by Athula Vithanage, ‘Journalists for a Democratic Society, Europe, March 16, 2017 An international rights watchdog has called upon the Sri Lankan government to investigate five top generals including its army commander in the aftermath of the war for allegedly running an army camp where “extremely brutal torture was routine”. In a damning report released… Read more »
Yearly Archives: 2017
OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka
Advance edited version February 10, 2017 Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka 10 Feb 2017 http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/34/20 Summary The present report assesses the progress made in the implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human… Read more »
Oral Statements at UNHRC
Videos are archived at: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events March 14, 2017 Item 4 – GD Human Rights Situations Requiring the Council’s Attention Mr. President, Pasumai Thaayagam remains deeply concerned by the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Operative paragraph 6 of Resolution 30/1 embodied a significant acknowledgment by this Council: accountability proceedings involving independent, international experts are imperative in… Read more »
Failing the Victims
An Expert Assessment of the Sri Lankan Government’s Transitional Justice Effort https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFwZAcItEfE&feature=youtu.be [discussion starts at ~4 minutes]
US State Dept. Human Rights Report 2016
Sri Lanka EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a freely elected government. In January 2015, voters elected President Maithripala Sirisena to a five-year term. The Parliament shares power with the president. August 2015 parliamentary elections resulted in a coalition government between the two major political parties. Both elections were free and… Read more »
Saiva Temples in the Jaffna Region
During my last visit to Jaffna in March 2004, I had the good fortune to meet Prof. Arunasalam Sanmugadas and his wife Manonmani Sanmugadas. When both of them were living in Tokyo, 30 years ago (circa late 1980s, while carrying out their collaborative research with Prof. Susumu Ohno, on the linguistic and cultural links between… Read more »
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Report of the Special-Rapporteur on minority issues on her mission to Sri Lanka Feb 2017 Contents I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 II. Minority rights: legal, political and institutional framework………………………………………………… 4 III. Overall challenges for minorities …………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 A. Governance and political participation ……………………………………………………………………… 6 B. Linguistic rights …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6… Read more »
China and Sri Lanka: Between a Dream and a Nightmare
Colombo is realizing the unintended strategic consequences of closer ties with Beijing by Jeff Smith, ‘The Diplomat,’ Tokyo, November 18, 2016 My previous article for The Diplomat examined Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Beijing and the security and economic implications of the deals he sealed with China to construct ports and artificial islands in the… Read more »
Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law
The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka www.cambridge.org/9781107152236 AUTHOR: Benjamin Schonthal, University of Otago, New Zealand DATE PUBLISHED: November 2016 ISBN: 9781107152236 LENGTH: 320 pages Read the introduction at https://www.academia.edu/30783214/_Introduction_Buddhism_Politics_and_the_Limits_of_Law_ It is widely assumed that a well-designed and well-implemented constitution can help ensure religious harmony in modern states. Yet how correct is this assumption? Drawing on groundbreaking research from… Read more »
Theravada Traditions
Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka by John Clifford Holt, University of Hawai’i Press 408pp. March 2017 Cloth – Price: $68.00 ISBN: 978-0-8248-6780-5 Theravada Traditions offers a unique comparative approach to understanding Buddhism: it examines popular rituals of central importance in the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures of Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia…. Read more »
Shortfalls in the Implementation of Sri Lanka’s Official Languages Policy
by Amalini de Sayrah, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, February 20, 2017 The Official Language Act of 1956 replaced English as the official language of then-Ceylon with Sinhala, failing to give recognition to the Tamil language. It was only three decades later, in the 1987 13th Amendment to Article 18 of the Constitution, that both Sinhala and Tamil… Read more »
CRS: Background, Reform, Reconciliation, and Geopolitical Context
by US Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC, January 4, 2017 CRS Sri Lanka Background Reform Reconciliation and Geopolitical Context Jan 2017 Summary Sri Lanka is a nation of geopolitical importance despite its relatively small size. Strategically positioned near key maritime sea lanes that transit the Indian Ocean and link Asia with Europe and Africa, Sri… Read more »
UN Told of Sri Lanka Military Operating “Rape Camps”
by Kithsiri Wijesinghe, Journalists for a Democratic Society, Germany, February 20, 2017 “A senior officer came into the room and was asked to take his pick, like we were meat in a meat market. He looked around and chose me. He took me to another room and raped me” Shocking details of the Sri Lanka… Read more »
CPJ – Keppapulavu Report
by Commission for Justice & Peace of the Diocese of Jaffna, February 18, 2017 CJP Keppapulam & Puthukudiyruppu Report Includes detailed information on the population whose lands have been occupied.
A Look Through CIA Reports
‘Burn Jaffna to the ground’ by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, February 20, 2017 Declassified documents from the CIA show how despite regarding himself as “South Asia’s elder statesman and a political moderate” the Sri Lankan president “had twice ordered his forces to take Jaffna” as part of a massive military assault on the peninsula. A set… Read more »
Immediately Release Land of the People of Keppapilavu
Statement by Civil Society Feb 17 Civil Society Statement re Keppapilavu – Final We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write this statement to express solidarity with protestors of Keppapilavu and condemn the Government’s lack of appropriate and timely response or action towards releasing their land from military occupation. 1 For over two weeks, villagers from… Read more »
Members of President’s Commission on Asian Americans Resign
by Jesse J. Holland for AP in The Washington Post, February 16, 2017 WASHINGTON — Ten members of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have resigned to protest the Trump administration’s policies and positions on repealing the Affordable Care Act, building a wall between the United States and Mexico and punishing… Read more »
Going Back to an Alliance that Can Win Elections
The key to mobilizing the alliance that won the presidential election of January 2015 would be to find a suitable political accommodation that makes the new constitution acceptable to all parties and all communities. If the new constitution proposes changes that any ethnic or religious community is strongly opposed to, it will not get the… Read more »
UN Rights Envoy Calls for Inquiry into Abuses of Rohingya in Myanmar
Two questions loom large: Will one of the 47 member states in the human rights council put forward a resolution to form a commission of inquiry? And, if so, will Myanmar cooperate?… However, the military would be under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN-backed commission of inquiry. Refusal by the government and military to cooperate… Read more »
Sri Lanka & March 2017 UNHRC Session
Will Justice for Tamils be Delayed for Denial? by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM, February 11, 2017 The UNHRC’S session in March 2017 is going to be crucial for the Tamils concerning the following matters:- 1. Fate of its Resolution passed on October 01, 2015 sponsored and endorsed by USA & Sri Lanka. 2. Sri Lanka’s track… Read more »