Rule of law

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 10 year-year-old girl was the victim of attempted rape by an influential person. The child was admitted to the Nawalapitiya Hospital and later transferred to the Kandy Teaching Hospital for treatment because of the severity of her injuries. She was subsequently treated […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Herath Mudiyanselage Suranji Sampath Kumara (35), the driver of a three-wheeler vehicle was severely tortured by three police officers, including the Sub-Inspector of Police, at the request of a private party. The officers tried to fracture his leg and beat him about […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the Pallabi Police of Dhaka killed an 18-year-old college student named Imtiaz Hossain Abir in so called “cross fire” on 10 January 2011. Abir was a student of higher secondary level at the Northern College of Mohammadpur in the city of Dhaka. The police […]

Basil Fernando For the last 20 years I have been living in Hong Kong. Here over 98% of the population is Chinese. I belong to the small minority which includes many other races and will try to illustrate some issues by using this experience. In any country there is a formal legal system and an […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) brings you details of the latest case in which a group of democracy and human rights activists has been accused of involvement in a series of bombings. The seven were already sentenced to over 30 years in prison in 2008 and have again been sentenced to another […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to share with you the latest developments in Hom Bahadur Bagale’s case. This former police officer was initially tortured and illegally detained in 2002. His only reward for attempting to find legal redress has been dismissal from his job, further torture, arbitrary arrest, continuous threats and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Alagumail Mohan (25) of Line-10, Thalawakele Estate, Thalawakele in the Nuwara Eliya District who was diagnosed as being mentally retarded was tortured whilst under treatment. Mohan was illegally arrested and severely tortured by police officers attached to the Thalawakele Police Station on […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 9-year-old girl was raped by a influential wealthy businessman. The child was admitted to the Kandy Teaching Hospital for treatment and the Judicial Medical Officers also examined the child. Powerful people behind the suspect are trying to suppress justice by making a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 13-year-old school child, Amuwaththe Mudiyanselage Lahiru Ruwan Chamara of R/Galagama Vidyalaya in Belihul Oya in the Rathnapura District, was tortured by a teacher. The child suffers from a rare affliction known as keratoconus and underwent surgery for a lens transplant at the […]

Last week, the Attorney General (AG) agreed to withdraw charges of murder and the causing of grievous hurt against four people who had been accused and charged before the Colombo High Court. The accused agreed to plead guilty for the charge of unlawful assembly, their third and final charge. The accused allegedly caused the murder […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a lawyer’s son was killed in a fake police encounter after one hour of his abduction by six police officials and five persons in plainclothes. It is alleged that local police and land grabbers were against the lawyer for his activism against land […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Waharagedara Ranjith Sumangala was arrested by officers attached to the Mirihana Police Station and detained for a period of five days during which time he was tortured. He was assaulted on his leg with a pole in front of his wife and […]

Sri Lanka will be celebrating its independence from the British Empire on February 4, 2011. The lamentation that independence has not meant a great deal to the people of Sri Lanka is commonly heard. However, the causes that created this situation have often not been examined. The very meaning of independence for citizens of any […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained the details of a case in which six men in 2010 were accused of having contact with an insurgent group in the east of Burma. Soldiers and police arrested five of the six villagers, the other one getting away. Of the five men detained, one […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that Mr. Davarathnam Yogendra, a complainant of the bribery case No. 50600/01 in the Chief Magistrate’s Court of Colombo has been instructed to provide photographs of himself in order to continue his bail conditions to the Hatton Police Station (Please see our original […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a Police Constable (PC) P G W G Jayarathna was tortured by an Inspector of Police which resulted in the perforation of his ear drum. PC Jayarathna was assaulted by Inspector of Police (IP) Nishantha Alwis the OIC of Zone-14 of Vavuniyava District […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man, Mr. Karasinghe Arachchilage Kumarasinghe Appuhami (55) was illegally arrested and detained by the Kolonna police. While he was in police custody he was tortured and as a result he was injured about the head and started to vomit. He was brought […]

On 21 January 2011 at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok, representatives of all parties involved in the criminal proceedings in the case of the 12 March 2004 forcible disappearance of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit gathered expecting to hear the verdict of the Appeal Court concerning the conviction of one out of […]

The premises of Lanka E-News, a well know website which has suffered several attacks in recent times has been set on fire in the early morning of January 31. According to reports the equipment and the premises where the website was maintained has been destroyed. Previously the editor of this website was constantly attacked and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Barak Human Rights Protection Committee (BHRPC), Assam concerning the case of assault of a 24 year-old-girl and her mother by the police in Cachar district, Assam. This incident occurred at midnight when the police were searching for a fugitive, Mr. Hussain Ahmed […]