Urgent Appeals
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SRI LANKA: A 75-year-old victim of rape and her family seek justice
Urgent Appeal Case — Nov 22, 2013
SRI LANKA: An innocent businessman is tortured by Colombo Narcotics Unit officers in an attempt to extort money from him
Urgent Appeal Case — Nov 21, 2013
SRI LANKA: A security officer is falsely accused of theft and tortured to confess by the Headquarters Inspector of Teldiniya
Urgent Appeal Case — Oct 10, 2013
SRI LANKA: The arrest, detention and torture of an innocent man by officers of the Vavuniya and Colombo TID
Urgent Appeal Case — Oct 09, 2013
SRI LANKA: An innocent man is arrested by the TID and tortured in custody at the Bogambara Remand Prison
Urgent Appeal Case — Oct 08, 2013
SRI LANKA: Two brothers were arrested, tortured and detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division and remain in remand as they cannot pay the amount demanded in bribes by the TID officers.
Urgent Appeal Case — Aug 20, 2013
SRI LANKA: A man suffering from mental disorder is severely tortured by officers from the Inginiyagala Police Station
Urgent Appeal Case — Aug 16, 2013
SRI LANKA: A man is detained by the TID on fabricated charges to prevent him from revealing the torture he endured
Urgent Appeal Case — Jul 05, 2013
SRI LANKA: Police arbitrarily detained three children overnight and a Christian priest for 11 days for challenging the detention of children
Urgent Appeal Case — Jun 26, 2013
SRI LANKA: A young girl was denied justice by the Peradeniya Police
Urgent Appeal Case — Jun 25, 2013
SRI LANKA: Officers of the Kalutara South Police Station beat a man's testicles with a wooden mallet
Urgent Appeal Case — Jun 19, 2013
SRI LANKA: A reputed Interior Decorator is severely tortured by officers of Matugama Police at the instigation of a lawyer and her husband
Urgent Appeal Case — Jun 18, 2013
SRI LANKA: Officers of the Karandeniya police torture and threaten to sodomize a businessman, insulting him about his 'low' caste origin
Urgent Appeal Case — Jun 18, 2013
SRI LANKA: Three officers of the Department of Excise severely tortured and laid fabricated charges on an innocent man
Urgent Appeal Case — May 24, 2013
SRI LANKA: A man was arrested on suspicion of taking part in a bombing and sentenced to death after a sham trial
Urgent Appeal Case — May 23, 2013
SRI LANKA: Negambo police continuously harass a victim after torture and inhuman treatment
Urgent Appeal Case — May 22, 2013
SRI LANKA: An innocent man died after being illegally arrested and tortured by the Polpithigama Police
Urgent Appeal Case — Apr 02, 2013
SRI LANKA: A mother of two was publicly tortured by the Chairman of the Co-op Lanka, Kotapola
Urgent Appeal Case — Mar 21, 2013
SRI LANKA: An innocent man has been detained for two months by the TID without being produced in court
Urgent Appeal Case — Mar 07, 2013
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- Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice
- A need for dialogueMany people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries. Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings. Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like.Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere. People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor.Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person. And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances. Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly. In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate. Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates. For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.Changing societyIn the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors. Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money. Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost. In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.Practical actionThe AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action. If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government. However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies. The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.
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