Democracy

PHILIPPINES: Anti-Terrorism Act is reminiscent of the dark history of martial law era, says CCA General Secretary

The Philippines’ new ‘Anti-Terrorism Act’, which took effect on Saturday, 18 July 2020, is reminiscent of the use of repressive force and human rights violations of the dark history of martial law era, stated the General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), Dr Mathews George Chunakara. In a statement released on behalf of […]

SRI LANKA: Urging the Sri Lankan authorities to support the Supreme Court’s Direction to educate Law- Enforcement System personnel, on the law elimination of and the use of torture

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC UAC-005-2020 23 July 2020 ———————————————————————————- SRI LANKA: Urging the Sri Lankan authorities to support the Supreme Court’s Direction to educate Law- Enforcement System personnel, on the law elimination of and the use of torture ISSUES: Torture, Illegal arrest and detention  ———————————————————————————- Dear Friends, […]

SRI LANKA: Case of alleged torture, illegal arrest and detention of Liyanage Pasindu Yasantha Perera by some officers of Kalutara District Crime Division

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC UAC-002-2020  16 July 2020 ———————————————————————————- SRI LANKA: Case of alleged torture, illegal arrest and detention of Liyanage Pasindu Yasantha Perera by some officers of Kalutara District Crime Division ISSUES: Torture, Illegal arrest and detention  ———————————————————————————- Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) […]

BANGLADESH: Surge of Arbitrary Detention under Digital Security Act Leads to Deepening Crisis

It is well-known that systemic abuse of draconian Laws is an established practice in Bangladesh. The incumbent Government has weaponised a number laws, including the Digital Security Act-2018, to intensify its campaign of curbing freedom of expression and opinion. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has compiled publicly available information obtained from the mainstream media. The data shows […]

BANGLADESH: Unhindered Access to Justice is Key to Sustainable Development

Access to Justice is coupled with multiple hindrances in Bangladesh’s Justice Mechanism. The filter of politicisation, corruption, and ineptness of professionals at all times supersedes the juridical norms in the country’s Judicial System. The COVID-19 pandemic situation has subtly exposed the problems, as reflections came from participants of a Webinar hosted by the Asian Human […]

PHILIPPINES: Acceleration of extra-judicial killings of jurists in the Philippines

A Written Submission to the 44th Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council Jointly Submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Council), during its 41st Session, adopted Resolution A/HRC/41/L.20, Promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines (Resolution 41/L.20)1, requesting […]

ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව: පොලීසියට වධහිංසාවට එරෙහි නීතිය උගන්වන ලෙසට ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරණය විධාන කරයි

 ආසියානු මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම – හදිසි අභියාචනා වැඩසටහන ලංකාවේ  මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් පිළිබද නඩුවක් විභාග කර එහි තීන්දුව දුන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨාධිකරනයේ ත‍්‍රිපුද්ගල විනිශ්චය මණ්ඩලය ලංකාවේ බලධාරීන්ට පහත සදහන් නියෝගයද කරන ලදී.  ‘මෙම අධිකරණය ඉදිරියේ ගොනුකර ඇති මූලික අයිතිවාසිකම් නඩු ප‍්‍රමාණය අනුව පොලිස් ප‍්‍රචණ්ඩත්වය, අත්තඩංගුවේදී  වදහිංසා පැමිණවීම හා මරණ හෙළිදරව් වී ඇත. මෙයින් පෙනී යන්නේ රජය මෙම ප‍්‍රශ්ණය විසිදීම සදහා හෝ එය අඩු […]

BANGLADESH: Arbitrarily detained Journalist is at risk of infection with COVID-19 after returning from an enforced disappearance

Arbitrarily detained Journalist, Shafiqul Islam Kajol, is at risk of infection by COVID-19 after a prison guard of the Jashore Central Jail is tested positive for the virus on 17 June 2020, as the Asian Human Rights Commission has learned from its sources. Such risk is apparent in Bangladesh where prisons are overcrowded with more than double […]

THAILAND: Government should commit towards locating missing activist and protecting human rights defenders

(Jakarta, 17 June 2020) – The Thai government’s inadequate response to the enforced disappearance of pro-democracy activist Wanchalerm Satsaksit demonstrates its failure to protect human rights defenders and other dissenting voices, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Asia Democracy Network said today. Unidentified assailants abducted Wanchalerm in front of his residence in […]

SRI LANKA: What Is The Value Of The Life Of Sunil Jayawardene?

By Basil Fernando SINHALA VERSION Sunil Jayawardene was a representative for three-wheele drivers. He who went to make a representation to a finance company on behalf of one of the vehicle owners, whose three-wheeler had been taken by agents of that company. Sunil was assaulted by eight or more people in front of the company […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව: ලෝකයේ දිගම වදහිංසා නඩුව

 මේ දින වල ලොව පුරා ප්‍රචලිත පුවත වන්නේ ඇමරිකාවේ සුදු ජාතික පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු විසින් කළු ජාතික සාමන්‍ය පුරවැසියකුගේ බෙල්ල මත දණහිස තබා මරණයට පත් කිරීමේ සිදු වීමයි. එම මරණය සිදු කල ආකාරය ඡායාරූප ගත කර ඇති හෙයින් එය කාටත් දැක ගැනීමට අවස්ථාව උදාවී ඇත. මෙම සිද්ධියත් සමඟ ඇමරිකාව පුරා බලවත් විරෝධතා ඇති වීමත්, එම විරෝධතාවයන්ට […]

विश्वः मे १८, सैन्यवाद र अधिनायकवाद विरूद्द ग्वाङजू विद्रोहलाई अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय दिवसका रूपमा मान्यता दिनु आवश्यक छ ।

Statement | Nepal | 11-06-2020

सन् १९८०, १८ मे कोरीयाका लागिमात्र नभएर संसारका लागि एउटा गौरवपूर्ण दिन हो, जुन दिन सिँगैं सहरहरू र दक्षिण केरियाली नागरिकहरू सैन्य कुका विरूद्द उभिएका थिए । यो यस्तो किसिमको दुर्लभ एक्यवद्दता थियो कि धेरै दिनसम्म नागरिकहरू एकाकार भएर सहरकब्जा गर्न हिँडेको शैन्य बटालियनलाई सहरभित्र पस्नबाट रोक्न सफल भएका थिए । धेरै दिनपछि, सैन्य बटालियनहरू […]

বিশ্ব: ১৮ মে – গোয়াংজু গণঅভ্যুত্থানের স্মৃতি – সামরিকতন্ত্র ও কর্তৃত্ববাদ প্রতিরোধে সার্বজনীন দিবস হিসেবে স্বীকৃতির দাবী রাখে।

১৯৮০ সালের ১৮ই মে কেবলমাত্র দক্ষিণ কোরিয়া নয়, বরং গোটা বিশ্বের জন্য একটি অতি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ দিন। এই দিনে এক ব্যাপক গণঅভ্যুত্থান সংঘটিত হয়। গোটা কোরীয় সমাজ সামরিক অভ্যুত্থানর বিরুগ্ধে জেগে উঠেছিলো সেদিন। অনেক দিন যাবত জনগণ ঐক্যবদ্ধভাবে রুঁখে দাঁড়িয়ে ছিলো সশস্ত্র ব্যাটালিয়নগুলোর নগরীতে প্রবেশ ও নিয়ন্ত্রণ প্রতিরোধ করতে। সংহতির সে এক অভূতপূর্ব মুহুর্ত! কয়েকদিন পরে, […]

SRI LANKA/WORLD: E-Version of the Social Justice Magazine

We are forwarding herewith the e-version of the social justice magazine published by the Centre for Society and Religion – Sri Lanka. Click here to read the full version of the magazine. Social justice magazine is a long-standing regular publication which has covered many issues relating to the improvement of the conditions of the people, particularly the […]

PHILIPPINES/WORLD: “In the absence of clear and measurable outcomes from domestic mechanisms, consider options for international accountability measures”. UNHR Commissioner for Human Rights tells the Philippines government

 The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted report to the UN Human Rights Council on 4th of June. It is a very comprehensive report on serious violations of Human Rights that have been taking place in the last few years. In her concluding remarks, the High Commissioner’s report says… “The legal, constitutional and […]

WORLD: May 18th, the commemoration of the Gwangju uprising, needs to be recognized as the Universal Day for the Prevention of Militarism and Authoritarianism

The Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, the May 18 Memorial Foundation and three May 18 related organizations in South Korea, and International Bridges of Justice(IBJ) call for your participation to end militarism and authoritarianism. Please join us to designate May 18 as the “Universal Day for Prevention of Militarism and Authoritarianism” so that […]

BANGLADESH: Government must stop enforced disappearances and provide special care to families of the disappeared during COVID-19

Dhaka/Manila/Hong Kong/Paris, 25 May 2020: To commemorate International Week of the Disappeared (the last week of May), the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Odhikar remember and pay tribute to victims of enforced disappearance and stand in solidarity with the families of […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකා: “අපේකම යනු කුමක්ද”?

බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු මේ දිනවල අපේකම පිළිබදව වැදගත් සාකච්ඡාවක් නිර්මාණය වෙමින් පවතී. මෙයට එක් ප‍්‍රධාන හේතුවක් වන්නේ දැනට ලංකාෙව් සමස්ථ ජනතාව තුලම ලංකාෙව් ප‍්‍රාග් ඉතිහාසය පිළිබද ගෙව්ශණ වල සොයා ගැනීම් පැතිරීමට පටන්ගෙන තිබෙන නිසාය. මෙය අතිශයින් වැදගත් වන සාකච්ඡාවක මුල් අවධියකි. මේ නිසා අපේකම යන්න පිළිබද අදහස ලංකාෙව් විකාශනය වී ඇති ආකාරය පිළිබදව කල්පනා කිරීම වටී. […]

CAMBODIA: Civil Society Organizations call for the Royal Government of Cambodia to Amend the State of Emergency Law to Protect Human Rights

Phnom Penh, 13 May 2020 – Without urgent and substantial amendment, the new Law on the Management of the Nation in State of Emergency (“State of Emergency Law”) grants the Royal Government of Cambodia (“RGC”) powers to restrict the fundamental freedoms of the Cambodian people without limit. The recently promulgated State of Emergency Law was impulsively […]

BANGLADESH: Stifling expression using Digital Security Act must not be the norm to address COVID-19 pandemic

The Bangladesh government has resorted once again to its notorious Digital Security Act-2018to muzzle freedom of expression, suing 11 individuals and arresting four of them following criticism of in the governments’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four people have been detained since 5 May 2020 under the draconian digital law, including cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, writer Mushtaq […]