AHRC News

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Sri Lanka: Impeachment against a Judicial Officer should be beyond Political Bargaining

The impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka is now before the Parliament with the signatures of a hundred members of Parliament in support.  Meanwhile a proposal by President Chand...

Close contact with victims makes human rights work meaningful and effective

Thirty-eight persons from ten Asian countries gathered together at Wattala, Sri Lanka, from November 14 to 24, 2003, for the annual Human Rights School Session jointly organised by the Religious Group...

Slighting the democratic process to undermine the rule of law in Sri Lanka

By suspending parliament and calling the police and military onto the streets this November 4, the President of Sri Lanka has undermined ongoing efforts to restore the rule of law to the country by wa...

Judicial accountability and the cases of Irene Fernandez (Malaysia) and Michael Anthony Fernando (Sri Lanka)

The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato’ Param Cumaraswamy, expressed serious concerns over judicial integrity in Asia during a speech delivered i...

SRI LANKA: Asian Human Rights Commission presents inaugural Human Rights Defenders Award to Michael Anthony Fernando

This 5 October 2003, the Board of Directors of the Asian Human Rights Commission decided to present its inaugural Human Rights Defenders Award to Mr Michael Anthony Fernando, in recognition of his str...

Human Rights Defender punished

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) draws the attention of the international community, particularly human rights and civil society organisations, to an act of grave injustice done by the Malaysi...

Changing the talk on World Food Day

That deep poverty affects the majority of people in the world is a widely accepted fact. Poverty is essentially about food. It is about hunger and thirst. If the world admits the existence of large-sc...

INDONESIA: Time for a new Indonesian history

Thirty-eight years since the events that propelled General Suharto to power, and five years since his downfall, Indonesians are still subjected to a version of history conceived and propagated by the ...

UN initiative on the rule of law adds new impetus to the struggle for human rights

The international community took an important step this September 24, when the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, urged the Security Council to take up rule of law issues. There is n...

SRI LANKA: Senior judg premature resignation calls for a thorough review of Sri Lanka judiciary

Senior judge’s premature resignation calls for a thorough review of Sri Lanka’s judiciary The leading prelates of Sri Lanka have made strong pleas for Justice Mark Fernando to stay in his post despi...

SRI LANKA: Minister’s attack on Sri Lankan National Police Commission speaks to its progress

That the Sri Lankan Fisheries Minister, Mahinda Wijesekara, has launched an attack on the National Police Commission (NPC) indicates that the body is already making itself felt. Reacting to investigat...

SRI LANKA: Senior Judge’s Resignation a Warning of Deteriorating Judicial Independence and Rule Of Law in Sri Lanka

The news that Justice Mark Fernando has decided to resign from the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka two and a half years early is of grave concern. Observers believe that Justice Fernando has been sidelined...

IRAQ: Tragic bombing in Iraq reminds us of why we need the UN

The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad this August 19 is a profound tragedy for the entire world community. Its immediate victims included Iraqi civilians and United Nations staff, ...

BURMA: Ad Hoc Commission into Burma massacre adds to pressure on Security Council

Two months after the brutal attack on the National League for Democracy convoy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo at Depayin, northern Burma, both leaders remain under detention, while arrests a...

INDIA: Land for India’s landless returning to the hands of landlords

On July 21 about one hundred police and security personnel demolished houses and destroyed crops belonging to indigenous Adivasi people in Maharashtra, India. They burnt down hundreds of huts and more...

SRI LANKA: Custodial Death of Sunil Hemachandra

Sunil Hemechanra was arrested on the night of 23 July by the Morahahena police and his family alleged that when they visited him the next morning he was unconscious and bleeding from the nose. After s...

SRI LANKA: Open Letter to Foreign Correspondents in Sri Lanka

We bring to your attention the case of Sunil Hemachandra, a 28-year-old rubber taper who recently won a lottery but who thereafter died in the General Hospital in Colombo on July 26 from injuries rece...

Republic of Korea: New guidelines on consecutive solitary confinement welcomed; but much more need to be done

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea (ROK),  Ms. Kang, Kum-sil, has given a guideline to the prison officers to prohibit consecut...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong SAR Administration Should Respond Now and Scrap Article 23 Legislation

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) renews its earlier demand to the administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to drop it...

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners must end immediately

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners  must end immediately Prisoner kept in handcuffs and in a straitjacket for 466 days  in violation of ROK’s international obligatio...