Institutional reform

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to the Chief of National Police  General of Police Listyo Sigit Prabowo Chief of National Police (KAPOLRI) Jl. Trunojoyo No. 3, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta Selatan 12110 Indonesia  Tel: +62 21 384 8537, 726 0306 Fax: +62 21 7220 669 E-mail: info@polri.go.id Dear General,  INDONESIA: The police […]

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 […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Federation of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (FEDERASI KontraS) wish to inform you about Preliminary Report on Monitoring and Investigation of the Kanjuruhan Stadium Case I. The condition and capacity of the Kanjuruhan Stadium The Kanjuruhan Stadium is a football Stadium owned by […]

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 […]

By Basil Fernando At the moment, the general discussion in Sri Lanka is about the formation of a new Government. Practically speaking, that is the most immediate and urgent task. As there are many views expressed on that issue, we will not comment on it, and we assume that this issue will be resolved soon. […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

A Written Submission to the 50th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has for over 40 years carefully studied, documented and reflected upon the actual possibilities for protection of human rights in many countries of Asia, in particular South Asia […]

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 […]