Democracy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility has approved a fund to assist Sri Lanka at this time of terrible economic crisis. While there are many things to talk about that issue, we wish at the very beginning to highlight what we think is the most important issue that should be brought to the […]

IMF ආයතනය විසින් ලංකාවට විස්තීරණ ණය පහසුකම (Extended fund facility), කියන කොන්දේසිය යටතේ ණයක් දීම පිළිගෙන තිබීම, අද දින තුල වාර්තා වුනා.  මේ අවස්ථාවේ දී, ඊට අදාලව ඉතාම ප්‍රධාන කාරණාව ක අවධානය යොමු කල යුතු යැයි අපි කල්පනා කරනවා.  IMF ආයතනය, මෙම මුදල් දීමට එකඟ වීමත් සමඟම, ඒ සදහා කොන්දේසි ගණනාවක් පිළිබද ව බරපතලව සාකච්ඡා […]

The debate on who should be the next Inspector General of Police (IGP) is part of the public debate these days. The focus of this debate is more on who should be the “person” rather than what is the expectation from the new IGP in terms of the challenges faced on the one hand concerning […]

The International Women’s Day is observed on March 8th to acknowledge the tremendous work done by the feminist movements worldwide. This year’s (2023) theme, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, highlights the role of innovative technology in promoting gender equality and meeting the health and developmental needs of women and girls. Innovation and technology have the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 Jl. Veteran No. 16 Jakarta Pusat Indonesia Tel: +62 21 3458 595 Fax: +62 21 3484 4759 Dear Mr. President: INDONESIA: Waiting for the follow-up on the State’s […]

The decision made by the Canadian government to impose sanctions on two former presidents, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Staff Sergeant, Sunil Ratnayaka, and Lt. Commander, P Hettiarachchi for gross and systematic violations of human rights during the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), and supreme court decision in favour of […]

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 […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2022 Nepal successfully conducted its parliamentary election on November 20, 2022. Successful in the sense that many young and energetic faces have been elected in this election. Nepalese voters were fed up and even frustrated with the traditional […]

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 […]

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-004-2022 October 21,  2022 ———————————– SRI LANKA: Peaceful Protesters Face Attacks, Reprisals, and Arbitrary Detention ISSUES: Arbitrary Detention; Access to Justice; Right to Fair Trial; Freedom of Peaceful Assembly; Right to Liberty; Reprisals against Activists ———————————— Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has […]

Bangladesh Government must stop its hate campaigns against the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) of the United Nations and human rights group Odhikar. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concerns over the continuation of gross human rights violations including enforced disappearances1 and extrajudicial killings in the country even after the visit […]

A few weeks ago, President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Decree Number 17 of 2022 concerning the establishment of a non-judicial settlement team for serious past human rights violations. We agree with the statement of the victims of past human rights abuses and their families, namely that the Presidential Decree 17 of 2022 is a means […]

HRC Agenda Item: Interactive Dialogue on the Secretary General’s report on alleged reprisals against those who seek to cooperate or have cooperated with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms – Agenda Item: 5 A Joint Oral Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre […]

An Oral Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. Vice President: The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) welcomes the comprehensive report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) and appreciates its prompt interventions in response to reprisals against the […]

Today (15th September) is the international day of democracy although in Sri Lanka we are going through very painful times. When democracy is very serious with challenge, it is very essential for us to recall the basic principles of democracy so that we could reaffirm our commitment to these principles. These principles are citizen participation, equality, […]

GENEVA (8 August 2022) – UN human rights experts* today condemned the extensive, prolonged and repeated use of state of emergency measures since 2 April 2022 by Sri Lankan authorities to crackdown on peaceful protesters and prevent them from voicing their grievances amidst an economic collapse in the country. On 15 July, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has submitted a Written Statement to the 128th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to be held from 19 September to 28 September 2022. While documenting the cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances the AHRC strictly follows the definition of enforced disappearance […]

A Written Statement to the 51st Regular Session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) reiterates the issue of Bangladesh’s unabated enforced disappearances with blanket impunity to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s 51st Regular Session. Halting enforced disappearances in Bangladesh has […]