Right to life

A Statement from the Lawyers Collective, Sri Lanka, forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission H.E President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s purported letter of removal has been received by the Chief Justice. The Lawyers Collective states that this removal affects the very foundation of independence of the Judiciary, the Rule of Law and all basic norms of […]

The International Commission against the Death Penalty (ICDP) condemns today’s execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan housemaid, in Saudi Arabia. She was beheaded in Dawadmi province near Riyadh. Rizana, a teenage domestic worker, was condemned to death after a four-month-old baby boy she was bottle-feeding choked and died in 2005. According to her birth […]

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. […]

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 […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is greatly aggrieved to learn of the tragic death of Phyo Wai Aung in Rangoon, Burma during the early morning hours of 4 January 2013. Phyo Wai Aung was an aspiring young electrical engineer with a loving family when in April 2010 police arrested him at home late one […]

Recently, the Pakistani press and electronic media have displayed detailed pictures of children who sadly died because of measles, a very infectious disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) also substantiates the news reports and informed that 306 children died in the country in 2012 due to this infectious disease.  A large number of these deaths […]

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 […]

The government’s claim is that the case against the Chief Justice is an open and shut case, a foolproof case. It claims that the charges are extremely grave and that the evidence possessed by the government is monumental and black and white. If this is in fact the case, then the government has vast political […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that military units have bombarded more than a dozen villages in three districts of Balochistan based on information about the presence of a guerilla fighter fighting for the independence of Balochistan. Independent sources claim that more than 50 persons, including women and children, were […]

Tamils living in the North and East have a complained of the loss of all their rights. Most people in the South ignored these complaints. Some even said that such deprivations are punishments for what the LTTE was. The assumption was that such treatment would not be extended to the South. However this has proved […]

An article from The Sunday Times forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission This week, newspaper reports quoted Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother accusing foreign elements of ‘using the judiciary to destabilise Sri Lanka’ (Daily Mirror, December 29th 2012). This is a classic instance of doublespeak. It is abundantly clear that, […]

In a morning programme on SLBC today (29th December) Minister Rajitha Senaratne was interviewed. Here are some of the basic points from what he stated in this interview: That the independence of the judiciary recognized within the 1978 constitution is only for the purpose of hearing cases; citing articles of the constitution, he took time […]

“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 […]

When the impeachment proposal was announced, the immediate reaction of many was that the outcome was pre-determined as the government has a two thirds majority in Parliament (acquired as this was even by foul means). It was therefore predicted that this would be the end of the matter. There will be rituals, like the PSC […]

The construction of a government that prevents one person becoming the prey of another can be said to be the aim of constitutionalism. Ever since Montesquieu, the greatest of political thinkers and statesmen have struggled to develop principles to achieve this aim of preventing citizens becoming prey of rulers who rule not for the purpose […]

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 […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to inform you that the Indonesian National Police has killed and injured pro-independence activists in a shooting in Papua. Witnesses reported the activists were instantly shot by the police despite the fact that they did not pose a threat. The police admitted shooting the victims but […]

The vulnerability of innocent women and children has been astonishingly increased in Pakistan in past several months as the country has witnessed some deadly and planned attacks on unarmed women and children from militants. On 18 December, Five Polio lady health workers were killed in Karachi and Peshawar, while two of their male colleagues received […]

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 friends, We wish to share with you the following statement issued by the Judicial Service Association (JSA) of Sri Lanka on the Findings of the Parliamentary Select Committee which probed the allegations of misbehavior of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from Judicial Service Association […]