Rule of law

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the passing down of long jail sentences on 11 people who were falsely accused in connection with a bombing in Pegu town during 2010. The innocent persons were brought to a special interrogation centre where they were tortured to confess and charged under […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Jayasinghe, an agricultural labourer, was visited by police officers at his residence and assaulted without cause. His right leg was broken and he requires surgery so that he will be able to walk once again. The police officers did not show him […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the lukewarm attitude of the high court of Balochistan that ignored the petition on the abduction of a 75 year-old farmer by persons from the Frontier Corps (FC). The abducted person was an old political worker who left politics in 1975 but, being […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Thusitha Ratnayake (37) of 4th Yaya, Rajanganaya in the Anuradhapura District was illegally arrested, detained and tortured for a crime that he did not commit. On 28 May, two police officers from the Thambutthegma Police Station, arrested Thusitha Ratnayake. Mr Ratnayake was […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that on 20 May 2012, M.D. Kalum Priyanath, a disabled labourer, went to a local temple to help a monk run an errand. At 12pm, as he was returning home, Mr. Priyanath was arrested by the police and taken to Welikanda Police Station. According […]

The concept of sovereign immunity is incompatible with the notion of democracy. It is an anachronistic relic drawn from the British Common Law principles at odds with the constitutional architecture of a state that claims to respects the supremacy of its people. Integral to democracy is the conviction that a government that draws its legitimacy […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the torture of Mr Bharat Mondal by BSF personnel attached to Mourashi Camp of Chowski No. 2 under Outpost No. 2 of 105th Battalion of BSF on 30 December 2011. Unlawful arrest and detention, torture, caste-based discrimination and a culture of […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. K. A. Somarathna, a businessman, filed a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police, (SSP) when a water pump and other goods were stolen from his business construction site by a number of police officers attached to the Mundalama Police Station. Two […]

Dear friends, According to information that the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received, a 26-year old man has disappeared following his arrest by a joint police team dispatched from the Central Investigation Bureau and the District Police Office, Mahotari on 6 May 2012. Mr. Ajit Kumar Lal Karna was allegedly arrested in connection with […]

Yesterday (19th June 2012) Sri Lanka’s United National Party (UNP) published a statement demanding the resignation of the Secretary of Defence. The UNP claimed that the resignation was warranted in light of the recent deaths of two people at the JVP meeting at Katuwana, Hambantota. However, a larger issue that should be considered in this […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two police officers, one of whom was an Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Chilaw Police Station, broke into the home of an innocent family and stole a mobile phone, gold necklace, three-wheeler and Rs. 15,000. The owner of the house, Mr. Sebastian, filed a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that PG Amila Tharanga Thilakaratne (14) a Year 9 student of Mahanama College Geatambe in the Kandy District was severely tortured by his teacher, a Buddhist monk. Amila was persecuted on a religious basis and is thus a victim of religious intolerance. Amila has […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission shares the worldwide concern about the communal violence in Arakan (Rakhine) State in Burma over the last fortnight, which has received widespread reportage in the international media, and joins in calls for its earliest cessation, and for the provision of relief to persons affected by the events that have unfolded […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Ms. Sumanthika (31) and Prasanthi (19) of Ukuwela, Matale are sisters and lived with their parents at Matale (their names have been changed for security reasons). The two girls studied at a prestigious national school in Matale. Sumanthika was kidnapped and raped by […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a station house officer killed a police head constable and declared it as a police encounter by injuring himself. The police have refused to file a case on behalf of the victim’s family and instead filed a first information report (FIR) for the […]

The former Attorney General, Mohan Peiris, last November told the United Nations CAT Committee that he knew personally, through a reliable source that Prageeth Eknaligoda was living in a foreign country. However, last week when giving evidence before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court he said that he does not know whether Prageeth Eknaligoda was dead or […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information concerning the corruption of a driver of ‘G’ Branch of ‘E’ Company of 152 Battalion of the BSF who had been bribed to permit smuggling and who, when in danger of being exposed, turned on the victim, Mr Abdul Karim Molla, and brutally […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information concerning the illegal arrest, detention and custodial violence against three men in Murshidabad, West Bengal by police personnel of Salar Police Station. The victims are leaders of a local branch of the Indian National Congress party. While in the custody, the three victims were […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Miss S.H. Thushari Dilrukshi of Dikwella in the Matara District was illegally arrested by police officers attached to the Dikwella Police Station. She had earlier made a complaint of sexual harassment by a youth who also attacked and injured her father. Rather than […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the torture of 40-year-old Krishna Mondal on 1 January 2012 in yet another case of Border Security Forces (BSF) brutality in West Bengal, India. Torture, extrajudicial killings, religious discrimination and a culture of impunity are features of everyday life for Indian […]