Judicial system

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. […]

Kindly see below link to a petition relating to the Government proposal to impeach Chief Justice based on PSC report which is illegal in terms of the judgment of the Supreme Court issued as an opinion to the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka. Kindly see full judgment at here Kindly click here to sign the petition There’s […]

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 […]

According to the news received from Saudi Arabia Rizana Nafeek, who has been the Dawadami Prison since 2005 may be executed at any moment. This was revealed to the BBC Sinhala Service by Dr. Kifaya Iftekhar, who is based in Saudi Arabia and who has been looking after the interests of Rizana for several years […]

The Supreme Court in its decision made on January 1, 2013 finally put the debate on the issue of the impeachment of the Chief Justice to rest by providing the following answer to the question referred to it by the Court of Appeal. In view of the reasons we have set out above we answer […]

The brutal incident of rape in New Delhi, the death of the victim and the public response to the issue has brought to the forefront several vital issues plaguing India. Of primary concern were three aspects (i) the nature and frequency of violence, committed against the vulnerable sections of the society, most importantly women; (ii) […]

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, marking perhaps the greatest day of its 200 year history, today declared in a historic opinion that the Standing Order of the parliament, bearing no. 78/A, is null and void and has no effect in law. By this opinion, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has nullified the impeachment […]

We have self-made our destabilization. We are destabilizing ourselves and blaming others for destabilizing us. Our recent history is a history of decay. With each year, we are destabilized more than the previous year; our social organization has decayed more than the  previous year. Let us take our parliament, our police, our prosecutor’s  department (Attorney […]

The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) is concerned at the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Shirani Bandaranayake, and at reports of attacks against the judiciary and the legal profession within Sri Lanka. The independence of the judiciary and the rule of law  The independence of […]

Basil Fernando The state media continues their non-stop misinformation campaign on the impeachment move by the government. Several ministers also participated in this media campaign. The central topics of the campaign are that it is the charges that are important, and not the process – meaning that whether the inquiry took place by a competent […]

“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 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man was burned alive by an enraged mob while he was in the custody of the police, held on the charge of blasphemy. The man was taken into the custody of the police and was kept in a police station overnight. The […]

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 […]

Within this week alone there were three events directed against the lawyers who are opposing the impeachment of the Chief Justice. These were: the attempted attack on the lawyer, Gunaratne Wanninayaka, the President of Colombo Magistrate’s Court Lawyer’s Association and the Convener of People’s March; the shooting incident near the residence of the President of the […]

(Hong Kong, December 20, 2012) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is publishing today a 24-page legal critique of two controversial decisions issued by the Supreme Court (SC), the People v. Lumanog and the Lejano v. People, in comparison to judicial decisions in common law countries. The case People v. Lumanog is about the SC’s decision affirming the conviction and sentence to […]

Abstract: This paper studies the decision of the Philippine Supreme Court on two cases, People v. Lumanog (Abadilla Five case) and Lejano v. People (Vizconde massacre case), in comparison to the theory and practice in common law countries on the protection of Constitutional rights on the issue of arrest and detention, self-incrimination, legal assistance and […]

The government has withdrawn its sponsorship for the annual programme of the Judicial Service Association. On that basis this prevents the UNDP funds for being utilised for this meeting. However, it is reported that the judges will proceed with the meeting for one day with their own personal contributions. Obviously, the government has tried to […]

We, the undersigned note with extreme concern, the proceedings related to the impeachment hearing of the first woman Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Banadaranayake by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC). Any hearing, regardless of the person, must adhere to principles of natural justice and rule of law. In the case of the Chief Justice all those […]

The law enforcement agencies, the local court system and above all the government institutions are failing to protect the lives and properties of religious minorities all around the country. As in previous years, 2012 proved a nightmare for the religious minorities in Pakistan.  People from the Hindu, Dalit, Christian and Ahmadi communities and even the […]

Dear All Judicial Service Association (JSA), the association of the judges of the original court, had organised the Annual Judges Conference, sponsored by the UNDP — under the  Equal Access to Justice Programme, which is scheduled for 21 and 22nd of December 2012. This programme comes under the Ministry of Languages and Social Intrigration (Hon. […]