Judicial system

Reconciliation has not been treated as an attractive word in Sri Lanka. The government’s view is that forgetting is the best course available. It argues that reconciliation attempts could reopen the wounds and will do more harm than good. Officially therefore, the government policy is to encourage forgetting. This policy does not come under serous […]

Suggesting perhaps that the creative imagination of the cartoonist is catching up with the reality of Sri Lanka the Daily Mirror yesterday carried this cartoon as an illustration for its editorial entitled, A case for best legal brains. The cartoonist created this cartoon in reaction to a photograph which also appeared in the Daily Mirror in […]

An Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, died in a state run hospital in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, after he slipped into irreversible coma. He was attacked by six ‘prisoners’ inside the Kot Lakhpat jail during the day on Friday April 26. However, the authorities are claiming that he was attacked by the two prisoners who […]

Sri Lanka’s second international airport has been built in the arid zone, in close proximity to several animal and bird sanctuaries. To protect the airport from animals and birds, the authorities are planning to destroy their traditional feeding grounds and water-holes. If these plans are carried out, the impact on Sri Lanka’s natural-wealth will be […]

For a law enforcement agency the elimination of thuggery is one of the simplest things to do. For thugs are cowards and they crawl and beg for mercy whenever they find that there is a strong enough will on the part of the law enforcement agencies and the courts to deal with crime. Anybody who […]

The publically known facts about the mass grave at Matale is that the remains of 154 persons were discovered in this grave, that the remains show injuries which indicate that they were all murdered and that most likely they were assassinated sometime between 1986 and 1991. However, the key question is as to whose remains […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns in the strongest terms the announcement of the commander of the Sagaing Region Police Force, Myanmar, that the police will arrest and charge eight human rights defenders whom it blames for inciting protests against the army-backed copper mine project at the Letpadaung Hills, in Monywa. The commission also condemns […]

Dear friends, I wanted to make sure you’d all seen the petition Avaaz launched today on Sri Lanka http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_reward_for_the_island_of_fear Based upon the response rate they will decide wether or not to launch a full blooded push to see how many signatures they can get in 24 hours. Either way this is a short sharp campaign lasting […]

CIJL Newsletter N°3 – April 2013 EDITORIAL Every two years, the leaders of the Commonwealth of Nations assemble at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the association’s principal policy and decision-making forum. This year, the meeting is set to take place in Colombo from 15 to 17 November, where the Sri Lankan Government will […]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa was recently quoted as saying that he will take stern action to see that the judiciary will remain ‘pure’. This statement raises many questions. The test of a good judiciary is its ability to act independently. Here, ‘independent’ means the absence of dependence on the executive. The judiciary must be able to […]

On 18 April 2013, the Attorney General for Bangladesh Mr. Mahbubey Alam participated in the hearing of a writ petition before a High Court Division Bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. The writ was filed by Mrs. Firoza Mahmud, wife of Daily Amardesh‘s Interim Editor Mahmudur Rahman. Mrs. Mahmud had challenged the order of the Chief […]

The General should be prosecuted for betraying his oath as a member of the Armed Forces Just twenty days before the general elections the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, has come out with a policy statement which gives the political views of the Army. The statement was delivered with the express […]

Sunday, 21 April 2013 02:24 Bishop of Mannar, Most Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph said he never stood for the separation of the country nor rejected any viable political solution to the national question. The Bishop made this statement in response to the lead story published in The Nation last week titled “Mannar Bishop, TNA Resurrect […]

The authorities in Bangladesh, yesterday, shifted the Interim Editor of Daily Amar Desh, Mr. Mahmudur Rahman, to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzib Medical University (BMSSU). Rahman is detained at the Kashimpur Central Jail since 17 April 2013. The court had allowed Rahman to be detained in police remand for six days, before the police handed him over […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a young man is facing trial on blasphemy charges as he did not pay a bribe to the police and a judge of the anti-terrorism court (ATC). The witnesses in the case have not identified him as the main accused and even the […]

The news had sprung up from nowhere. All that I had picked up the newspaper for, was to kill some time on that long flight and here it was, tucked away in a small box, staring at me. Reading it had sent a shiver down my spine. No, it was not about some unseen horrors. […]

แถลงการณ์ของ Finnwatch 1 เมษายน 2556 การดำเนินคดีกับนักวิจัยของ Finnwatch เป็นการโจมตีนักปกป้องสิทธิมนุษยชน และเสรีภาพในการแสดงความเห็น ทางการไทยจะต้องดำเนินการสืบสวนการปฏิบัติงานของบริษัท เนเชอรัล ฟรุต และ บริษัท แนท กรุ๊ป (NatGroup) ซึ่งเป็นบริษัทแม่ และจะต้องมีการพิจารณาถึงประเด็นด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนในการเจรจาข้อตกลงการค้าเสรีระหว่างประเทศไทยกับสหภาพยุโรปด้วย บริษัท เนเชอรัล ฟรุต (Natural Fruit) ผู้ผลิตสับปะรดกระป๋องและน้ำผลไม้เข้มข้น ได้ยื่นฟ้องต่อนายอานดี้ ฮอลล์ ผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านการย้ายถิ่นซึ่งเมื่อเร็วๆ นี้ได้ประสานงานการวิจัยภาคสนามของ Finnwatch ในประเทศไทย สองข้อหา หากศาลตัดสินว่ามีความผิด อานดี้อาจจะต้องรับโทษจำคุกนานถึงเจ็ดปี  บริษัทเนเชอรัล ฟรุต ยังเรียกร้องค่าเสียหาย 300 ล้านบาทในคดีแพ่งอีกด้วย ข้อกล่าวหาที่บริษัทฟ้องร้องนั้นเกี่ยวกับงานวิจัยของ Finnwatch ที่อานดี้เป็นผู้วิจัยในเดือนตุลาคม-พฤศจิกายน 2555 และเกี่ยวกับการสื่อสารผลของการวิจัยต่อสาธารณะ ข้อค้นพบที่น่าตระหนกที่สุดของงานวิจัยมาจากการสัมภาษณ์ลูกจ้างของบริษัทเนเชอรัล ฟรุต  คนงานของบริษัทซึ่งบางคนเป็นแรงงานข้ามชาติที่ไม่มีเอกสารเข้าเมืองตามกฎหมาย ได้เล่าถึงสภาพการทำงานที่ไม่ดี ค่าแรงต่ำกว่าที่กฎหมายกำหนด การยึดเอกสารทางการของคนงานไว้ การใช้แรงงานเด็ก และการให้คนงานทำงานล่วงเวลาเกินไปอย่างมาก  มีการบันทึกการสัมภาษณ์ไว้เป็นเอกสารและสามารถตรวจสอบได้ Finnwatch ได้นำเสนอข้อค้นพบของการวิจัยต่อกระทรวงต่างๆ […]

FINNWATCH STATEMENT 1st of April 2013 Legal actions against Finnwatch researcher are an attack against human rights defenders and freedom of expression. Thailand’s authorities must immediately launch an investigation into the operations of Natural Fruit and its parent company NatGroup. Human rights issues must be tackled also in the ongoing free trade agreement negotiations between […]

REFERRING to the Statements we have previously issued expressing our grave concern about the flawed impeachment process by which Chief Justice Bandaranayake was removed from the office of Chief Justice in defiance of the judgements of the highest courts in Sri Lanka REFERRING also to the statements of concern issued by the UN Special Rapporteur […]

The following is a statement issued by a group of Asian jurists, who met from 9-11 April in Bangkok, to discuss about threats to professional freedom of lawyers and the independence of the judiciary in Asia. Jurists from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong attended […]