Right to education

(Hong Kong, September 04, 2023)  The Right to Information Commission in Sri Lanka has issued an order in terms of its powers under the RTI Act. Regarding a petition filed by an attorney at law in which the Bar Association is the respondent. The Bar Association objected to the power of the Commission on the […]

By Basil Fernando This article is  a follow up to:  The caste-based culture is still the key obstacle for development in Sri Lanka The debate on how important caste consciousness is in Sri Lanka today and whether class consciousness has replaced caste consciousness requires that we briefly examine the the beginnings of capitalism in Sri Lanka, […]

By Basil Fernando April and May 2022 will be remembered as the most important months in the post-independence era. During this short period the much hoped for people’s awakening expressed itself powerfully. People who wielded authority failed to see the writing on the wall although the wall was just next to the Presidential Secretariat and […]

Can Sri Lanka rise from its constitutional limbo? When Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe accepted to take over as the Head of the Central Bank, in one of his early statements, he said that he would be able to do the expected job if there is no interference from outside. The demand for non-interference is today one […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of the 73rd International Human Rights Day Nepal underwent its third cycle of the UN Human Rights Council’s Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva in January 2021. Nepal has ratified over 24 various human rights conventions and declarations but has been weak in its implementation. […]

Just what do you teach your students?   Vice-Chancellor & Chairperson of the Grants Commission University of Sri Jayewardenepura  Sri Lanka Dear Vice-Chancellor & Chairperson of the Grants Commission People are shocked by the following tragic incident. A first-year student of the management faculty of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, PASINDU HIRUSHAN, suffered serious injuries. […]

Hong Kong, July 30, 2019 The journal with focus on the SDG 16 in particular which is “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” One of the targets of the SDG 16 is the achievement of rule of law. SDG 16 poses a serious challenges […]

A Written Submission to the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre Recently, Aawaj, a partner organisation of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, in India along with Madhya Pradesh Police busted a multi state child-sale racket and helped rescuing many children sold to different families. The bust, sadly, exposes only the tip […]

This week Just Asia begins with India, where the Supreme Court ruled that sex with a wife younger than 18 is rape. This is a much needed legal development for child rights, and will help in the fight to end child marriage in the country. Sadly, the fight against marital rape for adult women continues. […]

By Salman Ali The Convention on the Rights of the Child and many of the global education goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, aim at ensuring the right to quality education, which, unfortunately millions of children and women around the world are deprived of. Globally, some 67 million children remain out of school. According to […]

The weekly Times column, Focus on Rights, titled ‘Dangers of Unseemly Ministerial Outbursts to Free Speech’ by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, in the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, on 02 July 2017, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Kishali Pinto Jayawardena However much they may genuflect to the concept of free speech, Sri Lanka’s politicians are quite unable […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture The government of Pakistan has stated before the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture (CAT) that it does not intend to set-up legislation against torture and ill-treatment. On May 13, 2017 during the UN review, […]

Press Release of the RTI Commission of Sri Lanka Colombo 21 June 2017 The RTI Commission announces the launch of its trilingual website on Monday 19th June 2017 – http://www.rticommission.lk/. The Commission’s logo, as unveiled, consists of Sri Lanka centered in the black pupil of an eye commonly symbolizing information, held aloft by a hand. The […]

On March 26, in Greater Noida, near New Delhi, India was home to a blatant display of racism, following the death of a teenage boy, Manish Khari. The teenager’s family and neighbours registered an FIR against five Nigerians in the locality, accusing them of ‘cannibalism’ and Manish’s murder, as well as of being drug peddlers […]

This week’s episode of Just Asia begins with Hong Kong, which is seeing human rights at its lowest point since 1997, said an Amnesty International report. According to the report, authorities have “failed on many fronts” to protect the city’s rights and freedoms. Amnesty urged the Hong Kong government and civil servants to “make defending […]

A statement of UN experts on the occasion of International Day for the Abolition of Slavery Friday 2 December 2016 GENEVA (30 November 2016) – The abuse and exploitation of children as modern-day slaves cannot continue to be tolerated, two United Nations human rights experts have warned in a statement ahead of the International Day […]

A Press Releasefrom Children Advocacy Network- CAN Pakistan forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) On the occasion of Universal Children’s Day 2016, the Children Advocacy Network- CAN Pakistan, a group of Child Rights activists reinforced their previous demands from Government of Pakistan for immediate enactment of “The National Commission on the Rights of […]

In an unprecedented move, the government of Pakistan has abruptly closed down 28 Turkish schools and colleges, issuing deportation orders for the 108 teaching and administrative staff to leave the country within three days. This arrangement was adopted on the orders of the Turkish government, prior to the arrival of Turkish president Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the death threats against a lady teacher and her husband after a senior police officer initiated an inquiry on the Urgent Appeal and proceeded to exonerate all the perpetrators. One member of the National Assembly from Sindh provincial ruling party allegedly used […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a girls schoolteacher has been declared Kari (liable to be killed in the name of “honour”) for establishing a primary girls’ school in a feudal area. She was earlier kidnapped by her maternal uncle and detained there for two months, where she was […]