AHRC News

The issues of the non appointment of the Constitutional Council (CC) members and the resultant collapse of all the relevant independent commissions remain unresolved despite unprecedented public prote...

Demonstrations totalling hundreds of thousands of Nepalese citizens have continued unabated since April 6th, 2006, defying curfews and shoot-to-kill orders given to the security forces. The movement t...

On April 12 an unusual story appeared in Burma’s state-run daily newspapers. It said that a man identified as Wai Phyo Naung killed himself in a police lock up in Mandalay after being arrested f...

The human rights, humanitarian and political crisis in Nepal has hit a new low and demands an immediate solution. On the eve of the third week of widespread, legitimate popular protests against the di...

The April 15 decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to commute to life imprisonment the sentences of all prisoners in the Philippines facing death is an important and valuable recognition of th...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) notes with grief the death of Professor T. V. Eachara Varier who passed away on 13 April 2006. Professor Varier has left the legacy of a consistent fight of a ...

Sri Lanka has presented its candidature for membership within the United Nations Human Rights Council. The 47-member Council replaces the now defunct UN Commission on Human Rights, which was abandoned...

The Sri Lankan president’s direct appointment of commissioners to the National Police Commission and Public Service Commission is a serious setback to the little constitutionalism remaining in t...

In its meeting with NGOs on April 6, 2006 to discuss the draft law on demonstrations, Cambodia’s ministry of interior announced a ban on any demonstration to protest against the prime minister. ...

In blatant violation of Sri Lanka’s constitution, President Mahinda Rajapakse took it upon himself to appoint members to the National Police Commission and the Public Service Commission. These a...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 10, 2006 AP-002-2006 A Paper by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) SRI LANKA: A commentary on the recent case of the prime minister’s fundamental rights violat...

We are bringing to your notice a news item that has appeared in several papers recently regarding a girl of 18 years who is said to be a victim of the tsunami tragedy and who, for the lack of any suit...

On March 28 Prime Minister Hun Sen repeated an earlier commitment to decriminalize defamation in Cambodia. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to doubt his promise. In 2005 the prime minister used C...

There is as of today, April 7, a de facto state of emergency in Nepal. Thousands of people have taken to the streets protesting against the government headed by King Gyanendra. Parts of the country ha...

On March 29 and 30 Prime Minister Hun Sen mounted successive attacks on the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia, Professor Yash Ghai. The special representa...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been following the developments regarding the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) after its Commissioners’ terms of office ended on April 3, 2...

A report in today’s Daily Mirror newspaper of April 3 states that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa “is exploring the possibility of setting up independent commissions under the 17th Amend...

Speaking at the induction of the President Elect of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka during its 32nd Annual Convocation, the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka warned that the judiciary could become a laughin...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 31, 2006 AS-057-2006 A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission PHILIPPINES: Law needed to stop torture and systemic negligence in the Philippines The brutal police t...

At the end of his second mission as the Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights in Cambodia (March 19-28, 2006), Professor Yash Ghai pointed to the stark fear present throughou...