Women's rights

A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women Statistics apart, India is not a safe place for women to live. The recent unfortunate incidents of rape reported from the national capital and from other parts of the country have only brought the gruesome reality to the fore. Gender rights groups, the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a human rights organization, working on women and children’s issues was banned by the government of Gilgit-Baltistan, in the Northern area of Pakistan, due to the pressure of Muslim extremist groups. The government through a notification asked the AGHE to immediately close down […]

Sri Lanka is now before the United Nations Human Rights Council at a time when the Council is to discuss in what ways Sri Lanka can improve the human rights situation of its people. The overall mind set with which the government is approaching the Council can be summed up with the phrase, “Catch us […]

(London) – Sri Lankan security forces have been using rape and other forms of sexual violence to torture suspected members or supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. While widespread rape in custody occurred during the armed conflict that ended in May 2009, Human […]

At the Bar Association election this year, Mr. Upul Jayasooriya was elected with an overwhelming majority. He won by a margin of over 1,471 votes while the persons who came in second and third received 330 and 77 votes. It was well known that one of the candidates was openly promoted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. […]

Mangala Samy Pungonda, the mother of Wengadasalam Sudeshkar yesterday, February 19, appealed for the final sum of Rs. 600,000/= (approximately US$ 5,000) for the saving of her son’s life from execution in Doha, Qatar. She thanked those who have already contributed to the raising of the sum of Rs. 3.5 Million and said that about […]

Mangala Samy Pungonda, the mother of Wengadasalam Sudeshkar yesterday, February 19, appealed for the final sum of Rs. 600,000/= (approximately US$ 5,000) for the saving of her son’s life from execution in Doha, Qatar. She thanked those who have already contributed to the raising of the sum of Rs. 3.5 Million and said that about […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission has received many responses from concerned persons in several countries regarding the appeal we made on behalf of Mr. Wengadasalam Sudeshkar. Several persons have indicated to us that they are contacting friends and well-wishers to assist in the saving of this young man’s life. The Asian Human Rights Commission has […]

Share| The 65th Anniversary of the independence of Sri Lanka occurs today and all that we are reminded of is the loss of the liberties of the people of the country. Perhaps the heroine to be remembered at this time is Rizana Nafeek who was 17-years-old when she left Sri Lanka to find employment in […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the abduction of four human rights defenders in broad daylight by persons said to be from an outlawed religious organization. The unknown armed persons abducted six workers of a NGO including, two lady workers. However, after some time they threw the two women out of the vehicle and […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt about 78 families belonging to fisherfolk community facing threats of imminent eviction during a field visit undertaken by its Programme Coordinator for Right to Food Programme together with a representative of Defend Job Philippines. The local authorities had served the notice of eviction to these […]

A 45 year-old woman was gang raped in the early hours of January 23 in Wijerama, Nugegoda (some reports give her age as 47). This gruesome incident only received a few lines in some of the newspapers and in the media. Yet a similar incident that occurred in New Delhi, India, when a medical student […]

We reproduce below the letter written to His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka, the Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa regarding the case of Mr. Wengadasalam Sudeshkar who faces the death sentence by beheading in Doha, Qatar. The AHRC urges its readers to write to the President of Sri Lanka at the address shown below to urgently […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about several elderly single women being pushed into starvation in the Ghorabandha village of the Gaibandha district of Rangpur division. Most of these destitute women have been widowed for decades with no family to bank upon and have been forced into begging to ensure […]

(Hong Kong, January 18, 2013) Dozens of Hong Kong-based migrant workers, including Sri Lankans; migrant and human rights groups, protested today the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan maid, in Saudi Arabia. (Photos courtesy of APMM) Nafeek was executed on January 9 for the death of her employer’s child. The Government of the Kingdom […]

As the Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake left her official residence under duress from the heavy police squad that surrounded her and tried to prevent her from making any statement, she still managed to say a few words reaffirming her innocence and telling that all that she did was according to the law and that […]

On January 15, the Supreme Court of the Philippines (SC) heard oral arguments questioning the constitutionality of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and its conformity to international norms and standards. The Cybercrime Prevention Act is one of the many unprecedented pieces of legislation in the Philippines in recent years. The Cybercrime Law is expected […]

15 January 2013, 6:03 am We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest terms the beheading of Rizana Nafeek, the Sri Lankan domestic migrant worker convicted aged 17 in 2005, for the accidental death of an infant, in Saudi Arabia on the morning of 09 January 2013. We are shocked at the decision of Saudi Arabia’s […]

Today, with the President of Sri Lanka signing the removal notice of the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, the 1978 constitution came to be fulfilled. The 1978 constitution is a representation of the conflict between the rule of law and the absolute power of the executive president. The historical circumstances in 1978 […]

An article from The Sunday Times forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission As the sun went down this Friday on barebodied ruffians raucously celebrating Parliament’s spectacularly unjust impeachment of the country’s Chief Justice with crackers and kiribath, judgment fled to brutish beasts and Sri Lanka entered its darkest phrase since independence. This Government with […]