AHRC News

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SRI LANKA: A comment on the Negombo High Court judgment on Gerald Perera’s torture case: When two and two equals five

What if some one says that and asks you to disprove it?  Or, if a whole society or even a large part of it begins to believe in fact that two and two is five.  This may be dismissed by some as pure ...

PAKISTAN: Thirty nine persons recorded disappeared during the first quarter of 2008

Thirty nine (39) persons, mostly young people, remain missing after arrest during ; their whereabouts are unknown to their families. The state intelligence agencies are still operative in arbitrarily ...

SRI LANKA: Negombo High Court case No.HC326/2003

Case against Makavitage Suresh Gunasena and five others vs. The State  We wish to bring to your notice that in the aforementioned case the High Court judge of Negombo acquitted the six accused in thi...

SRI LANKA: Gerald Perera’s torture case: Assassins of torture victims are rewarded by court

Gerarld Perera was a torture victim recognized by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.  Attorney General filed action against 6 police officers for the torture of Gerald Perera.  A week before Gerald Per...

INDIA: Village structures perpetuate caste system

No Indian can imagine “India without the caste system”. Is it possible to have an Indian society without caste system and other social evils?  In northern India, it is alarming to notice strong in-...

PAKISTAN: University of Karachi must lodge complaint against assault on a professor by Pakistan Rangers

The Pakistan Rangers, a Pakistan army’s organization, has severely beaten and abused a professor of Karachi on the question of his identity. Dr. Riaz Ahmed, Assistant professor of  Applied Chemistry...

SRI LANKA: IIGEP and UTHR J actions expose mockery of justice

The announcement by the IIGEP of the ending of their involvement in the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Alleged Serious Violations of Human Rights came yesterday (31...

PAKISTAN: Target killings are aimed to subvert people’s mandate

According to recent press reports about 79 persons, both from the political arena and law enforcement agencies were killed in Karachi, Sindh province, during this month alone (March), when the assembl...

INDIA: Farcical steps to improve policing in India must end

Between 22 and 27 March, two dead bodies were kept at the Kolkata Police Mortuary waiting for an inquest. The two persons, Mr. Paran Molla and Mr. Mohammad Shamim, reportedly died while in the custody...

SRI LANKA: Ignoring directives of the Supreme Court

A man, who alleged that he was severely beaten up by the police after he refused to pay a bribe of three valuable gems, was granted leave to proceed in a fundamental rights application by the Supreme ...

PHILIPPINES: Justifying murder of criminals endorses murder itself

From March 18 to 22, seven alleged criminals were killed, including a 16-year-old boy, in separate shooting incidents reportedly perpetrated by men riding on motorcycles in General Santos City. The po...

INDIA: The country cannot afford judicial extravaganza

“Except for the crime in question, Mr. R. K. Sharma was an asset to the nation…” The national media in India reported that this observation was made by the Additional Sessions Judge Mr. R...

BURMA: Closed courts and more mocking of justice

In one of his two latest reports to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar (Burma) has written that: “The Special Rapporteur is seriously concerned at the continued misus...

PAKISTAN: Government of President Musharraf must immediately provide list of all disappeared persons

The relatives of disappeared and missing persons in Pakistan will observe the Day of Missing People on March 23, 2008, a national day in commemoration of a Pakistani resolution adopted in 1940 in the ...

PAKISTAN: Historic resolution to restore the Constitution and all ousted judges is now before the National Assembly

A few suggestions to remove ambiguities from the AHRC History is being made in the National Assembly of Pakistan. The Speaker was elected and the debates have already begun. True to the pledge given t...

PHILIPPINES: Civilian complaint mechanism against the police deliberately undermined by the state

In 1991, a law creating the People’s Law Enforcement Board (Pleb), an external disciplining mechanism of policemen, was enacted. Its board members, who have the power to conduct summary hearings...

PAKISTAN: A young woman abducted and gang raped by guards of the Mohammad Ali Jinnah mausoleum

A young woman of 18 years was abducted and gang raped continuously over a period of three days by the guards employed at the mausoleum of Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Father of the Nation, known as &#...

INDONESIA: Attack on religion is an attack on democracy

Following a spate of well-orchestrated attacks on individuals, properties, mosques and schools of the Ahmadiah sect, and demands by several Islamic organizations to the President of Indonesia to have ...

SRI LANKA: Trade union action to support media freedom

The last few days saw developments in trade union protests against the attacks on employees of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC). Ever since the incident that was provoked by Minister Mervyn...

PAKISTAN: The creativity of the parliament and the people needs to be sustained in the face of new challenges

The taking of oaths by members of parliament on March 17th marks an important moment in the struggle against the military dictatorship which has caused a state of anarchy in Pakistan. Legally speaking...