Extrajudicial killings

The picture produced below shows how the kidnapping for ransom and killing of 11 young person’s inside a navy camp has become a problem troubling the conscience of the entire nation. This incident had a profound effect on the minds of everyone. On the one hand, there is a demand for justice. This demand has […]

We are sharing a short video commentary on the context between authoritarianism and democracy in three Asian countries, which are facing unprecedented struggles between the forces which represented authoritarianism of various forms and those of the opposition who are making extraordinary efforts to transform their societies into democracies based on the rule of law and […]

Due to the recent elections, there is now a great expectation for some decisive change. Everybody agrees that the election results show a very definite rejection of the old way, the old leadership, and the traditional style. People want something very different. What is the most important change that the people are expecting, which can […]

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission In Indonesia, civic space remains rated as “obstructed”. Among the main concerns are the use of restrictive laws, including defamation provisions against human rights defenders and journalists as well as harassment and threats against them. The authorities have criminalised Papuan activists for their peaceful […]

(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 […]

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: […]

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 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:  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the alleged […]

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු නීතියමත පාලනය පිළිබදව වර්ථමාන කාලය තුල ලිය වී ඇති පොත් අතර ඉතාමත් ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් පොතක් වූයේ ටොම් බින්ග්හම් (Tom Bingham) සාමිවරයා විසින් ලියන ලද නීතිය මත පාලනය (The Rule of Law) යන පොතය. එම පොත නීතිය මත පාලනය යන නමින් සිංහලට පරිවර්ථනය කොට ඇත. එම පොතෙහි නීතිය මත පාලනය යන්න පිළිබදව ඇති නිර්වචනයය […]

A Statement from The Times.lk forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission                                                                         පොලිසිය අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලබන සැකකරුවන් විමර්ශන කටයුතු සඳහා ආයුධ පෙන්වීමට […]

Read the statement in Sinhala මෙම ලිපිය සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න Mr. Nimal Amarasiri, a candidate in a local government election, was killed after a tear gas attack on 26th February while participating in a protest against the attempt to postpone the local government elections.  There was no justifiable grounds at all for the use of teargas […]

By Basil Fernando Read the article in Sinhala මෙම ලිපිය සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න As Sri Lanka is to celebrate its 75th anniversary of Independence on the 4th of February, the general reaction of the people around the country this year is one of despondency with serious criticisms about the failure of governance in the country.  The need […]

A few weeks ago, President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Decree Number 17 of 2022 concerning the establishment of a non-judicial settlement team for serious past human rights violations. We agree with the statement of the victims of past human rights abuses and their families, namely that the Presidential Decree 17 of 2022 is a means […]

GENEVA (8 August 2022) – UN human rights experts* today condemned the extensive, prolonged and repeated use of state of emergency measures since 2 April 2022 by Sri Lankan authorities to crackdown on peaceful protesters and prevent them from voicing their grievances amidst an economic collapse in the country. On 15 July, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned […]

A Written Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) reiterates the issue of Bangladesh’s unabated enforced disappearances with blanket impunity to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s 51st Regular Session. Halting enforced disappearances in Bangladesh has […]

Human rights defenders, dissidents, and political opposition survive in a profoundly dangerous condition of civic space in Bangladesh. The country’s government keeps weaponising draconian laws with impunity to curb civic freedoms of the people. The freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the freedom of expression and opinion are dealt with incarceration by the police, […]

An Oral Statement to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President The Special Rapporteur’s report has substantively covered the aspects regarding the protection of the lawyers against undue interference and independent exercise of the legal profession. Echoing the Special Rapporteur the Asian Legal […]

By Basil Fernando What happened on the 9th of May was a tragedy. It is a tragedy that the entire nation should genuinely mourn. Such genuine mourning has a capacity to generate reflections that could transform the thinking and practices of all those concerned about how to avoid such tragedies in the future. Such genuine […]

In commemorating the 24th year of the student shooting in Trisakti and Semanggi, and with two years to go before the General Election in 2024, the Minister of the State Owned Company (BUMN), Mr. Erick Thohir appointed the Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) to provide houses for the four families of the victims of the student […]