The right to speak loudly

We desperately need cross-cultural discussions on the rule of law and human rights. Much of the discourse is dominated by the West, as is the language of justice, which is associated with several centuries of struggle there. As a result, many of the problems faced by people in Asia are beyond the comprehension of those who are used to this discourse. Persons from the western tradition struggle to understand how a police officer may so readily resort to torture as his means for routine criminal investigation, or how he may spend more time making a living on the side than dealing with his official duties. They cannot easily accept that a prosecutor may belong to a powerless agency, or that a complete buffoon may sit as Chief Justice and make a mockery of the very institution he represents. An enlightened discourse on the rule of law and human rights will develop only when we break down the language barriers and understand the actual daily experiences of people throughout Asia. (from the Introduction)

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Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter One – The right to speak loudly
• Chapter Two – Social change and underlying problems relating to the rule of law
• Chapter Three – Dealing with torture in Asia
• Chapter Four – Impunity as a cause of poverty
• Chapter Fve – The 1997 transition and the place of Hong Kong in the Asian debate on the rule of law
• Chapter Six – Something to learn from the people of Hong Kong
• Chapter Seven – Demonstration of an aspiration
• Chapter Eight – Some features of the new authoritarianism
• Chapter Nine – Disappearances of persons and the disappearance of a system
• Chapter Ten – Trying to understand the police crisis in Sri Lanka
• Chapter Eleven – “Good roads or a law-abiding society?”
• Chapter Twelve – Forensic science, mortuaries and the rights of victims of crime
• Chapter Thirteen – Who is responsible for the increase in crime?
• Chapter Fourteen – National Police Commission a welcome move
• Chapter Fifteen – An Asian framework for governance
• Chapter Sixteen – Democracy and the law of contempt
• Chapter Seventeen – “Is the judiciary a holy cow?”
• Appendix One : Procedural implementation of Article 155G(2) of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka
• Appendix Two – Concluding observations of the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the Fifth Periodic Report of Sri Lanka
• Appendix Three – Open letter to the international community: Let us rise to article 2 of the ICCPR
• Appendix Four – A law to encourage and reward torture: A comment on the Bill on Organized Crime