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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 ...

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the life of a journalist who has been twice arrested, tortured and remanded on tenuous charges, is in danger. Senake Ekanayake...

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 ...

(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...

“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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following article from the Sri Lanka Guardian. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- An article from the Sri Lanka Guardian ...

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a teacher was harassed and fired from her job at a segregated secondary school after she spoke out about discrimi...

Those Sri Lankans who grew up before 1971 have seen, at least in a limited way, some basic freedoms. None of them were used to midnight knocks on their doors. If they went to a courthouse, they could ...

FOR PUBLICATION AHRC-ART-050-2009 September 22, 2009 An Article by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Biriani, Arrack and Kassipu for ‘Some’ Journalists Basil Fernando “Go ...

(18 September 2009) GENEVA – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, argued that “there has not been enough structural change in response to th...

The President of Sri Lanka is reported to have instructed the Defense Secretary to verify the facts stated in a newspaper advertised petition published in several papers, signed by 133 persons condemn...

FOR PUBLICATION AHRC-ART-048-2009 September 16, 2009 An Article by the Asian Human Rights Commission SRI LANKA: Unrule of law and manipulations by the Attorney General’s Department Basil Fernand...

(Hong Kong, September 16, 2009) The Asian Human Rights Commission today launched an urgent appeal demanding the Repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and .  The online appeal calls for eve...

Last week two prominent LTTE leaders, Daya Master and George Master, were released on personal bail by a Magistrate in Colombo after the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) filed a report stating th...

The state fails to respect UN Human Rights Committee¡¦s request to provide protection to a family of witnesses following the assassination of the husband The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the ...

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man has been illegally imprisoned for over two and a half years after his illegal arrest, beating and mock execution by poli...

Sunday, September 6, 2009 By Basil Fernando (September 06, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The responsibility of supervising a police station and ensuring orderly behavior of officers and discipline is t...

By Basil Fernando (September 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Several events have had a shocking effect on democratically-minded people in Sri Lanka this week. J.S. Tissainayagam, a well-known journal...