mother’s appeal for saving the life of Sudeshkar facing the death sentence in Qatar

Mangala Samy Pungonda, the mother of Wengadasalam Sudeshkar yesterday, February 19, appealed for the final sum of Rs. 600,000/= (approximately US$ 5,000) for the saving of her son’s life from execution in Doha, Qatar. She thanked those who have already contributed to the raising of the sum of Rs. 3.5 Million and said that about […]

SRI LANKA: The mother’s appeal for saving the life of Sudeshkar facing the death sentence in Qatar

Mangala Samy Pungonda, the mother of Wengadasalam Sudeshkar yesterday, February 19, appealed for the final sum of Rs. 600,000/= (approximately US$ 5,000) for the saving of her son’s life from execution in Doha, Qatar. She thanked those who have already contributed to the raising of the sum of Rs. 3.5 Million and said that about […]

PAKISTAN: Persecution of Ahmadis during the month of January 2013

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from Nazarat Umoor Ama. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A joint swoop on an Ahmadi printing press in Lahore by a team of mullas and the police: The Punjab Police raided a printing press Black Arrows, owned […]

SRI LANKA: In Memory of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya

Every associate of Fr. Tissa will undoubtedly have his/her lasting and loving memories of him. My association of him has left in me a memory of him as a spiritual guide and campaigner of social justice. One of the earliest was his talk delivered on the theme “Crisis in the Priesthood” to us as then […]

PAKISTAN: Prominent human rights defenders are targets of assassination

Two prominent lawyers and a well known human rights defender have been assassinated in target killings on February 2, 2013. Mr. Malik Jarrar 47, a Supreme Court lawyer, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Paktoonkha province by unknown persons, riding a motorcycle. He was on his way to pick up his two […]

PAKISTAN: Government must ensure the safe recovery of four abducted human rights defenders

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the abduction of four human rights defenders in broad daylight by persons said to be from an outlawed religious organization. The unknown armed persons abducted six workers of a NGO including, two lady workers. However, after some time they threw the two women out of the vehicle and […]

BURMA: Islamic community leader unfairly tried and imprisoned over communal violence

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received detailed information concerning the case of a prominent retired medical doctor and Islamic community leader in the west of Burma imprisoned for allegedly sending news abroad about the first wave of violence in his town during mid-2012. Border security personnel detained Dr Tun Aung in […]

PHILIPPINES: Save 78 poor fisherfolk families from forced eviction and starvation in the Freedom Island of Paranaque City

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt about 78 families belonging to fisherfolk community facing threats of imminent eviction during a field visit undertaken by its Programme Coordinator for Right to Food Programme together with a representative of Defend Job Philippines. The local authorities had served the notice of eviction to these […]

INDIA: Put an immediate end to plans of inundating people without rehabilitating them

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt about the imminent threat to lives of thousands of families in the Narmada Valley which encompasses large tracts of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh through an urgent action alert issued by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). The NBA has learnt about an impending meeting of the […]

SRI LANKA: Take care of three of us: A call for help

As the Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake left her official residence under duress from the heavy police squad that surrounded her and tried to prevent her from making any statement, she still managed to say a few words reaffirming her innocence and telling that all that she did was according to the law and that […]

SRI LANKA: Democracy mourns for judgment fled to brutish beasts

An article from The Sunday Times forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission As the sun went down this Friday on barebodied ruffians raucously celebrating Parliament’s spectacularly unjust impeachment of the country’s Chief Justice with crackers and kiribath, judgment fled to brutish beasts and Sri Lanka entered its darkest phrase since independence. This Government with […]

SRI LANKA: We salute the Chief Justice for her courage & She remains the Chief Justice

A Statement from the Lawyers Collective, Sri Lanka, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission H.E President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s purported letter of removal has been received by the Chief Justice. The Lawyers Collective states that this removal affects the very foundation of independence of the Judiciary, the Rule of Law and all basic norms of […]

PAKISTAN: The AHRC condemns and protests against the calculated Shia extermination taking place in the country

On January 10th 2013, the New Year in Pakistan started with a gruesome bang of a continuing holocaust of sectarian cleansing in which Quetta witnessed 4 bomb blasts targeting Hazara Shias. The death toll of the day was 102 dead and hundreds injured. The day has been labeled as Black Thursday. Ali Dayan Hasan of […]

SRI LANKA: 13 Jan, 2013-The 1978 Constitution is fulfilled

Today, with the President of Sri Lanka signing the removal notice of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, the 1978 constitution came to be fulfilled. The 1978 constitution is a representation of the conflict between the rule of law and the absolute power of the executive president. The historical circumstances in 1978 […]

SRI LANKA: The Comments of S.N Silva – the archenemy of rule of law

Sarath Nanda Silva is heavily quoted in SLBC programmes trying to criticize the Supreme Court judgment relating to the question on the interpretation of law referred to it by Court of Appeal. He says that the Supreme Court has not properly interpreted the words “or standing orders” as found in Article 107(3) of the constitution. […]

SRI LANKA : The last five days of Sri Lanka’s democracy

AHRC declares a week of concern for threats against the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka The Asian Human Rights Commission alerts all concerned persons in and outside of Sri Lanka to the possibility that a five days from now there may not be a judiciary that can exercise judicial power with independence in […]