Freedom of expression

උප පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක සරත් ප්රේtමචන්ද්රහගේ මරණය කෆ්කානු කතාවකි. එම්. ඉලන්චේලියන් විනිසුරු, ගතවූ දශක කිහිපය තුළ ශ්රීක ලංකාවෙන් බිහිවූ ශ්රේරෂ්ඨතම විනිසුරුවරයෙකි. තවමත් මහාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරයෙක් වුවද, ඔහු උපරිමාධිකරණ විනිසුරුවරයෙකු වීමට වුව සුදුසු අයෙකි. එය එසේ වූවා නම් ඔහු උපරිමාධිකරණයේ ශ්රේධෂ්ඨ වත්කමක් වනවා පමණක් නොව ශ්රීු ලංකාවේ නීතිය හා සාමය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පවතින සතුට නූපදවන තත්ත්වය රැඩිකල් වෙනසකට භාජනය […]

Justice M. Ilancheliyan is one of the greatest judges to be produced in Sri Lanka for the last many decades. He is still a High Court Judge, but he deserves to be raised to the Supreme Court. If that were to happen, he would be a great asset not only to the Supreme Court, but […]

Avinash Pandey Gopikrishna Durgaprasad, a 25-year-old gainfully employed young man, committed suicide a few days ago in Pune, Maharashtra. With Maharashtra seeing thousands of suicides every year, and being the state with the most farmer suicides annually, Gopikrishna’s death would not have been significant news on its own. What was different about this case though, was that […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the recent spate of attacks on the Hazara community in Balochistan province. In the most recent incident, four family members belonging to the ethnic Hazara Shia community and their driver were shot dead on July 19, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle near Balochistan’s Mastung […]

This week Just Asia begins with India, where the Supreme Court passed a historic judgment last Friday, ordering the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the allegations of ‘fake encounters’ by uniformed personnel in the conflict ridden state of Manipur. To ensure an impartial investigation, the Court ordered that no member of the Manipur […]

DIG Lalith A Jayasinghe was arrested and is now being remanded for harbouring an offender and aiding the escape of the chief suspect Swiss Kumar, for the gang rape and the murder of 18 year old Sivaloganathan Vidya on 13 May 2015. The DIG is suspected of having committed an offence punishable under Section 209 […]

A Statement from ODHIKAR on the detention of Detention of Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan at KLIA, Malaysia forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission At approximately 11:00 pm (Bangladesh time), on 19 July 2017, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and Secretary of Odhikar, boarded a Malaysian Airlines flight, MH […]

An interview with J.C. Weliamuna, President’s Counsel, Eisenhower Fellow, former Member of the Transparency International Global Board, and Constitutional Law practitioner in Supreme Court for over 28 years, in an interview with the Daily FT shares a frank inside view into the status of the Judicial organ of the State today forwarded by the Asian […]

Avinash Pandey Looking at the pattern of tomato pricing in India, year after year, could lead one to believe that tomatoes are pricing themselves, evilly conspiring against the farmers producing them and the consumers buying them, helping only the intermediaries in the process. As of now, tomatoes are being sold for more than Rs. 80 […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been found guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court’s Joint Investigation Team. The team found the Sharif family wealth to be beyond their sources of income. The country’s political parties and Bar Associations are now demanding Sharif’s resignation. Moving to Burma, the […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a Hong Kong based Nepali investigative journalist and NepalKhabar Hong Kong Editor, Mr. JB Pun Magar, has been attacked and threatened for writing on issues relating to the Nepalese community residing in Hong Kong. Mr. Komal Gurung (Thapa), a Hong Kong based businessperson has been targeting JB […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where police brutality and violence continues. Three videos show how law enforcement officials regularly transcend their authority and abuse ordinary citizens, with a complete lack of accountability. In the most recently surfaced video, a group of police officers are baton charging unarmed women mill workers in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. […]

A Fact-finding report by MASUM forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) conducted a high level fact finding in Darjeeling and adjoining areas to assess the situation at Darjeeling hills after the agitation for separate statehood and the subsequent police atrocities upon the agitators. This report is only a primary […]

Law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh have announced on 3 July 2017, that at 11:30 pm they have ‘rescued’ Mr. Farhad Mazhar from a Dhaka bound passenger bus at Noapara in the south-western district Jessore, bordering India. The police later interrogated him during which he was allegedly ill-treated. Farhad was in police custody till 3:00 pm […]

A video has recently surfaced in Pakistan, where a contingent of police officers can be seen baton charging a group of unarmed women mill workers protesting in Muzaffargarh, Punjab. The scuffle occurred inside the district court of Muzaffargarh in broad daylight, yet the judicial officer never took any action against the erring police officers, nor […]

Watch English Version Watch Sinhala Version The Asian Human Rights Commission is happy to present two video presentations; one in English and one in Sinhala by Mr. Basil Fernando on the Folk School method. For almost 25 years, the Asian Human Rights Commission has constantly utilized the Folk School methodology, as its approach for developing a human […]

An article from Baloch Insight forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission By Ahmar Mustikhan “My personal enmity is only with the ISI,” US citizen Afzal Bugti, 57, a successful businessman from Chicago, who went back to Pakistan, said. There were rumors that he had been abducted because of personal enmity when he vanished into […]

For the past several years, the Asian Human Rights Commission has been reporting on the widespread practice of abuse of power by the Nepal Police. The extent of abuse of power and politicization within the police today is such that even senior police officers are targeted. On 24 April 2017, a team of police officers […]

The weekly Times column, Focus on Rights, titled ‘Dangers of Unseemly Ministerial Outbursts to Free Speech’ by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, in the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, on 02 July 2017, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Kishali Pinto Jayawardena However much they may genuflect to the concept of free speech, Sri Lanka’s politicians are quite unable […]

A letter by Lakshan Dias (Attorney at law) sent to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 29.06.2017 Mr. Amal Randeniya Secretary to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Mihindu Mawatha Colombo -12 Dear Mr. Randeniya Thank you for your emailed letter dated 25th June 2017. As a preliminary […]