Democracy

සාමකාමී උත්ගොෂකයන්ට කදුළු ගෑස් ගැසීම සහ පහරදීම පොලිස් රාජකාරියක් නොවේ. අන්තර් විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයීය සිසුන්ට කල ප්‍රහාරය තරයේ හෙලා දකිනවා – ආසියානු මානව හිමිකමි කොමිසම වීඩියෝව මෙතනින් ලබාගන්න

An article from Mr. Walden Bello forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 17 AUGUST 2022 By Walden Bello On August 8, 2022, officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) arrived at my residence at 62 Moncado Street, BF Homes, Quezon City, to arrest me on charges of two counts of cyberlibel. The arrest was […]

By Basil Fernando Illegal arrests and illegal detentions do not only harm individuals, they also cause irreparable damage to the legal system as a whole. The recent wave of arrests of those who have participated in peaceful demonstrations has not only caused serious damage to the life and liberty of these individuals but they have […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), a prominent national human righs organization about the selection process of judges for the Paniai Human Rights Court. Responding to the declaration of the 2022 Human Rights Court Ad Hoc Judge who decided the eight […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to share with you the following video regarding current Sri Lankan situation. Click here to view

By Basil Fernando A declaration of emergency means suspensions of all the laws which normally operate within a country for the protection of the people. A declaration of emergency takes away all the basic protections which are considered essential to the normal functioning of the society. Lawlessness is declared to be normal under a period […]

Human rights defenders, dissidents, and political opposition survive in a profoundly dangerous condition of civic space in Bangladesh. The country’s government keeps weaponising draconian laws with impunity to curb civic freedoms of the people. The freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the freedom of expression and opinion are dealt with incarceration by the police, […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Indonesia Supreme Court 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 21 3453553, +62 21 3454546 Jakarta […]

A Statement from People’s Commission of Women in Sri Lanka forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission පසුගිය දශක ගණනාවක් තිස්සේ බලයට පැමිණි විවිධ ආණ්ඩු අනුගමනය කළ අදූරදර්ශි, දූෂිත හා මිත්‍ර හා ඥාති සංග්‍රහ වලින් සපිරි ක්‍රියාමාර්ගවල අවසන් ප්‍රථිපලය ලෙස ස්වභාවික හා මානව සම්පත්වලින් අනූන ඉතාම සශ්‍රීක රටක් ලෙස ස්ථාපිත වන්නට තිබූ අප රට බංකොලොත් […]

By Basil Fernando A peaceful mass uprising on 9th July 2022 has brought about the end of a political era which started with the promulgation of the 1978 constitution of Sri Lanka: that constitution completely undermined democracy, the rule of law and human rights in the country. During a period of continuous protests over 3 […]

The crisis of major magnitude is taking place in Sri Lanka. The world has not yet taken adequate notice of the impact of an economic downturn as a result of the inability of the government to pay the foreign loans as a result of which it is suffering from the worst financial crisis ever faced […]

By Basil Fernando Politics in Sri Lanka mostly consists of the making of speeches at every place. There is lot of talk in the Parliament and there is also a lot of talk in the media shows. However, no real form of governance is taking place in the country. There is no direct relationship between […]

By Basil Fernando The amendment of a constitution is a serious task. However, some may argue that it is not such an important task as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. That is because of the most trivialized manner in which Constitutional Amendments have been brought about in Sri Lanka in the recent years. However, […]

An Oral Statement to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council from the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) Mr. President The Special Rapporteur’s report has substantively covered the aspects regarding the protection of the lawyers against undue interference and independent exercise of the legal profession. Echoing the Special Rapporteur the Asian Legal […]

By Basil Fernando Two great lies have been propagated about the 1978 Constitution. When a lie is repeated many times by many persons, often such a lie begins to be treated as a conventional truth. The first of these lies is that the 1978 Constitution was created on the model of the French Constitution and […]

By Basil Fernando What happened on the 9th of May was a tragedy. It is a tragedy that the entire nation should genuinely mourn. Such genuine mourning has a capacity to generate reflections that could transform the thinking and practices of all those concerned about how to avoid such tragedies in the future. Such genuine […]

A Written Submission to the 50th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) strongly condemns all forms of police brutality against demonstrators who refused the New Autonomous Province (DOB) in Papua Island on 10 May 2022. Based on the monitoring and information […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) supports the standing point of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (KontraS) highlighting the process of selecting candidates for the Commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). On 27 May 2022, the Selecting Committee, in the written test, has passed the candidate for the […]

In commemorating the 24th year of the student shooting in Trisakti and Semanggi, and with two years to go before the General Election in 2024, the Minister of the State Owned Company (BUMN), Mr. Erick Thohir appointed the Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) to provide houses for the four families of the victims of the student […]

By Basil Fernando  There are many reports in the media that Government Members of Parliament are sending lists to the Police to arrest persons. This habit has been revived after the events of May 9th and the days that followed. Now the media reports that thousands of arrests have been made and that hundreds are […]