Democracy

First, they came for the media, and I did not speak out – because I was not a media. Then they came for the civil society, and I did not speak out – because I was not a civil society. Then they came for the lawyers and judges, and I did not speak out – […]

A video presentation produced by LEADS YouTube Channel published by the Asian Human Rights Commission The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to share with you the following video produced by LEADS YouTube Channel We are sharing a link to a video explaining the Sri Lankan crisis of governance, Economy and Rule of Law. (Part 02) This video was […]

(Sharing a link to a video explaining the Sri Lankan crisis of governance, Economy and Rule of Law. This video was prepared as a part of an ongoing discussion on the need of system change) Link to the Video  The purpose of this short article is to point to the need to focus on the […]

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The CIVICUS Monitor added Pakistan to its watchlist of countries in March 2024, following the repression against the opposition, the censorship of journalists and attacks on peaceful protests around the elections. Other ongoing concerns include the criminalisation, threats and harassment of human rights defenders and the […]

By Basil Fernando In the context of Sri Lanka, a crucial question arises: Does the country still possess the capability to effectively prosecute crimes? This query can be raised for numerous reasons. However, even before delving into these underlying issues, one glaring reality has become evident to the people of Sri Lanka in recent years: […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the President of Republic of Indonesia  Mr. Joko Widodo President of the Republic of Indonesia Jl. Veteran No. 16 Jakarta Pusat INDONESIA Tel: +62 21 3458 595 Fax: +62 21 3484 4759 Dear Mr. President:  INDONESIA: Case of bullying and the forced dispersal of […]

A Statement from https://www.systemchange-peramuna.org/ forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission This Sunday, the launch of ‘#System Change Peramuna’ provided a glimmer of hope amidst the numerous challenges faced in Sri Lanka. We encourage you to watch the entire video, share your comments with us, and collaborate on this approximately 3-year project aimed at restoring […]

(Hong Kong, May 02, 2024)  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRS) supports the statement of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a famous national non-Governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia, regarding the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee issuing a document of observations (concluding observations) and recommendations regarding the human rights situation […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-OLT-002-2024 April 19, 2024 An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to Open Letter to H. E. the Cardinal Malcom Ranjith and all the members of the Catholic Bishops’ conference in Sri Lanka H. E. Cardinal Malcom Ranjith Archbishop’s House Colombo – 8 Sri Lanka Tel: +94-11-2695471 Fax: +94-11-2692009 Email: […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the President of the Republic of Indonesia  Mr. Joko Widodo President of the Republic of Indonesia Jl. Veteran No. 16 Jakarta Pusat Indonesia  Tel: +62 21 3458 595 Fax: +62 21 3484 4759 Dear Mr. President, Responding to the press conference based agenda held […]

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The CIVICUS Monitor added Pakistan to its watchlist of countries in early March 2024, following the repression against the opposition, the censorship of journalists and attacks on peaceful protests around the elections. Elections were held in Pakistan on 8th February 2024. Ahead of the elections, the […]

On February 28th, 2024, Indonesian President Joko Widodo awarded the Indonesian Minister of Defense, Mr. Prabowo Subianto the honourary promotion to the rank of General of the Indonesian National Army. A similar title has been given to a number of retired Indonesian National Military officers who once served as Ministers, starting from Mr. Susilo Bambang […]

1994 දී ලංකාවේනීතිපොතට ඇතුලු වූ වදහිංසා පනත මේවසරේදී අවුරුදු 30ක කාලයක් සනිටුහන් කරයි. මෙතරම් දීර්ඝ කාලයක් ඔස්සේ මේ පනත තුලින් ලාංකීය සමාජය අත්පත් කරගත් ජයග්‍රහණයක් හෝ සාධාරණ භාවයක් දැක ගත හැකිද? වහිංසාව වැලැක්වීම නැමති ජාත්‍යන්තර එකගතාවයේ පදනම වූයේ යුක්තිය හා නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කර වීමේදීමුලුමනින්ම බුද්ධිය හා ප්‍රඥාගෝචරත්වය පදනම් කරගත් අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ ක්‍රමයක් ඇති කර ගැනීම ස්ථාවර සමාජයක් ඇති කිරීම සදහා අතීෂයින්ම වැදගත් වන්නා වූ සාධකයක් වන බවය. වධහිංසා පනත සාර්ථකද නැද්ද යන්න සලකා බැලිය යුතු වන්නේ එවනි ස්ථාවර සමාජයක් ලංකාව තුල පවතීද යන්න ගැන සලකා බැලීම තුලිනි.  අද ලංකාවේපොදුවේපවතින මතය නම් මෙතරම් අස්ථාවර කාලයක් කොයි කලකදීවත් පැවතී නැති බවය. මේපිළිබදව ප්‍රධානම සාධකය නම් රට පුරාම පැතිර පවතින නිතරම අසන්නට ලැබෙන මිනී මැරුම් හා ඝාතන තර්ජන තුලින් ඇතිකර ඇති භීතියයි.  මිනී මැරුම් පිළිබදව දිනපතාම ඇසෙන්නට ලැබෙනවා පමණක් නොව විවිධාකර වූ ආකාර වලින් ඝාතන සිදුවීමට ඉඩ දෙන වාතාවරණයක්ද දැකගත හැකිය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් බෙහෙත් යැයි පෙන්නුම් කරමින් පාටකල වතුර බරපතල ලෙඩ රෝග ඇති රෝගීන්ට එන්තනත් කිරීම දක්වා මෙම ඝාතන සංස්කෘතිය පළල් වී ඇත.ඉමියුනොග්ලොබින් ෂපපමබදටකදඉමකසබ නැමති ඉතා බලවත් ඖෂධය වෙනුවට පාට කල වතුර එන්ත් කිරීම සම්බන්දයෙන් හෙලිදව් වී ඇති කරුනු දැන් ප්‍රසිද්ධ නඩුවකට පවා හේතු ගත වී ඇත.  මේහැර දේශපාලන කරුනු මත වූවත් ව්‍යාපාරික කරුණක් ගැන වූවත් දෂණ හෙළිදරව් කිරීමක් ගැන වූවත් මත්ද්‍රව්‍යය ජාවාරම පිළිබදව විරෝධය පෑමක් වූවත් හුදෙක්ම ආගමික මතවාදයකට ඇතිවන ගැටීමක් වූවත් බොහෝ විට තුඩු දෙන්නේ ඝාතන තර්ජන වලටය.  මෙවනි වාතාවරයක් තුල වදහිංසා පනත අර්ථකථනය කල යුතු වන්නේ සුවිශේෂ සමාජයක පවතින ප්‍රචන්ඩත්වය හා හිංසාකාරී බව පිළිබදව ඇති දැනුවත් කම හා අවබෝධය ඔස්සේය. වධහිංසා පණත දියුණු සමාජයන් තුල යොදා ගනු ලබන්නේ විනයානුකූලව කටයුතු කරන පොලීසියක්, නීත්‍යානුකූලව අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ පවත්වන අපරාධ පරීක්ෂණ පද්ධතියක්, අපක්ෂපාතී වූ නිතිපති ක්‍රමයක් මෙන්ම ස්වාධීනව කටයුතු කිරීමට ඉඩ ඇති අධිකරණ ක්‍රමයක් පවතිනතාක් දුරටය. එහෙත් මේකිසිදු කොන්දේසියක් පසුගිය කාලය තුල ලාංකීය සමාජය තුල පවතින්නේ නැත.  වදහිංසා ඇතිවීම මෙන්ම ඝාතන සංස්කෘතියේ පසුබිමද ඉහත කී ආයතන වල පවතින බරපතල කඩා වැටීම් හා බද්ද වී ඇත.  මෙම බද්දවීම පිළිබද අවබෝධයෙන් තොරව කොපමණ පැමිණි කලත්, නඩු තීන්දු ලබා ගත්තත් ඒ මගින් සැබෑ සාධාරණයක්වත්, සමාජ ස්ථාවරත්වයක් ගොඩනගා ගැනීමක්වත් කල නොහැකිය.  මේනිසා වදහිංසා පනත පිළිබද 30 සංවත්සරය සනිටුහන් කිරීමේදී අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ ලාංකීය සමාජය තුල වධහිංසාව නොකඩවා පැවැත්මටත්, ඝාතන සංස්කෘතිය පළල් වීමටත් යුක්තිය පසදලවා ගැනීම වඩ වඩා අමාරු කාලයක් වීමටත් හේතු වී ඇති රාජ්‍ය ආයතනික ගැටලුව තෝරා බේරාගෙන, හදුනාගෙන ඊට පිළියම් සදහා යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමය.  මේනිසා නීති වෘතිය මෙන්ම යුක්තිය පසදලීමේයෙදෙන සියලුම කාර්යංශ තුලත් සිවිල් සමාජය තුලත් විශේෂයෙන්ම මාධ්‍ය තුලත් පැන නැගිය යුතු වාතාවරණය වන්නේ මෙම අතිෂයින් වැදගත් සමාජ සාකච්ඡාව ඉස්මතු කොට ගෙන ඉදිරියට ගෙය යෑමය.  ඉදිරියේදී එනවාය කියන මැතිවරණ කාලය තුල මෙම වදහිංසා හා ඝාතන සංස්කෘතිය පිළිබද ගැටලු වඩ වඩාත් උග්‍ර වනු ඇත. එවනි තත්වයක් යටතේ මෙම සාකච්ඡාව ඉස්මතු කර ගැනීම වඩ වඩාත් කාලෝචිත වන්නේය. 

An article from Colombo Telegraph forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission By Jayakumar Thangavelu  A Senior Police Officer’s Perspective Of Investigations Into Political Crimes In addressing this subject, I put down my experience of forty years in the Sri Lankan Police, where I retired as Deputy Inspector General, Legal Range, of which twenty years were […]

Hong Kong, March 07, 2024  As there is a curiosity on the part of many persons and organizations about the Rule issued against Mr Nagananda Kodituwakku Attorney-at-law by the Supreme Court we are sharing the basic documents that provide the essential information about this case. The Rule was made under Judicature act 42(2) while ordering […]

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The CIVICUS Monitor in December 2023 downgraded Sri Lanka’s civic space rating to ‘repressed,’ with authorities clamping down on protesters, stifling journalists and targeting activists amid mounting public frustration with poor governance and a lack of accountability. In January 2024, Human Rights Watch said […]

PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY  Discussion at Yogyakarta State University Critics against the Regime Forcibly Dispersed by the Rector          Discussion and gathering that was planned by the students of Yogyakarta State University (UNY) and other academics, such as lecturers and professors, were forcibly dispersed by the Rector due to the committee of the discussion did not have permission from the rector. Previously, […]

(Hong Kong, January 16, 2024) The Panel of Judges at the East Jakarta District Court has issued an acquittal verdict regarding the case of criminalisation against Ms. Fatia Maulidiyanti (the Director of the Commission for the Disappearances and Victims of Violence [KontraS] for the 2020-2023 period) and Mr. Haris Azhar (the Founder of the LOKATARU […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day In commemorating the International Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) highlights the theme of the lack of protection of human rights defenders in Indonesia. More than 20 years’ of political reform after former dictator President Suharto stepped […]

By Basil Fernando Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville is the famous author of the book Democracy in America. It is one of the world’s best known writings which have been appreciated by many philosophers, writers, thinkers and also people in many countries. It has also been translated into many languages.  Tocqueville was a […]