Human Rights Challenges in Asia-Pacific: Does Sri Lanka Show a Way Out?
by Laksiri Fernando
( July 28, 2015, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) Let me begin by briefly overviewing the general status of Asia-Pacific on key issues of human rights. This region with 45 countries and territories is home to over 4.3 billion people, and is most complex in terms of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. Therefore, any attempt to generalize is not an easy task. Depending on their priorities or the way they perceive human rights, different international human rights organizations appear to differ on their assessments. Among these organizations are Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Freedom House. Let me first quote what the Freedom House has to say about the human rights situation for the past five years.
