Right to fair trial

A comment on the approved UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka Basil Fernando Now that the UN Resolution on promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka has been approved by the Human Rights Council, a new page opens up with possibilities of looking into and dealing with grave problems that havecrippled […]

Prashant Kumar Dubey Nutrition and TB are two entities which need to be considered together, not separately. It is unfortunate that our country has not taken any initiative in this area resulting in a disregard for this relationship. If we really want to overcome TB, we need to talk through a package system similar to […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a national NGO, regarding the environmental and health damages caused by the QL Group Inc in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. QL Group is a foreign investment company in collaboration between QL Malaysia and Trimitra […]

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කොමසාරිස්තුමාගේ කාර්යාලය මගින් 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වන දින ශ‍්‍රී ලංකාව පිළිබදව පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව ප‍්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්කරන ලදි. ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් කඩවීම් හා යුද්ධ අපරාධ පිළිබදව ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය ලංකාවේ ආණ්ඩුවේ එකගතාවය ඇතිව මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සලයේදී ඉදිරිපත් කර ඇති යෝජනවාට පදනම වන්නේ එම වාර්තාවයි. ලංකාව තුළ විශේෂයෙන් 2002 සිට 2009 අතර කාලය […]

The Investigation Report issued by the Office of the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) dated 16th September 2015, is the most comprehensive report on human rights issued by any international or national agency to date. It is comprehensive and balanced. If implemented it could lead to considerable positive developments in Sri Lanka. […]

නීතිඥ බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් මහ කොමසාරිස්තුමාගේ කාර්යාලය මගින් 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 16 වන දින නිකුත්කරන ලද ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව පිළිබ`දව පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව මේ දක්වා ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබ`දව ජාතික හෝ ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන් නිකුත්කර ඇති පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තා වලින් ඉතාමත් අංග සම්පූර්ණවූත්, තුලනාත්මකවූත් පරීක්‍ෂණ වාර්තාව බව නොපැකිල ප‍්‍රකාශකල හැකිය. පිටු 261 කින් සමන්විත වන මෙම වාර්තාව […]

Death of children under its care is nothing novel for the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics located in Cuttack, Odisha. It took 58 of them to die in less than 10 days for it to become scandalous. Over the years, the Institute, popularly known as Shishu Bhawan, has recorded an alarming number […]

The abduction, rape, and murder of Seya Sadewmi of Kotadeniyawa on 12 September 2015 has led many Sri Lankans to react across the country, and provoked many demonstrations by women’s organisations and also by children. Even yesterday, 23 September 2015, demonstrations by school children were reported from the North of the country. Similarly, media reports […]

An article from The Hindu forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission No other term but ‘dismay’ can describe one’s response to New Delhi’s ungenerous reply toNepal’s democratic drafting of a Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The Ministry of External Affairs merely ‘took note’ of the document, and followed that up a day later with a […]

The Interior Ministry of Baluchistan has recently stated that it has arrested 8363 Baloch over the span of 9 months. Whereas, the Chief Minister of Balochistan Dr. Malik Baloch has said that those arrested will be dealt in accordance with the law. No further details pertaining to the arrested have been revealed. The provincial interior […]

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the forced eviction and viscious attack on residents in Kampung Pulo, Jakarta, Indonesia, conducted by the Jakarta Governor, and supported by the police, the military, and the civil service police unit (Satpol PP). The Governor ignored due process of law and did not […]

The Pakistani National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology approved the Cyber Crimes Bill 2015 on September 17 for a second time, after making some cosmetic changes to clauses that curb free speech. Legislators from the ruling party are determined to pass the Bill; the Chairman of the Standing Committee is the son in-law of […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the Nepal government to take urgent measures in order to defuse alarming on-going violence in Biratnagar. Police have indiscriminately fired on protesters that had just begun to gather in order to carry out their plan to burn a copy of the Constitution promulgated yesterday. The police fired live […]

Sachin Kumar Jain Whenever clichés like development, economic progress, growth rates, and their ilk begin swirling in the air, it can, rather, it should, be safely assumed that there is something terribly amiss; the most important social issues are getting brushed under a (red?) carpet (for whom?). The day’s vegetable prices become the handle to […]

An article from the Kathmandu Post forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission I am a Chhetri man, born and raised in Kathmandu. Today, the new constitution of the Federal Republic of Nepal will be officially promulgated and it is my constitution – it has been drafted by people who share my gender, my complexion, […]

This week’s Roundup will focus on initiatives for police reform in South Asia. The episode begins in Nepal where on-going instability in the Terai in the last 2 months has provided ample examples for the urgent need of police reform. Nepal’s dysfunctional, incompetent, violent, and corrupt police institution reflects the norm in the South Asian […]

The rights of tribal people and other forest dwelling communities are set to be assaulted again, as the Indian government is warming up to the to the idea of public private partnerships in forest management. Though the details of the proposal are still unclear, a report in the Hindustan Times suggest that the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate […]

September 15 is commemorated throughout the world as the international day of democracy. Yet, for a majority of Asians, true representative democracy remains an illusion.  The “elected dictatorship” most often in practice in these regions allows the people to vote once in four or five years, but they have no say in decision-making process, matters […]

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, abandoned the practices of the previous government delegations to the UN Human Rights Council in the recent years, has frankly admitted before the Council the mistakes of the past and the weaknesses of the Sri Lankan institutions. Previous delegations came with the sole purpose of denying all allegations […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerned to have learned that Pravit Rojanaphruk, journalist for the Nation newspaper and freedom of expression advocate, is being detained in an undisclosed location by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). The conditions of his detention are arbitrary and a clear derogation of the Government […]