Basil Fernando, a 2014 Right Livelihood Laureate and one of Asia’s foremost human rights defenders, passed away on September 30 at the age of 81. Over more than four decades, Fernando connected ordinary citizens fighting for their rights at the grassroots with the institutions pushing for structural reform at the policy level.
“Basil Fernando gave a voice to people whom justice systems across Asia had failed and forgotten. He insisted that human rights must be measured by real change in police stations, courts and prisons, not by promises. His courage, and the movement he built, will continue to protect people across the region for years to come,” said Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director at Right Livelihood.
Born in Wattala, Sri Lanka, in 1944, Fernando trained in law at the University of Ceylon and became a criminal lawyer in 1980. His resistance to the politicisation and corruption of Sri Lanka’s justice system put his name on a death list in 1989, forcing him into exile in Hong Kong. After working with Vietnamese refugees and with the UN in Cambodia, he became Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in 1994, when he was its only full-time employee.
Under his leadership, AHRC built one of the region’s most extensive urgent appeals systems, responding to hundreds of cases each year and securing the release of many people. It documented 1,500 cases of police torture in Sri Lanka, led the consultations that produced the people’s Asian Human Rights Charter in 1998, and trained countless lawyers and activists, including in China, through its Human Rights School. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2014 “for his tireless and outstanding work to support and document the implementation of human rights in Asia.”
Fernando was also a poet and writer in Sinhala and English. His conviction that people demand their rights be respected “not by words but by genuine improvement of the public institutions” remains at the heart of his legacy.
