Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • International Bar Association deeply concerned at targeting of lawyers in Sri Lanka as ’Traitors in black coats’

    by sacw.net, 19 July 2009

    The International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) is alarmed by the recent publication of the article ‘Traitors in black coats flocked together?’ on the website of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order. The article implies that lawyers defending the Sunday Leader newspaper in a defamation and connected contempt of court case brought by the Ministry of Defence are ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘traitors of the nation’.

  • Militarization With Impunity: A Brief on Rape and Murder in Shopian, Kashmir

    by International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir, 19 July 2009

    brief on the events and investigative process in Shopian, Kashmir, connected to the brutalization and death of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan in end May 2009, in which the state security forces have been implicated.

  • The role of socialists in the civil war in Sri Lanka

    by Rohini Hensman, 19 July 2009

    Platypus
    July 1st, 2009
    The gruesome finale of Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war drew international attention and considerable concern for the plight of civilians trapped in the war zone. Many people for the first time became aware of a conflict which had already claimed more than 70,000 fatalities. But the publicity tended to obscure rather than clarify the causes of the war, measures that could have been taken earlier to prevent the bloodbath at its climax, and what can be done now to (…)

  • India: Statement by teachers, researchers and academics welcomes the Delhi High Court judgement reading down Section 377

    by sacw.net, 19 July 2009

    University teachers, researchers and academics from all over India issued a strong statement in support of the Delhi High Court judgement decriminalizing consensual sex among adults and challenging the legitimacy of “religious leaders” to speak for the whole of society.

    180 signatories from institutions and universities in Allahabad, Calicut, Peechi, Punalur, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Sonipat, Goa, Jammu, Nanded, Mumbai, Pune, Pondicherry, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Chennai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Shillong endorsed the statement.

  • Peace Activists Welcome the Joint Indo-Pak Statement

    by sacw.net, 18 July 2009

    Released on 17 July 2009
    We, the undersigned, welcome the Joint Statement of Indian Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani signed at the Sharm-e-Sheih, Egypt on the sidelines of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit. The Joint Statement has put the Mumbai attack and terrorism up front unlike the impression sought to be created by hawkish elements in both the countries. The statement by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Gilani committing “that (…)

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