Rule of law

By Basil Fernando Human rights have now become very much an integral part of public discussions in almost all public media. At one time, it remained an interest confined to a few groups and persons who were either advocates of human rights or those who attacked the very notion of human rights as part of […]

An Open Letter from Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Mr. Abdulla Shahid, President of the UN General Assembly Mr. António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN (Through the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka) 22nd September 2021 Today, the day the Sri Lankan President addressing the […]

By Basil Fernando A discussion on the statement made by the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner (HC) for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, at the 48th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on 13th September 2021, was held on the same day in a television programme, and it is now available on YouTube. The moderator […]

by Basil Fernando The freedom of association In the past few months, the Sri Lankan Government intensified its pressure against associations who are contributing to defend the rights of people against a series of serious attacks by the Government. Government attacks centre round the passing of several laws that affect the right to education, the […]

A Written Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) brings the issue of arbitrary detention and the degenerated justice mechanisms to the United Nations Human Rights Council focusing on the situation in Bangladesh, which is a Member of […]

A Written Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Center (ALRC) wishes to draw the attention of the UN Human Rights Council to the problem of amendment of Law on Special Autonomy for Papua. The House of Representatives of […]

A Written Statement to the 48th Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) raises the issue of Bangladesh’s rabid enforced disappearances to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s 48th Regular Session. Bangladesh’s incumbent government began using enforced disappearances as one […]

By Basil Fernando While Sri Lanka is faced with many crises, the President has acquired the powers to act under the National Security Law by taking emergency powers into his hands. Will that contribute to Sri Lanka’s ever deepening crises or will the situation aggravate, as all power is taken away from everyone else except […]

An Open Letter from Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) 4th September 2021 Ms. Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Dear Ms. Bachelet, SRI LANKA: Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and detainees The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 (PTA) was […]

BY Basil Fernando “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche The word advocacy is used for various purposes and in each case, there is a different connotation attached to it. Commercial advertisements advocate the buying of their products and the promotion of other commercially-related objectives; political parties […]

Governmental repressions continue as Bangladesh keeps curbing the civic space of the people with impunity. The Sheikh Hasina government has systematically using multiple technics and spying technological tools to curb the freedom of expression in online and off-line. The pro-regime cyber-worriers have launched a trend of creating fake copyright disputes over the contents that criticise the government. […]

A Statement from Right to Life Organization forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 1. Chairperson, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, No. 14, R. A. De Mel Mawatha, Colombo 04, 2. Inspector-General of Police, Police Headquarters, Colombo 01 3. Attorney General, Attorney General’s Department, Colombo 12 4. President, National Police Commission, Block No 9, […]

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු රටක් තමන් විසින්ම පාලනය කර ගැන්ම ලංකාවේ වර්ථමාන කාලය තුල නොපැවති පුරුද්දකි. නුපුරුදු සෙල්ලම තමන් දන්නා ආකාර වලින් කරන්නට ගොස් ඇතිවී තිබෙන ආරවුල අද ආර්ථිකයේ, සමාජයේ, සෞඛ්‍ය පද්ධතියේ, අධ්‍යාපන පද්ධතියේ, මෙන්ම නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක කරවා ගැනීම හා අධිකරණය පිළිබදවද පැන නැගී ඇති අර්බුද ජාලයක් තුලින් ඉස්මතු කොට ඇත. දැනට පොදුවේ කතා කරන්නේ ඩොලර් අර්බුදය […]

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු ලංකාව අද විවිධකාර මහාපරිමාන ගැටලු පිළිබදව අවබෝධයක් ලබා ගත හැකි මහා විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. රටක් මුහුණදිය හැකි සියලුම වර්ගයේ ගැටලු දැන් ඉතා තීව්‍රව රට පුරා පැතිර පවතී. සෑම පවුලක් හා ගම් බිමක් පාසා සැබෑ මරණ බයක් පැතීරී පවතී. එක් අතකින් ඔවුන් අවට කවුරුන් හෝ කොවිඩ් 19 වෛරසය නිසා මරනයට පත්වී සිටී. […]

By Basil Fernando The people of Sri Lanka, like those in several other countries, are learning that their past could cost them their lives and the lives of their loved ones and those of many others. Covid-19 seems to be mocking them. It seems to ask “Can’t you find someone among yourself who is capable of […]

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු මේ දිනවල ප්‍රසිද්ධ සාකච්ඡාවේ මූලිකම තේමාවක් බවට පත්වී තිබෙන්නේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ ආයතන භාරව කටයුතු කරන නිළධාරීන්ගේ ස්වාධීනතාවය පිළිබදව ප්‍රශ්ණයය. උදාහරණයක් වශයෙන් රටේ උද්ධමනය පිළිබදව කතා කිරිමේදී උද්ධමන පාලනය පිළිබදව මධ්‍යම රාජ්‍ය බැංකුවේ අදාල නිළධාරීන් මෙම උද්ධමනය පාලනය කිරීමේ වගකීම් භාරය දරන්නෝ වෙති. කොරෝනාව මර්ධනය කිරීමේදී එය පාලනය කිරීමේ වගකීම පැවරෙන්නේ වෘතීමය වශයෙන් සුදුසුකම් ඇති […]

By Basil Fernando As the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) is reaching its first year of governance, which some may call non governance, the question that may be in the minds of many is where is it going? That is a question relevant not only for the SLPP but for the people of the entire […]

2015 දී පත් කරන ලද ආණ්ඩුව 2019 වන විට දැඩි ජන අප‍්‍රසාදයකට ලක්ව පරාජය වූයේ ඇයිදැයි සමහරු තේරුම් ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කරති. 2019 දී බලයට පත් වූ ආණ්ඩුවද අවුරුද්දකටත් අඩු සුළු කාලයකදී අසාර්ථක වූ ආණ්ඩුවක් සේ සලකනු ලැබීමද දැන් අත්දකින තත්වයයි. මේ සිදුවීම් දෙකටම පොදු සාධක තිෙබ්ද? වෙනස් සුවිශේෂ සාධක තිබිය හැකි අතර, එම සුවිශේෂ සාධකයන්ට […]

By Basil Fernando As compared to the key words and concepts which were commonly used in the social movements of Sri Lanka which were sometimes also referred to as Leftist movements, the language that is now being used has undergone a very significant change. These changes are not merely a change of words and expressions […]

By Basil Fernando Why did the British colonial project for introducing the rule of law fail? There may be many reasons for such a failure and these may differ from one country to another. However, there seems to be one factor in common. The following extract from a minute written by British politician Thomas Babington […]