Judicial system

This week Just Asia begins with India, where criminal disdain for human life was seen again in a blaze claiming 22 young lives in a coaching institution in Surat, Gujarat, one of the country’s wealthiest states. Many of the students, trapped on the fourth floor of a building with no fire exits, were burnt alive […]

Written by Chrisbiantoro1 Introduction As a member of the United Nations (UN)2, Indonesia has ratified at least six major international human rights treaties3. Currently, Indonesia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council [HRC]4, therefore, it has obligations to increase the standard of human rights protection in its territory under the resolution of the […]

Bangladesh authorities must immediately release human rights defender Mohammad Abdul Kaium, who has been allegedly tortured in custody during his arbitrary detention. The fabricated case filed against him under the Digital Security Act (DSA)-2018 and other penal laws should be dropped immediately. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has verified information that Mohammad Abdul Kaium, a human […]

According to Sri Lankan Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake, the present security crisis facing the country was a result of the failures of many government institutions. In a television interview available on YouTube, he cited foreign exchange control failures to monitor money coming into the country, Customs Department failures, and intelligence coordination failures. Aside from these […]

Late Mr. Tarzie Vittachithe, winner of many prestigious awards for journalism, had a favourite saying that, “Everything is about something else”. In a similar manner, the parliamentary discussion on two no-confidence motions is also clearly about other issues, rather than the brutal carnage that took place on Easter Sunday and the causes thereof. The government […]

This week Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, where clashes occurred at the legislature on Tuesday morning over vetting the controversial extradition bill. Opponents and supporters of the bill have been trying to lead the bills meeting after a split over the legitimacy of the temporary chairperson of the bills committee. Since Hong Kong’s government […]

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where two Reuters reporters have been freed by a presidential amnesty. Wa Lone, 33 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29 had spent more than 500 days in prison, after being convicted under the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in jail last September. Their jailing was seen […]

This week Just Asia begins with Sri Lanka, which has been traumatized by a series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday. More than 350 people were killed and at least 500 wounded in the deadliest attack in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war 10 years ago. The dead included at least 45 […]

This week Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, where Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the government will not drop the controversial amendment to the territory’s extradition laws, despite 12,000 people marching against it last Sunday. The amendment allowing Hong Kong to extradite to other countries, including China, on a case by case basis, was to […]

This week Just Asia begins with the Philippines, where police shot dead 14 farmers in Negros island on Sunday. While rights groups called this a ‘massacre’, authorities said it was a legitimate operation against suspected communist rebels. According to the police, the 14 men shot at officers with search warrants for illegal firearms, prompting them […]

That there is mass dissatisfaction and frustration about the way the country has been ruled is today a commonly accepted proposition. However, this mass dissatisfaction has not given rise to more articulate expression within the country, is also an obvious truth. The result is that there is no general enthusiasm for seeking change. As is […]

This week Just Asia begins with Pakistan, where two teenage Hindu girls were placed in a government shelter on Tuesday, after allegations of their forced conversion and marriages to Muslim men. The Islamabad High Court issued the protection order for the two sisters, saying it acted on a petition from them. Sindh police have so […]

ජනාධිපති නීතිඥ ජේ.සී. වැලිඅමුණ තරිඳු උඩුවරගෙදර අධිකරණයේ නඩු ප‍්‍රමාද වෙන බව සමාජයේ ජනප‍්‍රිය මතයක් පවතිනවා. ඒත් ඒ ප‍්‍රමාදයට හේතු ග ැන බොහෝ අය සොයන්නේ නැහැ නේද? බාහිරව බැලූවාම පෙනෙන්නේ උසාවියේ නඩු කල් යන එක විතරයි. සමහරු නීතිඥවරුන්ට බනිනවා. සමහරු විනිශ්චයකරුවන්ට බනිනවා. කොහොම ගත්තත් මේක ජාතික ප‍්‍රශ්නයක්. අධිකරණය විසින් නියමිත කාලයට යුක්තිය ඉෂ්ට කරන්නේ නැතිනම්, බොහෝවිට […]

This week Just Asia is marking its completion of 250 episodes. Since October 2013, AHRC TV’s news programme has been providing a weekly broadcast of human rights news. Just Asia is the first online news report of its kind in Asia, bringing together stories and cases from victims, activists, journalists and all those concerned with […]

A well-functioning legal system can be measured by its response to daily crimes and complaints. This is a much better test in fact, rather than a country’s constitution (in Sri Lanka’s case, the 1978 constitution still remains a major barrier to the functioning of a legal system), or statutes, or judicial presence, all of which […]

This week Just Asia begins with Malaysia, which has become a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after signing the tribunal’s founding treaty Monday. Malaysia becomes the 124th member of the court since its establishment in 2002, a boost to the court, which has suffered several setbacks recently. The ICC is the world’s only […]

This week Just Asia begins with Sri Lanka, where investigations are ongoing into the abduction and murder of two businessmen from Rathgama. Until now, two police officers have already been arrested. Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has revealed that the two businessmen, Manjula Asela and Rashin Chinthaka were abducted and murdered, and their bodies were […]

The discovery of body parts of two businessmen from Rathgama, Bussa area, who were abducted, disappeared, and later killed, allegedly by several policemen, including the Officer-In-Charge of the southern province special crime investigating unit, is major news in Sri Lanka these days. According to the newspapers, the two businessmen were kidnapped from Rathgama Bussa area, […]

A Written Submission to the 40th Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The United Nations Human Rights Council’s faulty electoral system has adopted Bangladesh as a member of the highest global rights body from 2019 to 2021 despite the State’s deliberate failure to fully cooperate with […]

The Internet broadcasted the long interview with Arun Siddhartha by Hiru on TV and separately on the YouTube channel, Vishwa Karma. One perspective that comes out of Arun Siddhartha’s reflections can be enormously positive. It can be used in trying to understand ways to resolve the present prolonged crises which have dragged the country into […]