Censorship

PAKISTAN: NEW GOVERNMENT CONTINUES BLOCKING THE INTERNET AND PERSECUTING JOURNALISTS AND ACTIVISTS

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The CIVICUS Monitor added Pakistan to its watchlist of countries in early March 2024, following the repression against the opposition, the censorship of journalists and attacks on peaceful protests around the elections. Elections were held in Pakistan on 8th February 2024. Ahead of the elections, the […]

SRI LANKA: AUTHORITIES CONTINUE TO STIFLE PROTESTS, HARASS ACTIVISTS AND PUSH REPRESSIVE LAWS

A Statement from CIVICUS forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The CIVICUS Monitor in December 2023 downgraded Sri Lanka’s civic space rating to ‘repressed,’ with authorities clamping down on protesters, stifling journalists and targeting activists amid mounting public frustration with poor governance and a lack of accountability. In January 2024, Human Rights Watch said […]

INDONESIA: Shrinking of public space on expression, association and peaceful assembly

PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY  Discussion at Yogyakarta State University Critics against the Regime Forcibly Dispersed by the Rector          Discussion and gathering that was planned by the students of Yogyakarta State University (UNY) and other academics, such as lecturers and professors, were forcibly dispersed by the Rector due to the committee of the discussion did not have permission from the rector. Previously, […]

INDONESIA: Emergency Protection for Human Rights Defenders

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of Human Rights Day In commemorating the International Human Rights Day, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) highlights the theme of the lack of protection of human rights defenders in Indonesia. More than 20 years’ of political reform after former dictator President Suharto stepped […]

SRI LANKA: If Tocqueville was to read our proposed Anti-Terrorism Act

By Basil Fernando Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville is the famous author of the book Democracy in America. It is one of the world’s best known writings which have been appreciated by many philosophers, writers, thinkers and also people in many countries. It has also been translated into many languages.  Tocqueville was a […]

SRI LANKA:The Contempt of a Court, Tribunal or Institution Bill is Unconstitutional and Scandalizing Court is an archaic law

(Hong Kong, August 09, 2023)  ​​​​​​​Written submission to the Supreme Court on the “Contempt of a Court, Tribunal or Institution” Bill The Bill titled “Contempt of a Court, Tribunal or Institution” came for discussion before the Supreme Court on the 3rd and 4th of August. After the oral submission, written submissions were allowed to be filed by […]

SRI LANKA: Contempt of court law should not be used to create a chilling effect on lawyers and litigants

By Basil Fernando A month or so earlier, it was a lawyer practicing mainly in a High Court closer to Colombo, that contacted me and told me about his concerns about a draft Bill which has been discussed amongst his colleagues which was about the introduction a draft of a Contempt of Court Bill. He […]

තරිඳු උඩුවරගෙදර අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට අදාළ මහා ප්‍රශ්නය

An article from Sri Lanka Brief forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission මෙම සටහන ඉතා පුළුල් කීර්තියක් ඇති තරුණ මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු වන තරිඳු උඩුවරගෙදර අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීමත් සමඟ මතු වූ විශාල ප්‍රශ්න පිළිබඳවය. පසුගිය සිකුරාදා (ජූලි 28) උද්ඝෝෂනයක් වාර්තා කිරීමේ අරමුණින්  සහභාගි වෙමින් සිටි තරිඳු උඩුවරගෙදර ත්‍රිරෝද රථයකින් ඔහුගේ කොණ්ඩයෙන් වියරු ලෙස බලහත්කාරයෙන් ඇදගෙන ගොස්  පොලිස් නිලධාරීන් පිරිසක් […]

SRI LANKA:How loud can you talk in a court proceeding?

By Basil Fernando This article is  a follow up to: 1. Does the proposed contempt of court Bill amount to 23rd amendment to the constitution?     2.  Is contempt of court unlike any other crime? To anyone who may be surprised by this question, we wish to remind that not too long ago, the issue became […]

SRI LANKA: The Arrest of Tharindu Uduwaragedera – Larger questions

By Basil Fernando On the larger questions raised by the arrest of Tharindu Uduwaragedera, a young journalist of very wide reputation. Tharindu Uduwaragedera who was attending a meeting on Friday (28 July) for the purpose of reporting on the meeting was forcibly dragged out of a three-wheeler, grabbed by his hair and roughly manhandled by […]

SRI LANKA:Is contempt of court unlike any other crime?

By Basil Fernando The purpose of the proposed Bill on the Contempt of Court is to criminalise the acts which may be considered to constitute the offence of contempt of court and to punish it. Clearly, this proposed Bill is meant to create offences under the contempt of court and therefore the purpose is to create […]

SRI LANKA:Does the proposed contempt of court Bill amount to 23rd amendment to the constitution?

By Basil Fernando The draft Bill entitled ‘Contempt of Court, Tribunal or Institutions’, has been included in the parliament’s order paper and the issue of the constitutionality of this Bill will now be subjected to debate. There are several key questions arising from this draft Bill. These are:- Does this proposed law amounts to repeal […]

SRI LANKA: 202nd commemorative edition of SOCIAL JUSTICE – Sri Lanka is out

The center for religion and society (CSR) Colombo has published the 202nd issue of social justice. This publication started in August 1962 and has been regularly published ever since. Regarding this issue, the publisher states that this edition’s discussion is focus on Rule of Law, Anti-Terrorism law and other issues related to Sri Lanka.  Kindly see […]

INDONESIA: The Prosecutor of the Haris and Fatia Case Behaves Like Luhut Binsar Panjaitan’s Attorney (LBP) and Restricts Trial Access in the East Jakarta District Court

The trial on the criminalization case against Ms. Fatia Maulidiyanti (Coordinator of KontraS) and Mr. Haris Azhar (Founder of Lokataru) entered the stage of examining the reporting witness, namely Mr. Luhut Binsar Panjaitan. At this trial, it became increasingly clear that the Public Prosecutor (JPU) no longer represented the interests of the State but behaved […]

ශ්‍රී ලංකා:නීතියමතපාලනයහාප්‍රතිත්‍රස්ථවාදීපනත්කෙටුම්පත

බැසිල් ප්‍රනාන්දු නීතියමත පාලනය පිළිබදව වර්ථමාන කාලය තුල ලිය වී ඇති පොත් අතර ඉතාමත් ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත් පොතක් වූයේ ටොම් බින්ග්හම් (Tom Bingham) සාමිවරයා විසින් ලියන ලද නීතිය මත පාලනය (The Rule of Law) යන පොතය. එම පොත නීතිය මත පාලනය යන නමින් සිංහලට පරිවර්ථනය කොට ඇත. එම පොතෙහි නීතිය මත පාලනය යන්න පිළිබදව ඇති නිර්වචනයය […]

SRI LANKA:The proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill amounts to a parallel Constitution and a Criminal Procedure Code

Three major ‘strategies’ have been used in this draft bill on anti-terrorism 2023.which create very great confusion about the meaning of the contents of the proposed law and its implications. Three ‘strategies’ The first of these strategies is not to define the meaning of terrorism. The meaning of the key word of this document is […]

SRI LANKA:AHRC condemns the murder of Nimal Amarasiri caused by misuse of teargas on peaceful protesters

Read the statement in Sinhala මෙම ලිපිය සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න Mr. Nimal Amarasiri, a candidate in a local government election, was killed after a tear gas attack on 26th February while participating in a protest against the attempt to postpone the local government elections.  There was no justifiable grounds at all for the use of teargas […]

SRI LANKA:Few Reflections on the Sri Lanka’s Independence Day

By Basil Fernando Read the article in Sinhala මෙම ලිපිය සිංහලෙන් කියවන්න As Sri Lanka is to celebrate its 75th anniversary of Independence on the 4th of February, the general reaction of the people around the country this year is one of despondency with serious criticisms about the failure of governance in the country.  The need […]

Indonesia: The Government must seriously consider that the enactment of the RKUHP leaves serious problems

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the President of the Republic of Indonesia Mr. Joko Widodo President of the Republic of Indonesia Jalan Veteran No. 16 Jakarta Pusat Indonesia Tel: +62 21 3458 595 Fax: +62 21 3484 4759 Dear Mr. President: Indonesia: The Government must seriously consider that the […]

SRI LANKA: POLICE ON TRIAL: Exercising Authority without Accountability

An article from Daily Mirror forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission • Officers are rarely prosecuted for misconduct, including the brutal use of force on citizens. In rare cases, officers found guilty are given minor disciplinary punishments or given warnings. • The NPC received a total of Rs.127, 764, 000 budgetary allocation in 2018 which was […]