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By Basil Fernando One more judgement from the Supreme Court, on torture by the Sri Lankan police, was added to a long list of such judgements, when the Supreme Court decided in favour of a petition fi...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned as human rights organizations, including Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRDA) and Advocacy Forum (AF), as well as human rights def...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Raviraj Kavichandran a resident of Pussellawa had according to the police, allegedly committed suicide by hanging h...

An article titled “The OMP – A Flawed Attempt to Deal with Complaints of Disappearances and/or Missing Persons in Sri Lanka” published in the Colombo Telegraph, by M.C.M Iqbal, forwarded by the...

Kaviratne Raviraj, 30 years old, arrested and taken to the Pussellawa police station by some plain clothed police officers and was later pronounced dead upon admission to the Pussellawa Hospital. Acco...

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the President of Pakistan His Excellency, Mr. Mamnoon Hussain¨ President of Pakistan President’s Secretariat Islamabad  Pakistan Fax: +...

Joint Press Release Bangkok-Dhaka-Geneva-Madurai-Paris-Quezon City, September 16, 2016 – Our organisations strongly condemn today’s arbitrary arrest of Kashmiri human rights defender Mr. Khurr...

Gayashan still remains missing following police detention at the Hambanthota Police Station Thanks to media interest, the matter is being discussed all over the country. The Inspector General of Polic...

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that police officers attached to District Police Office Morang have illegally arrested and tortured two minors and a you...

Written Statement on the OMP Act by Amnesty International as well as two important Reflections on Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: We reproduce below the three important interventions relating to th...

We reproduce below the content of the letter written to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice by the AHRC. 13th September 2016 Objection to the designation of Mr. Yasantha Kodagoda, Deputy Soli...

The latest statistics put out by the National Crime Record Bureau gives the Haryana state of India a dubious distinction. It stands second in the number of complaints lodged with the police, second on...

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that police officers attached with the District Police Office Siraha illegally arrested and tortured Ram Chandra Mahato ...

By Basil Fernando For a week, the media reported that a boy who was last seen at a police station had ‘disappeared’. Everyone knows that this word is a euphemism for murder. Somehow, it is less di...

12th September 2016 Mr. Pujith Jayasundara  Inspector General of Police  New Secretariat  Colombo 1, Sri Lanka Dear Mr Jayasundara, The disappearance of Gayashan requires an inquiry by the Criminal...

Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that an 18-year-old woman has been murdered in the name of honour by her own uncles and cousins. The father of the girl has fil...

There is something deeply negative and nihilist imbedded into the Sri Lanka consciousness. By ‘Sri Lankan consciousness’ I mean the consciousness of all Sri Lankans, whether they are from the majo...

On 2 September 2016, a team of police was seen in the vicinity of the home of the human rights defender Dr. Rubina Feroze Bhatti, and questioned her house maid of her whereabouts. The previous day, th...

The 7th September is one of the darkest days in the history of Pakistan when religion was firmly inducted to be the basis of the state affairs. This laid the foundation of unprecedented discrimination...

Avinash Pandey Unable to pay the ambulance drivers INR 1500, or around USD 22, a young mother was forced to sit out the night with her child’s dead body outside a hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Mee...