AHRC News

   Mr. Ranga Bandara, a Member of Parliament gave a live interview to the Asian Human Rights Commission, based in Hong Kong, on October 6th about the arson attack and about the political environment...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that two detainees, Leo Paro and Melvic Lupe, have died, reportedly due to tuberculosis while being held at the Karangalan Police Stat...

The opposition politician Ranga Bandara’s house was burned to cinders on the evening of the 4th October. Sometime earlier, the house of another opposition politician, John Pulle, was similarly r...

Last Friday, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an Urgent Appeal on the case of three teenage girls who have been imprisoned for alleged involvement in an illegal lottery ring in Burma (A...

On October 5 1998, the government of Bangladesh, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). ...

Human rights organisations working against caste based discrimination in the region must engage in debates on the need for a comprehensive UN framework to tackle caste based discrimination and should ...

Basil Fernando     Nearly five months have passed since the government claimed complete victory over terrorism by the defeat of the LTTE. And at the same time, it was claimed that peace had ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 2, 2009 AHRC-OLT-026-2009 An Open Letter to the President of Indonesia by the Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC) Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono President of the Republic o...

(This article initially appeared in the Sri Lanka guardian and was written as a response to a discussion in Ground Views) Basil Fernando The concept of the gulag, first used by Aleksandr Solzhenisyn i...

A newspaper advertisement published by the Government of India on Sunday, September 20, 2009, reads ‘Naxalites are nothing but coldblooded criminals’. This advertisement is part of the gov...

The violent humiliation of three women reported from Punjab this week has thrown stark light on the complicity of the police and the courts in gender-based crimes — and on the continued degener...

“The issue that concerns me is something a little different. Why is it that many people still do not grasp that the system in this country has gotten so warped that it is not capable of what is ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) express its sincere condolences to the Filipino people for the terrible loss of life caused by typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana) that affected Metro ...

Basil Fernando Dayan Jayatilaka begins his article with the words, “I am proud of my country, Sri Lanka.” To demonstrate the differences in our points of view I would like to begin by stating that, ...

To argue that some Filipino policemen are corrupt and extorting money on pretext of enforcing their duties and obligations is something that no rational person could disagree with. This is an establis...

Alexander Solzhenitsyn added the word ‘gulag’ to the human rights vocabulary to describe a type of experience that is being repeated in many parts of the world. His own three volume study ...

The Constitutional Court decided yesterday that two articles of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration are unconstitutional. They are article 10 of the Act prohibiting assembly and demonstrating before...

The Pakistan government’s announcement to push ahead with a plan to sell or lease 500,000 acres of farmland to Saudi Arabia has caused widespread outrage at home, raising serious concern over the det...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the release of prisoners from jails around Burma during the last week, especially human rights defenders and persons who were detained during and afte...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) listened with close attention to your speech on 14 September 2009 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and is aware of your work for the rights of women p...