Books

[Foreword] This study is a result of the cooperation between the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims (RCT). The study was done in January 2008 and the data was processed during April and May 2008 at the AHRC office in Hong Kong. The idea and outline of […]

An ethnographic research by Fr. Roberto P. Reyes Interviews of family members of the Abadilla 5 relating their travails in their quest for justice and how the incarceration of their loved ones has ultimately derailed their lives. This book of interviews with the family members of the Philippines’ Abadilla 5 details their travails in...

This study is made with the purpose of generating knowledge on all issues relating to the prevention of torture in Sri Lanka. In such studies on human rights, it is necessary to pay attention to some matters regarding the use of information as pointed out by Harry G. Frankfurt in two small books, ‘On Bullshit’ […]

A group of jurists, legal academics and lawyers from around Asia on 17 to 21 November 2008 gathered in Hong Kong for the Fourth Asian Human Rights Consultation on the Asian Charter of Rule of Law, on the theme of prosecution systems in Asia. A well-functioning judicial system is one of the cornerstones for upholding […]

Using Testimony as a Brief Therapy Intervention in Psychosocial Community Work for Survivors of Torture and Organised Violence A Manual for Community Workers and Human Rights Activitists in Sri Lanka [Foreword] This manual introduces the testimonial therapy method which enables survivors of torture to express their feelings and their expe...

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you about its new publication ‘Recovering the authority of public institutions’. The book consists of two parts. In the first there is a study on the drift of Sri Lanka from a rule of law system to a non-rule of law system. It studies the loss of […]

Prison Journal of Fr. Roberto P. Reyes On November 29, 2007, after a hearing at the Regional Trial Court of Makati, several military officers being tried for the Oakwood alleged coup d’etat led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, walked out of City Hall together with their witness BGen. Danilo Lim and several others. The march [&hellip...

The state should not treat courts as a funny place. The powerful sectors of society should also not treat the courts as a funny place. The bureaucracy should also not act in that manner. Particularly the law enforcement agencies should not treat courts as funny place. Similarly, the citizens also owe an obligation to treat […]

Death threats to lawyers and the public (Sri Lanka) – a pamphlet relating to a letter of threats sent to lawyers by a group calling itself Mahason Balakaya: the battalion of the Ghost of death [Introduction] Lawyers are a very much threatened species in Sri Lanka. The period following the repression of the rebellion of […]

This book provides documents relating to the judgement in this case. A brief critique of the judgement is given below. The Negombo High Court of Sri Lanka last week acquitted a sub-inspector of police accused of torturing a prisoner, a crime punishable by seven years’ imprisonment. The High Court judge who tried this case blatantly ...