Democracy

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Statement from COLLECTIVE FOR MAANBUMIGU MALAIYAHA MAKKAL forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Today (28th July 2023) groups of men and women working in the plantations, in the hill country will begin a walk from Thalaimannar to Matale. This walk is organized by COLLECTIVE FOR MAANBUMIGU MALAIYAHA MAKKAL. The walk will end only […]

By Basil Fernando This article is  a follow up to:  The caste-based culture is still the key obstacle for development in Sri Lanka The debate on how important caste consciousness is in Sri Lanka today and whether class consciousness has replaced caste consciousness requires that we briefly examine the the beginnings of capitalism in Sri Lanka, […]

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 […]

By Basil Fernando Over a long period, many erudite scholars and critics have engaged with the issue of the extent to which caste remained a relevant factor in understanding social development in Sri Lanka. One could sum up broadly the overwhelming view among such writers as being that while caste influences still remain in some […]

In 2006 is pick of land dispute between residents of Sukamulya village and the Indonesia Air Force of the Atang Sanjaya Air Based of Bogor regency, West Java province. The Air Force again filed a claim over the land inhabited and used by residents which covers an area of ​​1000 hectares. While the area of […]

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 […]

By Basil Fernando A strange experiment that has been taking place in Sri Lanka for several decades now has reached a peak as the present government is engaged in rapidly bringing out a series of extremely bad laws purportedly for the sake of rapidly becoming a better society. The plethora of such laws that is […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the Panel Judges: 1. A case register Number No. 202/Pid.Sus/2023/PN Jkt.Tim (Suspect Mr. Haris Azhar) 2. A case register Number. 203/Pid.Sus/2023/PN Jkt.Tim (Suspect: Ms. Fatia Maulidiyanty) Jl. Dr. Sumarno No. 1, RT.7/RW.4, Penggilingan, Kec. Cakung, Kota Jakarta Timur DKI Jakarta -13940 Telp : +622148703788 | Faks […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) supports the statement of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)  condemning all forms of repression and intimidation against civil society during the preparation and implementation of the ASEAN Summit  in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT). Based on the information we received, one of […]

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 […]

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), sebuah organisasi Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) regional dan internasional, mendukung statemen tentang Akses Keadilan Untuk Keluarga Korban Kasus Kanjuruhan yang dikeluarkan oleh Koalisi Masyarakat Sipil yang terdiri dari Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI), Komisi Untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan (KontraS), LBH Pos Malang dan LBH Surabaya.  Keluarga […]

Ms. Fatia Maulidiyanti and Mr. Haris Azhar, two Indonesian human rights defenders, returned for their second trial with an agenda for reading the exception or objection note at the East Jakarta District Court. On 17 April, 2023, at the same time that the document was read, the security and human rights situation in Papua had […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the Chairperson of the Indonesian Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung RI) Professor. Dr. Muhammad Syarifuddin, SH., MH. The Chairperson of the Indonesian Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung RI) Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara No 9-13 Tel: +62 21 3843348, +62 21 3810350, +62 21 3457661 Fax: + 62 […]

A Statement from The Times.lk forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission                                                                         පොලිසිය අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලබන සැකකරුවන් විමර්ශන කටයුතු සඳහා ආයුධ පෙන්වීමට […]

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 […]