AHRC News

Last week two lower courts in southern Thailand made important decisions with wide implications for human rights and constitutional law in Thailand. On May 23 the southern Trang Provincial Court ruled...

With the subjugation of the courts to the dictates of the executive since the 1978 Constitution, Sri Lankan lawyers have been facing tremendous angst. Over the past 28 years they have endured signific...

Yesterday the AHRC announced a week of mourning following the executive president’s appointment of two judges and the president of the Appeals Court and a judge to the Supreme Court contravening...

With the direct appointment of two Court of Appeal judges, the president of the Court of Appeal and one Supreme Court judge by Sri Lanka’s executive president, the judiciary has been dealt an at...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by the growing crisis that has recently beset East Timor, the world’s youngest nation. Reports indicate that tens of thousands of per...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses its solidarity with the victims and survivors of the earthquake that struck the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia on May 27, 2006. It has been reported t...

The rule of law in Sri Lanka which is in abysmal decay, suffered a further major set back when the President of Sri Lanka acted as if he is more supreme than the Constitution, by making three appointm...

Thanks to many years of your persistent work with the Cambodian government, the Extraordinary Chambers commonly known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal for the prosecution of crimes committed by senior Khme...

On May 12, the Department of Interior and Local Government formed “Task Force Usig”, a police-led investigative unit to probe the unrelenting killings of activists and family members in th...

The AHRC is issuing this statement to coincide with a meeting organised by a group of citizens in Sri Lanka on the theme ‘Saving Sri Lanka from the brink of disaster’, to be held on May 27...

The media reported today that the Executive President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, has used his presidential power to ban the Da Vinci Code blockbuster film from public screening. The Daily News, ...

On the morning of May 23, 2006 a police force equipped with electric batons from Dangkor district, Phnom Penh was sent to beat up and disperse a group of workers on strike in front of the Park View ga...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) condemns the attack upon The Dawn, a daily newspaper published from Pakistan, by Mr. Salahuddin Haider, the Chief Minister’s advisor on Information in th...

On May 7, 15 Cambodian judges and two public prosecutors were appointed to serve on the Khmer Rouge tribunal alongside 11 international judges and two prosecutors. The appointment has met with a lot o...

By dismissing a case of police torture and degrading treatment on May 21, 2006, the Fourth Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, under the Chief Metropolitan MagistrateR...

Dear Mr Kofi Annan, The Asian Human Rights Commission sends greetings to you on the occasion of your 25-27 May 2006 visit to Thailand to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of His Majesty the King’...

In what amounts to a scandal concerning the manner in which President Mahinda Rajapaske has made appointments to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, one of the nominees and well known human righ...

On May 18, 2006, with the adoption of the House of Representative’s Proclamation, the Nepalese people achieved an historic victory towards the establishment of a truly democratic state. Included...

Sri Lankan newspapers have reported the drafting of a new law severely curtailing civil liberties and media freedoms. Conscription is one of the provisions of the draft law. Other provisions are expec...

India, the self-styled world’s largest democracy, has secured its position in the newly constituted UN Human Rights Council following elections held on May 9th, 2006.  Although India’s in...