Prosecution system

THAILAND: Drop Criminal Complaint Against Fortify Rights Senior Human Rights Specialist Puttanee Kangkun

Thai authorities or Thai poultry company Thammakaset Company Limited should immediately drop criminal defamation complaints against Puttanee Kangkun and other human rights defenders, Fortify Rights said today. On December 6, Thammakaset filed a complaint against Puttanee with the Bangkok Southern Criminal Court for 14 social media engagements expressing support for human rights defenders. Puttanee is […]

SRI LANKA: What happens to the people happens also to judges, lawyers, and others

A comment on the memoir of Former Chief Justice Dr Shiranee Bandaranayake entitled “Hold Me in Contempt” Basil Fernando Attorney-At-Law This memoir by former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake on the (now nullified) impeachment is a significant contribution to the cause of promoting the independence of judiciary in Sri Lanka. Its significance lies in the […]

WORLD: Thai judge survives shooting himself in the chest in open court as a protest against interference with judicial independence

By Basil Fernando In a Thai courthouse on 4th October 2019, Judge Khanakorn Pianchana shot himself in the chest as a protest against interference with the independence of judges in their decision-making process. Fortunately, he survived the suicide attempt – made in open court – and is reportedly out of intensive care. Regarding the issue […]

SRI LANKA: අශ්වයා පණ අදිද් දී ජොකියා වීමට පොරකෑම

බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු පාලකයෙකු පත් කර ගන්නේ රාජ්‍ය තන්ත‍්‍රය ජනතා සුභසිද්ධිය සදහා කි‍්‍රයාත්මක කරවා ගැනීම සදහාය. දැන් කලක සිටම ලංකාවේ පවතින ප‍්‍රධානම ප‍්‍රශ්නය නම් රාජ්‍ය තන්ත‍්‍රය පණ අදින තත්ත්වයක පසුවීමය. මූල්‍ය කටයුතු පිළිබඳ අංශයේ වුවත්, නිෂ්පාදන අංශයේ වුවත්, ආරක්ෂක අංශයේ වුවත්, යුක්තිය පසිඳලීමේ යෙදී සිටින ආයතන වල වුවත්, සුබසාධන පිළිබඳ අංශයේ එනම් සෞඛ්‍ය, අධ්‍යාපනය, වැඩිහිටියන් හා […]

SRI LANKA: Weaponisation of Ambiguity – Sri Lanka’s 1978 Constitution

  By Basil Fernando  The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka is an outstanding example of how meaning can be manipulated through the weaponisation of ambiguity. It uses language that gives the appearance of a liberal democratic constitution of a republic while also putting in place various devices that severely undermine all the basic norms and standards […]

SRI LANKA: ලංකාවේ නීති අධ්‍යාපනයේ අසාර්ථකත්වය

බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු ලංකාවේ නීති අධ්‍යාපනය මුළුමනින්ම අසාර්ථකත්වයකින් පෙළෙන අධ්‍යාපන ක‍්‍රමයකි. වෘත්තීය අධ්‍යාපන ආයතන වල මූලික වගකීම වන්නේ එම වෘත්තියෙහි නියැලීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වන අපේක්ෂකයන්ට එසේ එය කර ගැනීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය දැනුම, අවශ්‍ය පුහුණුව මෙන්ම අවශ්‍ය සදාචාරක පදනම ඉගැන්වීමය. මේ අනුව බලන විට දැනට ලාංකික නීති අධ්‍යාපනය වටා ගොඩනැගුනු සෑම ආයතනයක් තුළම දකින්නට ලැබෙන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේ වෘත්තිය කර […]

THAILAND: CONTEMPT OF COURT over critics of decision on MP’s media shareholding

A Statement from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission Case Between the Election Cases Division of the Supreme Court and Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Thai academic                                                    […]

WORLD: UN Human Rights Council should address human rights crisis in Cambodia at its 42nd session

A Joint Statement by the Asian Legal Resource Centre and 27 human rights organisaitons To Members and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council 30 August 2019 Dear Excellency, The undersigned civil society organizations, representing groups working within and outside Cambodia to advance human rights, rule of law, and democracy, are writing to […]

SRI LANKA: An interview on crisis of Law with Mr. Basil Fernando

(Colombo Sri Lanka, August 09, 2019) We are sharing an interview with Mr. Basil Fernando in the National Television Station (Rupavahini) regarding the Crisis of Law in Sri Lanka in their 99 Minutes Program.       Please Click here See the Full Interview

NEPAL: Current problem of human rights violations in Nepal

A request/attention letter from Mr. Ghanshyam Chamlagain & Mr. Chetanath Chaulagain forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) We, as independent citizens, have deeply studied and evaluated the situation of human rights violations committed by the Government of Nepal and being borne by the Nepalese people. We wish to stop Nepal from the critical […]

AHRC TV: UN report says one of nine persons faces hunger and other stories in JUST ASIA, Episode 261

This week Just Asia begins with a new UN report stating that 821 million people, or one out of nine persons globally, is facing hunger. Titled ‘State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019’, the report was launched by five UN agencies at a special event Monday, in New York. Of the world’s […]

SRI LANKA: මරණ දඩුවම අහෝසි කිිරීම පිළිබඳ නීති කෙටුම්පත

 බැසිල් ප‍්‍රනාන්දු. මරණීය දණ්ඩනය අහෝසි කිරීම පිළිබඳව නීති කෙටුම්පතක් ගැසට් කරන බවට ඇති අනාවරණය සතුටට කරුණකි. එය ලෝකයේ බොහෝ රටවල් අශිෂ්ඨ යැයි පිළිගන්නා ක‍්‍රමවේදයක් ලංකාව තුළද පිළිගැනෙන බවට ප‍්‍රකාශයකි. ඒ නිසා මෙය ලංකාවේ නීති ක‍්‍රමය සම්බන්ධයෙන් තීරණාත්මක වෙනසක් ඇති කළ හැකි අවස්ථාවකි. එහෙත් මෙම අවස්ථාවේදී සලකා බලා පිළියම් යෙදිය යුතු තවත් බරපතල ප‍්‍රශ්නයක් ඇත. එනම් […]

THAILAND: Military authorities can still arbitrarily detain civilians

A Statement from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission   Analysis of the Head of the NCPO Order no. 9/2562 that repealed some Announcements/Orders that are no longer necessary Click here to read the Original Statement On 9 July 2019, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha in his capacity as the Head of […]

CAMBODIA: Three years and still no effective investigation into Dr. Kem Ley’s killing

A Joint Statement from The Cambodian Center for Human Rights forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission 9 July 2019 (Bangkok, Thailand) — Today, on the third anniversary of the killing of prominent political commentator and human rights defender Kem Ley, the 24 undersigned organizations renew calls on the Cambodian government to establish an independent and impartial […]

SRI LANKA: ICCPR පනත සංශෝදනය කලයුතුය

(ICCPR පනත ගැන මන:කල්පිත සාකච්ඡාවක්…) රටවැසියෙක්:- මොකක්ද ඔය ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ…? ICCPR කතෘවරයෙක්:- ICCPR කියලා කියන්නේ ජාත්යඍන්තර සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් කියන ප්රPඥප්තියටයි. එම ප්රලඥප්තිය ඇති වුනේ මෙහෙමයි. 1948 දී මානව හිමිකම් පිළිබඳ විශ්ව ප්රකකාශනය ප්රකකාශයට පත් කෙරුනා. ඒ මගින් සෑම මිනිසෙකුට හා ගැහැණියකටම සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම් වගේම ආර්ථික සමාජීය සංස්කෘතික අයිතිවාසිකම් රැසක් ජාත්යමන්තර වශයෙන් මුල් […]

BANGLADESH: Judiciary abdicates independence

A Written Submission to the 41st Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has been consistently expressing its serious concerns over the dysfunctional justice institutions of Bangladesh – an incumbent Member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The victims’ right […]

ASIA: The Sovereignty of the People, Freedom of Expression and Contempt of Court

Statement | Asia | 13-06-2019

The sovereignty of the people is best expressed by the exercise of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Both of these freedoms are essential to common people living with a sense of dignity. These freedoms are also essential in order to create a sense of community among all the peoples who live within the […]

INDONESIA: A Review of the Indonesian Government’s Obligation under International Human Rights Instruments in Regard to the Truth, Remedy and Justice of Gross Violations of Human Rights

Paper | Indonesia | 30-05-2019

Written by Chrisbiantoro1 Introduction As a member of the United Nations (UN)2, Indonesia has ratified at least six major international human rights treaties3. Currently, Indonesia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council [HRC]4, therefore, it has obligations to increase the standard of human rights protection in its territory under the resolution of the […]

SRI LANKA: Extinct legal system caused security crisis resulting in Easter Sunday carnage

According to Sri Lankan Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake, the present security crisis facing the country was a result of the failures of many government institutions. In a television interview available on YouTube, he cited foreign exchange control failures to monitor money coming into the country, Customs Department failures, and intelligence coordination failures. Aside from these […]

SRI LANKA: Debate on restoring security is diverted to suit political ends

Late Mr. Tarzie Vittachithe, winner of many prestigious awards for journalism, had a favourite saying that, “Everything is about something else”. In a similar manner, the parliamentary discussion on two no-confidence motions is also clearly about other issues, rather than the brutal carnage that took place on Easter Sunday and the causes thereof. The government […]