Institutional reform

Police and public officials have prevented a press briefing of Amnesty International (AI)’s about state-sponsored torture, saying that AI speakers might be charged for not having working permit. On 28 September 2016, at Four Wings Hotel in Bangkok, Special Branch police officers and officials from the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare intervened at a […]

Seldom does a verdict fully betray the rot that permeates the judicial system from policing to the Judiciary. The Supreme Court of India verdict on 24 September 2016 counts as one such verdict. In acquitting death row convict Dhal Singh Dewangan, a resident of Chhattisgarh, the verdict exposes the façade that passes off as forensic investigation in […]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld the death penalty against a mentally ill person, Mr. Imdad Ali, thereby overturning a previous appeal and a court decision staying his execution. The Supreme Court decision arrives at a time when four United Nations human rights experts have urged authorities in Pakistan to halt the execution of Imdad Ali, […]

The hasty passing of laws and emergency regulations particularly with the intention of encouraging law enforcement officers to commit acts which amounts to serious crimes is not an unfamiliar practice in Sri Lanka. How Sri Lanka became second in the world with regard to committing the heinous crime of enforced disappearances is an example of […]

On 7 September 2016, the verdict in the landmark case of the Karen people was delivered from the Central Administrative Court in Thailand. It ruled that the authorities did not break the law in burning down six Karen plaintiffs’ properties to forcibly relocate them from the Kaeng Krachan National Park. The Asian Human Rights Commission […]

What if you woke up one morning and realized you were living under institutions that looked more like mental institutions than institutions of justice? And, rather than trying to bring sanity, the institutions were being run by mad men? Would you run? Or would you stay? What if we somehow took your Stockholm Syndrome away? […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where the Supreme Court ordered a week-long stay on the execution of mentally ill Imdad Ali. Despite being diagnosed as “insane”, Ali was to be hanged early on September 20. Due to appeals by rights groups, the Supreme Court will now hear the case on September 27 and […]

By Basil Fernando One more judgement from the Supreme Court, on torture by the Sri Lankan police, was added to a long list of such judgements, when the Supreme Court decided in favour of a petition filed by W.N.L.K. Fernando of Naththandiya Police against officers attached to the Wennapuwa Police Station [S.C.F.R. Application No. 612/09]. The […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Raviraj Kavichandran a resident of Pussellawa had according to the police, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself on the night of his arrest at the Pussellawa police station on 18th Septemeber 2016. Raviraj’s family members claim witness to him being beaten up at […]

Kaviratne Raviraj, 30 years old, arrested and taken to the Pussellawa police station by some plain clothed police officers and was later pronounced dead upon admission to the Pussellawa Hospital. According to the relatives of the deceased, he was assaulted by the officers at the time of the arrest, and one of his brothers states […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the President of Pakistan His Excellency, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain¨ President of Pakistan President’s Secretariat Islamabad  Pakistan Fax: +92 51 9207458 Email: publicmail@president.gov.pk Dear Mr President, The Asian Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the case of Imdad Ali, a mentally ill, death row inmate in […]

On 12 September 2016, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) issued the NCPO Order No. 55/2016under Article 44 of the Interim Constitution; it states that all cases involving offences of the Announcement of the NCPO Order No. 37/2557 (2014), No. 38/2557 (2014), and No. 50/2557 (2014), will no longer be tried in Military […]

This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where the Administrative Court ruled in favor of the National Park officers who forcibly evicted and burned about 100 houses and rice barns of ethnic Karen villagers in Phetchaburi province. According to the September 7 verdict, since the Karen villagers illegally encroached into protected areas, the park officers […]

Mr President, Excellencies, Colleagues and Friends, I am honoured to open this first session of the Council’s second decade. After two years as High Commissioner, I believe it is important for me to share with you in this oral update our concern over an emerging pattern: the growing refusal on the part of an increasing […]

We reproduce below the content of the letter written to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice by the AHRC. 13th September 2016 Objection to the designation of Mr. Yasantha Kodagoda, Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) as the Chairperson of the Government’s Steering Committee on ‘Torture Prevention and the Law’ of the National Human Rights Action […]

The latest statistics put out by the National Crime Record Bureau gives the Haryana state of India a dubious distinction. It stands second in the number of complaints lodged with the police, second only to Uttar Pradesh. That the population, in general, views police as the last resort in cases of injustice, puts the statistics […]

By Basil Fernando For a week, the media reported that a boy who was last seen at a police station had ‘disappeared’. Everyone knows that this word is a euphemism for murder. Somehow, it is less disturbing to talk about a disappearance. No police dogs have been sent to look for the boy or at […]

Just Asia begins this week with Sri Lanka; on the eve of the Sri Lanka Police celebrating 150 years of service, a TV programme was held discussing Sri Lanka’s policing service, its history and present status, and the country’s much needed criminal justice reforms. The discussion was attended by Mr Basil Fernando, Director of Policy […]

By Md. Ashrafuzzaman INTRODUCTION: There is an urgent and unavoidable need to protect people from torture. And, towards this end, there have been few notable legislative developments in Asia. However, despite the promulgation of select legislation in certain Asian jurisdictions, which now criminalize torture, the crime remains entrenched in the fabric of daily life. The […]

(4 September 2016) On 31 August 2016, at 13:30, four men suspected of crimes in Thailand’s Deep South were taken into custody (although they were usually called “invitees” and not “detainees” by the authorities). Three were subsequently released, though one, Mr. Manasae Zoroae, 26, continued to be held at Ranger Taskforce 43 inside the Ingkhayutthaborihan […]