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Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma today expressed concern about the recent move by the Parliament of Sri Lanka to impeach the country’s Chief Justice, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake. Spea...

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul in a statement issued yesterday (November 14, 2012), stated that, “……the procedure for...

The impeachment is not about the individual that is Shriyani Bandaranayake, the Chief Justice. The real issue is about ending the position of the judiciary as a separate branch of the state. What is n...

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Judges of Sri Lanka Honourable Judges: I am writing on behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) under extraordinary circumstances...

Dear friends, Ms. Muddara Pedilage Suneetha Sandamali (16) succumbed to severe burn injuries at the Puttalam Base Hospital. She had been admitted by her partner, a soldier attached to the Civil Defenc...

(Hong Kong, November 15, 2012) The Asian Human Rights Commission is reproducing below a copy of the letter written by the parents of a young girl who died of burn injuries to the Attorney General of S...

The constitutional wisdom of a people is the last resort that the people have when they are faced with constitutional peril. It is an almost unanimous opinion in Sri Lanka that the country is faced wi...

The impeachment process against Sri Lankan Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake must follow international standards of due process says the International Commission of Jurists. “Many people in Sr...

GENEVA (14 November 2012) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, today expressed serious concerns about reported intimidation and atta...

Mr. Sarath N. Silva has taken three different positions in regard to the impeachment of the Chief Justice within a quite a short time. Initially, he said that, under the provisions of the 1978 constit...

An Article by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: 1000 days after the disappearance of Pradeep Ekenailiagoda, Sandya writes to President Rajapakse Appeal on behalf of families of the disappea...

The Asian Human Rights Commission has written to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions regarding the incident at the Welikada Prison in Sri Lanka on November 9, 2012...

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following article from the Sunday Times, Colombo, Sri Lanka, written by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ——...

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following article written by Tisaranee Gunasekara who is a Sri Lankan columnist based in Colombo Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ——̵...

When I talked to a Sri Lankan friend about the killings of prisoners which happened yesterday and tried to convince him that people should demand justice, his instance reply was, “ Dhang justice na...

Basil Fernando Humankind has at least a few millenniums of experience in keeping prisons. It is part of the unfortunate predicament of humanity that there is this need to have prisons. However, over t...

The series of events which are naked attacks on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in the recent past are well recorded.  These events culminated in the unprecedented action of the...

Yesterday (9th of October), at least 11 prisoners were gunned down and around 35 were injured by the STF. The shooting was carried out when the STF entered the Welikada prison for some inspections. (P...

Basil Fernando The Chief Justice (CJ) has refuted all allegations made against her contained in the much publicized impeachment motion filed in parliament. (File Photo of the Chief Justice, Mrs. Shira...

A comparison with the Titanic is most appropriate. Titanic at the time was thought of as a wonder ship that could never sink. It was not expected ever to perish. Sri Lanka also was considered a wonder...