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Press Release May 30, 2006 President Mahinda Rajapakse has recently filled the vacancies in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal without following the constitutional provisions and bypassing the Cons...

Yesterday the AHRC announced a week of mourning following the executive president’s appointment of two judges and the president of the Appeals Court and a judge to the Supreme Court contravening...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the refusal of the Dodangoda police to register a complaint. On 24 May 2006, L Sarath Vijitha was assaulted by...

With the direct appointment of two Court of Appeal judges, the president of the Court of Appeal and one Supreme Court judge by Sri Lanka’s executive president, the judiciary has been dealt an at...

The rule of law in Sri Lanka which is in abysmal decay, suffered a further major set back when the President of Sri Lanka acted as if he is more supreme than the Constitution, by making three appointm...

Colombo, 23 May 2006 The South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) has noted that four countries from the region have been elected to the newly formed United Nations Human Rights Council. SAHR is concerned...

The AHRC is issuing this statement to coincide with a meeting organised by a group of citizens in Sri Lanka on the theme ‘Saving Sri Lanka from the brink of disaster’, to be held on May 27...

The media reported today that the Executive President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, has used his presidential power to ban the Da Vinci Code blockbuster film from public screening. The Daily News, ...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has come to learn of an appalling case of arbitrary use of police authority against a man whom they accused to have interfered and disturbed poli...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to bring to your attention the killing of a police inspector and his wife following his alleged attempt to inquire into drug related crime...

Dear friends, In August 2004 the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wrote detailing the torture of two boys by officers from the Ambalangoda police. The officers initially arrested the boys for alle...

Dear friends, We are reproducing the statement of an independent group who is calling for a discussion on “Saving Sri Lanka from the brink of disaster”. In the paper this group sets the pr...

In what amounts to a scandal concerning the manner in which President Mahinda Rajapaske has made appointments to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, one of the nominees and well known human righ...

Dear friends, On 7 April 2006, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported how Kithsiri Dharawardena was brutally assaulted by about 100 inmates and trainees of the police training college in Ke...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) expresses its concern of the failure of law enforcement officials to respond to complaints of domestic violence leading to wider measures of impu...

Sri Lankan newspapers have reported the drafting of a new law severely curtailing civil liberties and media freedoms. Conscription is one of the provisions of the draft law. Other provisions are expec...

Background: Sri Lanka’s past history of insulating its public service from political interference has not been admirable.?Framers of both the First Republican Constitution, (The 1972 Constitutio...

Under the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the executive president has not been given the power to select members of any of the commissions established or supervised by the 17th Amendment. The power of sele...

[RE: UA-75-2005: SRI LANKA: A woman’s baby is stillborn due to police torture; UP-75-2005: SRI LANKA: Police torturers who caused a woman’s loss of her unborn child must be brought to justice] ...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt that the principal of St Mary’s School, Hambanthota has manipulated his authority to arbitrarily suspend pupils from school. Five sch...