Democracy

CAMBODIA: Three years and still no effective investigation into Dr. Kem Ley’s killing

A Joint Statement from The Cambodian Center for Human Rights forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 9 July 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand) — Today, on the third anniversary of the killing of prominent political commentator and human rights defender Kem Ley, the 24 undersigned organizations renew calls on the Cambodian government to establish an independent and impartial […]

SRI LANKA: ICCPR පනත සංශෝදනය කලයුතුය

(ICCPR පනත ගැන මන:කල්පිත සාකච්ඡාවක්…) රටවැසියෙක්:- මොකක්ද ඔය ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ…? ICCPR කතෘවරයෙක්:- ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ ජාත්යඍන්තර සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් කියන ප්රPඥප්තියටයි. එම ප්රලඥප්තිය ඇති වුනේ මෙහෙමයි. 1948 දී මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශ්ව ප්රකකාශනය ප්රකකාශයට පත් කෙරුනා. ඒ මගින් සෑම මිනිසෙකුට හා ගැහැණියකටම සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් වගේම ආර්ථික සමාජීය සංස්කෘතික අයිතිවාසිකම් රැසක් ජාත්යමන්තර වශයෙන් මුල් […]

SRI LANKA: Power without authority

By Basil Fernando An election can give political power to the winning political party and its leadership. Thereby, they could claim that their exercise of power is legitimate. From the point of view of formal legitimacy, that claim is justifiable. However, elections cannot create the authority of the state if it has lost that authority. […]

WORLD: Healing wounds one story at a time

Maryknoll sister helps to shed light on human rights violations in Asia An article from Maryknoll Magazine July/August 2019, written by Maria-Pia Negro Chin forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission by Maria-Pia Negro Chin one morning, a man wakes up, hugs his children and kisses his wife goodbye before walking to work. But, he does […]

SRI LANKA: Resuming the death sentence in order to divert public attention

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he has signed four warrants for execution of persons who were convicted of crimes related to drugs. His announcement was given very wide publicity. In justifying his action, he said that in the Philippines, 27,000 people were shot on allegations of offences relating to drug possession. The Sri […]

नेपालः यातनाविरुद्धको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय दिवसको सन्दर्भमा यातनाः न्यायका लागि पहलको दोस्रो संस्करण प्रकाशन

Statement | Nepal | 26-06-2019

यातनाविरुद्धको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय दिवसको सन्दर्भमा यातनाः न्यायका लागि पहलको दोस्रो संस्करण प्रकाशन गर्न पाउँदा हामीलाई अत्यन्तै खुसी लागेको छ । छोटो समयमै परिमार्जनसहित यो पुस्तिकाको दोस्रो संस्करण प्रकाशन गर्न पाउँदा हामीलाई अत्यन्तै खुसी लागेको छ । यातना हाम्रो प्रहरी कार्यालयहरूमा सर्वव्यापी अभ्यासका रुपमा पाइने गरेको छ । पक्राउ परेका संकित मानिसहरूलाई साबित गराउने सर्वव्यापी तरिकाका रुपमा यसलाई प्रयोग गर्ने […]

BANGLADESH: Free expression and free assembly cost high price

A Written Submission to the 41st Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The United Nations Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures play a pivotal role in advocating for the people’s freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly in the world, where authoritarianism and right […]

BANGLADESH: Judiciary abdicates independence

A Written Submission to the 41st Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has been consistently expressing its serious concerns over the dysfunctional justice institutions of Bangladesh – an incumbent Member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The victims’ right […]

INDONESIA: Protection of peaceful assembly and association needs serious evaluation

A Written Submission to the 41st Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre Under the Indonesian Constitution (UUD) of 1945, the right to peaceful assembly and association is fully protected and guaranteed without any distinction. Moreover, Indonesia also has national laws that govern and ensure protection of […]

SRI LANKA: ICCPR පනතේ ඇති අඩුපාඩු

2007 අංක 56 දරන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී සමාජවාදී ජනරජය මගින් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කර ඇති ICCPR පනත පිළිබඳ මහජනතා සාකච්ඡුාවක් ඇති වෙමින් පවතින්නේ නුදුරු කාලයක් තුළ එම පනත කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරීමක් සිදු වන නිසාය. එම පනත ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වීමේදී මතුවී ඇති ගැටලූ රාශියක් ඇත. එම ගැටලූ පිළිබඳව දළ විස්තරයක් පහත සඳහන් වේ. එම පනතේ අරමුණ වී ඇත්තේ යම් මානව හිමිකම් කඩකිරීම් අපරාධයක් සේ […]

SRI LANKA: Release poet and drop spurious charges against him

The arrest and ongoing detention of award-winning author and poet Shakthika Sathkumara on spurious charges are a clear violation of his right to freedom of expression, CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance and the Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC), said today ahead of his next court hearing on 18 June. Shakthika Sathkumara was arrested on 1 April […]

THAILAND: The Attacks of Political Activists

A Statement from The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 4 June 2019 In pursuance to a string of recent attacks of at least three pro-democracy activists including Aekachai Hongkangwan who was physically assaulted seven times and had his car set on fire twice since early 2018, and of […]

NEPAL: New laws and policies aim to throttle the NHRC, media, and civil society

Statement | Nepal | 31-05-2019

The government of Nepal has been repeatedly throttling the civil society, media and human rights organizations in Nepal. Even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has now come under its ambit. The present government, led by the Nepal Communist Party, does not like civil society questioning its business. In an attempt to silence critical voices, […]

INDONESIA: A Review of the Indonesian Government’s Obligation under International Human Rights Instruments in Regard to the Truth, Remedy and Justice of Gross Violations of Human Rights

Paper | Indonesia | 30-05-2019

Written by Chrisbiantoro1 Introduction As a member of the United Nations (UN)2, Indonesia has ratified at least six major international human rights treaties3. Currently, Indonesia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council [HRC]4, therefore, it has obligations to increase the standard of human rights protection in its territory under the resolution of the […]

BANGLADESH: Human Rights Defender tortured while in arbitrary detention must be released and charges be dropped

Bangladesh authorities must immediately release human rights defender Mohammad Abdul Kaium, who has been allegedly tortured in custody during his arbitrary detention. The fabricated case filed against him under the Digital Security Act (DSA)-2018 and other penal laws should be dropped immediately. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has verified information that Mohammad Abdul Kaium, a human […]

SRI LANKA: Extinct legal system caused security crisis resulting in Easter Sunday carnage

According to Sri Lankan Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake, the present security crisis facing the country was a result of the failures of many government institutions. In a television interview available on YouTube, he cited foreign exchange control failures to monitor money coming into the country, Customs Department failures, and intelligence coordination failures. Aside from these […]

SRI LANKA: Debate on restoring security is diverted to suit political ends

Late Mr. Tarzie Vittachithe, winner of many prestigious awards for journalism, had a favourite saying that, “Everything is about something else”. In a similar manner, the parliamentary discussion on two no-confidence motions is also clearly about other issues, rather than the brutal carnage that took place on Easter Sunday and the causes thereof. The government […]

SOUTH KOREA: Gwangju 2019 Human Rights Awards Ceremony and the People’s Forum on State Violence

Gwangju, May 21, 2019 On the May 18th, at the Gwangju city, the May 18 Memorial Foundation held the annual human rights award ceremony followed by people’s forum “Genocide and Refugee: State Violence and State Responsibility to Protect Its People”, on 18 and 19 May. The photos and documents relating to this event are now […]

AHRC TV: Clashes in Hong Kong legislature over extradition bill and other stories in JUST ASIA, Episode 258

This week Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, where clashes occurred at the legislature on Tuesday morning over vetting the controversial extradition bill. Opponents and supporters of the bill have been trying to lead the bills meeting after a split over the legitimacy of the temporary chairperson of the bills committee. Since Hong Kong’s government […]

SRI LANKA: Facing not merely a security problem but also an acute constitutional crisis

Although there was a two day parliamentary debate held to discuss the Easter Sunday carnage caused by the bombs that were exploded in three churches and several tourist hotels, no consensus has yet emerged as to the primary causes that led to the complete breakdown of the security situation and such an abject failure on […]