Statement

The Pakistan Government has failed to improve its pattern of muzzling the Press and overall civic space. It is under the leadership of cricketing superstar/turned politician, Imran Khan. The Authorities have been using the same old abusive techniques with the State agencies. In the previous military and civilian regimes they criminalized the critics of the […]

30 years ago, Richard de Zoysa was abducted and disappeared. His dead body was later found on a beach. During the same period, literally tens of thousands of persons throughout the country were also disappeared, and none of the cases relating to such disappearances have been resolved through genuine investigations and prosecutions. Indeed, the process […]

In many countries in Asia, it has become common for the state to use ultra-violent methods to control or deny the civil rights of people. Several countries used enforced disappearance as such method of ultra-violently suppressing civil rights. Extrajudicial killings are justified under various pretexts, such as control of the drug trade; or achieving constitutional […]

The South China Morning Post recently published a report quoting Colonel Romeo Caramat stating that the Philippines’ ultra-violent approach in curbing drugs has not been effective. He further went on to say that “shock and awe definitely did not work”. The drug supply is still widespread and illicit drugs can be obtained anywhere, anytime in […]

Bangladesh’s incumbent government, headed by Sheikh Hasina, continues curbing civic space and muzzling freedom of expression. The latest target has been Netra News – an investigative news portal launched from Sweden on 26 December 2019. Bangladesh government blocked access to the news portal within 72 hours of its launching with a report entitled “A wrist of luxury”. The […]

An incident was reported in December 2019 from India regarding the gang rape of a woman and what happened thereafter. The news of the gang rape stirred up a massive protest from many parts of India. Among those who were involved in the protest were sections of the intelligencia of India such as Professors, doctors, […]

A side event was held in UN Human Rights Council premises on the 23rd of September. It was sponsored by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and the May 18 Foundation, South Korea. It was also supported by the Right Livelihood Foundation, CIVICUS (Geneva) and the International Bridges to Justice, also based in Geneva. Ambassador […]

Affirming something through a declaration and denying the same in actual practice happens everywhere, but the real test of affirmation is the degree to which something is practiced. When what is affirmed and what is actually practiced is virtually divorced then the very act of affirmation becomes a mockery. That, unfortunately, is the situation regarding […]

This is the message the Asian Human Rights Commission sent to Angkhana Neelapaijit on her winning the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for championing the fight against forced disappearances.w “The Asian Human Rights Commission is very pleased to hear of Angkhana Neelapaijit you getting the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. This is an honour not only to […]

On 13th July 2019, Heiner Knauss passed away after being sick for some time. His funeral will take place on 20th July, according to his family. Heiner was one of the mentors and a very close friend and colleague of the Asian Human Rights Commission ( AHRC). He succeeded Yan Randers who was an extremely […]

In the Sri Lankan mind, politicians are thought to be engaged in the destruction of the lives of the people and the foundations of the nation. In the subconscious or unconscious, this has gone so deep that to speak of them as archetypes in the Jungian sense is no exaggeration at all. It is commonly […]

(ICCPR පනත ගැන මන:කල්පිත සාකච්ඡාවක්…) රටවැසියෙක්:- මොකක්ද ඔය ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ…? ICCPR කතෘවරයෙක්:- ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ ජාත්යඍන්තර සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් කියන ප්රPඥප්තියටයි. එම ප්රලඥප්තිය ඇති වුනේ මෙහෙමයි. 1948 දී මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශ්ව ප්රකකාශනය ප්රකකාශයට පත් කෙරුනා. ඒ මගින් සෑම මිනිසෙකුට හා ගැහැණියකටම සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් වගේම ආර්ථික සමාජීය සංස්කෘතික අයිතිවාසිකම් රැසක් ජාත්යමන්තර වශයෙන් මුල් […]

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he has signed four warrants for execution of persons who were convicted of crimes related to drugs. His announcement was given very wide publicity. In justifying his action, he said that in the Philippines, 27,000 people were shot on allegations of offences relating to drug possession. The Sri […]

यातनाविरुद्धको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय दिवसको सन्दर्भमा यातनाः न्यायका लागि पहलको दोस्रो संस्करण प्रकाशन गर्न पाउँदा हामीलाई अत्यन्तै खुसी लागेको छ । छोटो समयमै परिमार्जनसहित यो पुस्तिकाको दोस्रो संस्करण प्रकाशन गर्न पाउँदा हामीलाई अत्यन्तै खुसी लागेको छ । यातना हाम्रो प्रहरी कार्यालयहरूमा सर्वव्यापी अभ्यासका रुपमा पाइने गरेको छ । पक्राउ परेका संकित मानिसहरूलाई साबित गराउने सर्वव्यापी तरिकाका रुपमा यसलाई प्रयोग गर्ने […]

2007 අංක 56 දරන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා ප‍්‍රජාතන්ත‍්‍රවාදී සමාජවාදී ජනරජය මගින් ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කර ඇති ICCPR පනත පිළිබඳ මහජනතා සාකච්ඡුාවක් ඇති වෙමින් පවතින්නේ නුදුරු කාලයක් තුළ එම පනත කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කිරීමක් සිදු වන නිසාය. එම පනත ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වීමේදී මතුවී ඇති ගැටලූ රාශියක් ඇත. එම ගැටලූ පිළිබඳව දළ විස්තරයක් පහත සඳහන් වේ. එම පනතේ අරමුණ වී ඇත්තේ යම් මානව හිමිකම් කඩකිරීම් අපරාධයක් සේ […]

The sovereignty of the people is best expressed by the exercise of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Both of these freedoms are essential to common people living with a sense of dignity. These freedoms are also essential in order to create a sense of community among all the peoples who live within the […]

The government of Nepal has been repeatedly throttling the civil society, media and human rights organizations in Nepal. Even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has now come under its ambit. The present government, led by the Nepal Communist Party, does not like civil society questioning its business. In an attempt to silence critical voices, […]

According to Sri Lankan Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake, the present security crisis facing the country was a result of the failures of many government institutions. In a television interview available on YouTube, he cited foreign exchange control failures to monitor money coming into the country, Customs Department failures, and intelligence coordination failures. Aside from these […]

Late Mr. Tarzie Vittachithe, winner of many prestigious awards for journalism, had a favourite saying that, “Everything is about something else”. In a similar manner, the parliamentary discussion on two no-confidence motions is also clearly about other issues, rather than the brutal carnage that took place on Easter Sunday and the causes thereof. The government […]

Click here to Read the Korean Version On 16th May 2019, Eugene Soh, a man who dedicated his entire adult life working to defeat the military dictatorship in South Korea, passed away after a brief illness. Mahatma is a South Asian word meaning great soul. Eugene Soh was definitely a man who had a very […]