Prosecution system

Three Ahmadis were sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by the Islamabad court of sessions on 12 October 2017, for allegedly tearing down a poster outside their place of worship. Incidentally, the sentence came within hours of a hate speech delivered on the floors of the National Assembly, by the son-in-law of deposed Prime Minister […]

The table given below sets down 09 extrajudicial killings, 01 attempted killing – 09 of which are at the hands of the police at various police stations and the other, in a prison. These 10 incidents are the ones reported to the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong during this year. However, at […]

रक्षाराम हरिजन नेपालको सार्वभौम संसदले देशलाई छुवाछुत मुक्त राष्ट्र घोषणा गरेको एक दशक पूरा भइसकेको छ । वि. सं. २०६३ जेठ २१ गते संसदले नेपाललाई छुवाछुत मुक्त घोषणा गरेको थियो । तर छुवाछुत मुक्त घोषणा कागजमा मात्रै सिमित रहेको देखिन्छ किनभने जात, वंश, समुदाय वा पेशाका आधारमा हुने छुवाछुत तथा जातीय भेदभावको घटनामा खासै कमी […]

A Statement from Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Darker and more dangerous: High Commissioner updates the Human Rights Council on human rights issues in 40 countries Human Rights Council 36th session Opening Statement by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High […]

‘In India, Another Government Critic Is Silenced by Bullets’, is how the New York Times reported the murder of Gauri Lankesh, a gutsy journalist known for her fierce opposition of the religious right wing regime currently in power in India. The heading that the New York Times chose says it all. Yes, Lankesh is ‘another’ victim of […]

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where Rohingya refugees continue streaming to Bangladesh after violence erupted in Rakhine state just over a week ago. Although the Bangladesh government has a zero-tolerance refugee policy, it seems that security officials are ignoring government orders and allowing refugees to cross the border. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has […]

By: Salman Ali The executive and judicial branches of Pakistan’s state must take serious actions against enforced disappearances and on cases of missing persons As a citizen of Pakistan, I am very much concerned about the increase in cases of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. The state has utterly and miserably failed to restrain law enforcement […]

ලංකාවේ සමස්ථ අධිකරණ පද්ධතියේ ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සම්බන්ධයෙන් දැන් මතුවී තිබෙන විවාදය මේ පිළිබඳව පැවතී ඇති සාකච්චා වල වැදගත් අවධියක් ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය. රන්ජන් රාමනායක මහතා හා ලංකාවේ නීතිඥ සංගමය අතර ඇතිවූ විවාදයක් සේ මෙය පටන් ගැනුනත් මේ වන විට එය පළල් ක්ෂේත්රකයක් කරා පළල් වී ඇත. මේ පිළිබඳ මහජන අවධානයද ඉතා බලවත් ලෙසින් ඉස්මතු වී ඇත. සමස්ථ […]

Perhaps for the first time in the contemporary history of Sri Lanka, an important debate is now taking place on the need for judicial reforms. This debate has come about as a result of a statement made by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka with regard to a public statement made by Deputy Minister Ranjan […]

This week Just Asia begins with Burma, where fighting has broken out once again in the state of Rakhine. Clashes between Burmese security forces and Rohingya militants have led to some 89 people killed, including 12 security force personnel. This is the worst violence to hit the area since October 2016, when a military crackdown […]

A Joint Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Advocacy Forum (AF), Amnesty International, Accountability Watch Centre, Conflict Victims’ Common Platform (CVCP), Committee for Social Justice, INSEC, Inhured International, Peoples’ Voice, Voices of Women Media, NEFAD, DFHRI, HURFON and OHR, on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances The Commission of Investigation […]

A Press Release issued by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has threatened contempt of Court action being taken against a deputy minister who has made some serious criticisms against the Courts and the legal profession. While it is not our intention to defend the deputy minister, we are perturbed by such threats against anyone […]

Blogger Ahmed Waqas Goraya, who disappeared earlier this year along with four other social media activists, has recently revealed the names of his abductors. Mr. Goraya posted on his Facebook page that Colonel Khalid of the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, and a civilian deputy director, Mr. Irtiza, tortured him while in custody. Having remained […]

This week Just Asia begins with Thailand, where student activist Pai Dao Din has been sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment for sharing a BBC biography of King Vajiralongkorn. Despite more than 2,000 people sharing the controversial BBC article on Facebook and millions reading it, Jatuphat was the only one arrested for lèse majesté. A […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the Indonesian Authorities to ensure that cases of human rights violations that occurred in Papua must be investigated properly, under fair trial principles and the Rule of Law. In the last two months, the AHRC has documented and reported some three cases of serious human rights violations, as […]

Khaosod reporter Pravit Rojanaphruk charged with sedition and computer-related crime On 8 August 2017, Mr Pravit Rojanaphruk, senior reporter at Khaosod English, reported to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) to hear his charges in two separate cases. First, Pravit is accused of sedition offence under Section 116 of the Thai Criminal Code and computer-related […]

This week Just Asia begins with Bangladesh, where police have arrested several persons involved in the rape and torture of a teenager, after pictures of the victim and her mother at hospital with shaved heads caused outrage. Tufan Sarkar, a unionist linked to the ruling Awami League party, has been charged with raping the 16-year-old at home on July […]

By Basil Fernando The procedures that should be followed by the police in the investigations into crime are found in the Criminal Procedure Code of Sri Lanka (CPC). Ever since the British introduced the basic procedures for investigations of crime based on their own laws, basic elements of the Criminal Procedure have remained the same. […]

This week there were a few public discussions on the issue of delayed justice. The ‘Satana’ Programme of Sirasa TV on 1st August 2017 was mainly focused on the issue of delay in justice. On the other hand in another video broadcast on YouTube, a reputed lawyer Nagananda Kodithuwakku, raised series of serious questions of the actual independence of […]

The darker side of Pakistan’s lawyers’ cartel has been exposed in the case of law student Khadija Siddiqui, who was stabbed 23 times by her class fellow, Shah Husain, the son of a senior Supreme Court lawyer. After this horrific attack, Khadija could not find a single lawyer to take up her case. Being the […]