Category: Asia

Two women from a farming village, about 100 kilometres from Colombo, were raped within one year by a judge presiding over cases which involved their husbands as accused parties. Seeking justice, the women approached the National Judicial Services Commission, the BAR Association, and the President of the country. The authorities, instead of helping the victims, converge to silence them. An editor of a leading alternative newspaper publishes the story of one of the women. He continues to follow up the incident and publishes a series of articles exposing the judge’s misdeed. Despite repeated public exposure and complaints, the Magistrate is neither charged for the crime nor investigated. The film portrays […]

Since the promulgation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, out of 48 Asian states, 40 states have ratified/acceded to the CAT, whereas 8 states, including countries like India, have refused to ratify the convention. Despite large number of states having ratified the CAT, the practice of torture continues in Asia. In fact, there is an increase in the number of cases reported from the region, particularly within the states where the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and its partners work.

Human rights defenders across the world today have to overcome restrictive and challenging circumstances to undertake their mandate. These challenges could be broadly classified into three categories. They are: (i) restrictions imposed through statutes or regulatory processes; (ii) false accusations and fabricated cases registered by the state against HRDs and their organisations; and (iii) threats presented against HRDs by non-state actors, including fundamentalist religious forces.