AHRC News

When a country’s protection mechanism is no longer capable of protecting its own people, its own system is deeply flawed; when a society can no longer protect the people in their community, the ...

Hundreds of families of disappeared persons will gather at Raddoluwa Junction at Seeduwa, Sri Lanka at the monument for the disappeared to commemorate the day. This monument was erected in 2000. In a ...

Nothing can be worse for a country in the modern world than to have a bad constitution. Anybody with common sense would not find it difficult to understand that proposition. The constitution lays down...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 26, 2010 AHRC-OLT-011-2010 An Open Letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse President Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka C/- Office of the Pres...

Extrajudicial killings and custodial deaths are happening because of: Refusal of the police and judiciary to investigate; The absence of investigations is the result of breakdown of the rule of law; W...

When extraordinary explanations justify extrajudicial killings   By Sofie Rordam Arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings are an almost daily occurrence in Sri Lanka today. The police system ...

Basil Fernando The attacks on the students and rhetoric against them appear in many of the reports covering Sri Lanka today. The Minister, S.B. Dissanayake is heard over television channels talking in...

*Avinash Pandey  Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka was the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2010, New Delhi. He presided over the extravagant ceremony that wo...

SRI LANKA: How does the constitutional question affect the question of Sri Lankan identity? Basil Fernando  The question of ‘identity’ means who is a Sri Lankan? It could be spoken of pur...

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza Endemic over-simplification by internal and external actors and purposeful attempts to reframe political debates have ensured the conversation concerning Sri Lanka’s governme...

When Philippine President Benigno Aquino III decided to grant amnesty to the military men charged for rebellion against the government and not to file criminal charges against an official and the poli...

It is diluting the UN ICCPR and CAT by having reservations against many of their provisions. The ratification of the of UN International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (ICCPR) and the UN conve...

Numbness was the first response to the verdict on Ayodhya dispute. Everything and everyone went numb. And then, an eerie silence settled in the room where we were anxiously watching the live streaming...

Basil Fernando Robberies- Police and 18th Amendment October 11 Anuradhapura – Rs. 1,100,000 — Rs. 1.1 million October 8 Nugegoda – Rs.1,400,000 — Rs. 1.4 million October 5 Rawa...

Basil Fernando   Making a person disappear over a land dispute A place where there is no room for justice is not a nation but a madhouse. That is what Sri Lanka has become today. Ask anyone who h...

Link to the film ‘Looking for the Light’ by the WISE participants in Mae Sot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqrjDS1c8qE WISE travelled to Mae Sot, on the Thai border with Burma and worked...

Sofie Rordam   In Sri Lanka as globally, the most prevalent form of violence against women is domestic violence. According to a survey from 2006 by the Ministry of Child Development and Women’s...

Basil Fernando The Constitution Places the Executive President above the Courts This picture shows the executive president sitting above the Supreme Court Complex. The Supreme Court is the highest cou...

(Part One)   The first election in post Pol Pot Cambodia was held in May 1993. The new constitution promised a liberal democracy and a system of governance based on the rule of law. However, the ...

Basil Fernando   The Degeneration of police into “licensed thugs”   This is a photo of Mr Ganegoda Sinhage Haritha Lakmal (30) of No. 590/2A, Middle Gate Upper Road, Addunkelle W...