AHRC News

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SRI LANKA: It is just a hop, skip and jump from enforced disappearances to the impeachment of the Chief Justice

It is clear by now that the attempted impeachment is being done in a completely lawless manner. The present approach adopted for the inquiry is no different to a committee consisting of a man’s ...

SRI LANKA: We salute the Chief Justice and her legal team for the historical decision to walk out of the PSC proceedings.

We call upon the people, in particular the judges and lawyers, to grasp the historic significance of this moment It is news now that the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and her legal team, led by ...

SRI LANKA: PSC offers the CJ an inquiry without witnesses

The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) inquiring into the allegations against the Chief Justice, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake in a surprising and shocking move informed her that during this inquiry no w...

BURMA: Court issues landmark ruling on death in police custody; two accused police themselves die under dubious circumstances

In a landmark ruling, a court in Burma has rejected the police version of events that led to the death of a man in their custody, and has opened the door to a charge of murder to be brought against th...

SRI LANKA: Why not telecast the impeachment proceedings?

According to reports, the Chief Justice (CJ) through her lawyers have informed the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) that she wishes to waive the right to have the impeachment proceedings in-camera...

SRI LANKA: Judiciary sans independence: The Sri Lankan chronicle

The future of a judge who would have been the longest serving Chief Justice of the nation is grim in Sri Lanka. Widely alleged as politically motivated, the current move by the President to impeach he...

SRI LANKA: From a farce to witch hunt

The impeachment of the Chief Justice which was staged as a farce has now turned into a blatant witch hunt where the government is shamelessly mobilising taxi drivers and other mobs to call for the res...

PAKISTAN: International day of disability—differently abled excluded people net to be included and main-streamed

“Disability need not be an obstacle to success.” –  Stephen Hawking. Like many several years, this year too, on the eve of International Day of Disability human rights defenders and...

INDIA: भोपाल, मैं और 2 दिसंबर 1984 की

आज मुझे भी वह अँधेरी सुबह याद आ गयी। 2 और 3 दिसंबर 1984 की दरम्यानी रात, भोपाल के घो...

SRI LANKA: Speaker’s ruling has no bearing upon the substantive issues in the impeachment

The Speaker’s ruling relating to the Supreme Court’s notice to the Speaker and the members of the Parliamentary Select Committee does not in any way prohibits the constitutional right of t...

PAKISTAN: AHRC welcomes the inter-ministerial initiative for criminalizing torture

Today, the federal Ministry for Human Rights arranged an inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the proposed law against torture and custodial death. The proposed draft of the law was submitted by the A...

INDIA: Is it not time to question the role of police in crowd control?

The Surendranagar firing that killed three Dalit youth on 21 September this year has once again brought to light the concern, that in India, the police do not have adequate training nor the government...

SRI LANKA: Contrasting the political climate in Burma and Sri Lanka

From 1962 there are literally thousands of people who have served sentences in Burmese prisons as political prisoners. The people resisted the military throughout this long period of about 60 years de...

BURMA: Absurd and offensive pretext to remove demonstrators opposed to mining project

In the latest turn of events in the struggle against the Letpadaung copper mining project in upper Burma, about which the Asian Human Rights Commission has been campaigning since mid-2012, the governm...

PAKISTAN: Intimidation of journalists continues with the attempted assassination of Hamid Mir

An explosive device was planted in the car of a renowned journalist. It is not known as to whether this was an attempt to assassinate him or merely intimidate him. A right wing journalist by his writi...

SRI LANKA/BURMA: There is more freedom of expression in Burma now than in Sri Lanka – A conversation with U Nu’s daughter

We were one of the leading nations in agriculture and many other things in South East Asia. We have lost it all since the 1962 military takeover. Now advisors come from those countries, which were in ...

PAKISTAN: International Day to End Impunity– Impunity against media rises to unacceptable levels

Eighty eight journalists have been killed in Pakistan during last decade out of which 36 were shot dead in target killing. In 2012, ten journalists including one TV channel driver were killed in three...

SRI LANKA: The Standing Orders relating to the impeachment are flawed in law – says an international expert

1. I am Sergei GOLUBOK. I hold postgraduate degrees of LL.M. in International Human Rights Law awarded by the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and Candidate of Juridical Sciences in Public In...

SRI LANKA: Why only judges should judge?

The Parliamentary Select Committee’s inquiry has raised the issue of the politicians being judges. Some have even said that the politicians have a better right to judge because they are elected ...

SRI LANKA: Similarities and dissimilarities between the PSC trial and the Moscow Show Trials

In the mid-1930s, Stalin staged several trials that are now known as Moscow Show Trials. The similarities and dissimilarities between them and the “trial by PSC” are as follows. 1.    S...