Freedom of assembly

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the workers who were illegally dismissed whom the Department of Labour and Employment (DoLE) allowed to return to work are now being subjected to repressive and inhumane policies by the employing company. The policies are a clear violation of the DoLE order; however, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is requesting your intervention to demand that an investigation be conducted into allegations of the violent dispersal of protesting students. The students, who were opposing the appointment of the new head of a State university due to allegation of corruption, were attacked by joint forces of the […]

A group of hundreds of relatives of the disappeared from Mannar and Vavuniya were to arrive on the 5th night in Colombo by buses to share with the people in the South their pathetic stories about the disappearances of their loved ones during and after the war, and then to present a petition to the […]

A Golden Opportunity to abolish self-contradictory Franchise System and Restore true Justice and Democracy in Pakistan The world has strongly and repeatedly drawn the attention of Pakistan to its self-contradictory franchise system which denies the Ahmadi Muslims the fundamental right to vote.( Click here to read our previous statement on the issue) The Supreme Court of […]

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 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the arrest and manhandling of 32 peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in Balutawar, Kathmandu, on 25 January 2013. One of the protesters, a transgender activist, has been injured after being beaten by four policemen during the […]

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. […]

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 […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is greatly aggrieved to learn of the tragic death of Phyo Wai Aung in Rangoon, Burma during the early morning hours of 4 January 2013. Phyo Wai Aung was an aspiring young electrical engineer with a loving family when in April 2010 police arrested him at home late one […]

“The court system is skewed against ordinary folk,” says Malinda Seneviratne, writing a comment on my last article. His argument is that the people will not defend the courts as the court system is skewed against the people. However, people do have a reason to defend even the highly inadequate and problem ridden justice system […]

The inaction of the Laotian Government with regard to the enforced disappearance of Mr. Sombath Somphone on December 15th is worrying. The Asian Human Rights Commission joins the request made by civil society groups and the diplomatic groups inside Laos, and echoed by numerous international groups and institutions, including the European Union and the United […]

The Asian Human Right Commission has learned that there was an attempt at the life of Gunaratne Wanninayaka, the President of Colombo Magistrate’s Court Lawyer’s Association and the Convener of People’s March. He has played a very prominent role in fighting for the independence of the Bar for several years. He has actively participated against […]

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka passed a historical resolution today opposing the impeachment motion and avowing that, if the incumbent CJ is removed, the Bar Association will not welcome anyone who is appointed in her place. The following is a summary of the resolution given by the Lawyer’s Collective. “The President of BASL formulated […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission expressed grave concern over the present situation in the University of Jaffna. Most students are unable to attend lectures as the whole university is in a state of stalemate. The government has added a “national security” mood to the crisis, rather than taking it as a part of the problem […]

We call upon the people, in particular the judges and lawyers, to grasp the historic significance of this moment It is news now that the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and her legal team, led by Romesh De Silva PC, walked away from the Parliamentary Select Committee proceedings, expressing no confidence in the manner in which […]

The Speaker’s ruling relating to the Supreme Court’s notice to the Speaker and the members of the Parliamentary Select Committee does not in any way prohibits the constitutional right of the Court to entertain and to determine the Reference made by the Court of Appeal for a specific question relating to the scope of Article […]

The Surendranagar firing that killed three Dalit youth on 21 September this year has once again brought to light the concern, that in India, the police do not have adequate training nor the government has necessary resolve to overhaul the police service into one that fits a modern democracy. An affidavit filed by the Gujarat […]

In the latest turn of events in the struggle against the Letpadaung copper mining project in upper Burma, about which the Asian Human Rights Commission has been campaigning since mid-2012, the government has issued an announcement ordering that demonstrators abandon their protest sites or face criminal action. In an attempt to make its order look […]

Even the worst of criminals have a right to a fair trial before an independent judiciary. A judge in an impeachment proceeding in Sri Lanka does not have that right. Article 107 of the Constitution and the standing orders as they stand now preclude that right. Is the quality of citizenship of a judge of […]

There was a period in the past when many rights including fair trial and the freedom of opinion and expression was heavily restricted by both authoritarian and military dictatorship governments. Those who attempted to enjoy such freedoms suffered from long periods of imprisonment in comparison with general criminal offences or even the death penalty. Constraints […]