Posts Categorized: Human Rights

HRW: Families of Sri Lanka’s Forcibly Disappeared Denied Justice

Campaign of Intimidation, Blocking Legal Remedies by Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch, New York, August 25, 2021 As the world prepares to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, justice is further away than ever in Sri Lanka. Despite calls for answers over many years, the government has prevented families of the… Read more »

Amnesty: Listening to the Demands of Families of the Disappeared in Sri Lanka

“Only Justice Can Heal Our Wounds” Amnesty International, London, May 7, 2017 Index Number: ASA 37/5853/2017 SRI LANKA DISAPPEARANCES In Sri Lanka, Enforced Disappearance has touched every community – spanning time, geography, ethnicity, religion, and class. There has been virtually no accountability for these grievous crimes. Despite daunting obstacles, family members of the disappeared have… Read more »

SRTJ: Accountability: Prosecuting and Punishing Gross Violations of Human Rights

and serious violations of international humanitarian law in the context of transitional justice processes Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli, Geneva, July 9, 2021 Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice J A_HRC_48_60_E Sept 2021 Summary The Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice,… Read more »

Indifference and Impunity Continue 15 years after Muttur Massacre

by Action Contre le Faim, France, August 4, 2021 Action Against Hunger honors the memory of humanitarian aid workers assassinated in Sri Lanka in 2006 and continues to demand justice for the murders of our staff. On August 4, 2006, 17 of our colleagues were executed in Muttur, Sri Lanka. These men and women –… Read more »

Reading the Southern Mothers’ Front with Malathi de Alwis

30 years later The report of the Commission of Inquiry for the Western, Southern and Sabargamuwa Provinces (CoI-WSS), the most detailed of all the reports, described the violence of 1988-1991 as a systemic and orchestrated phenomenon, in which those in political power and the law were deeply complicit. It is also unequivocal in concluding that… Read more »

AI: Authorities Falter on Accountability in ‘Navy 11’ Case

by Amnesty International, London, August 4, 2021 The Sri Lankan Attorney General’s Department today decided not to proceed with charges against  Wasantha Karannagoda, a former Navy commander, over his alleged role in the abduction of 11 Tamil youth in 2008 and 2009. The Sri Lankan Navy is alleged to have been behind the forcible disappearance of… Read more »

Racial Prejudice Rears Its Head in Singapore

Imperfect harmony The city state is less racially harmonious than its government likes to think by The Economist, London, July 31, 2021 DAVE PARKASH and his girlfriend were strolling down the street one evening in June when an irate man accosted them. Tan Boon Lee accused Mr Parkash of “preying” on his girlfriend, whom Mr Tan,… Read more »

L&ST: Understanding Rule of Law, Human Security & Prevention of Terrorism in Sri Lanka

by Ermiza Tegal, Law & Society Trust, Colombo, February 2021 Understanding_Rule_of_Law_Human_Security_and_Prevention_of_Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka_English 6. Conclusion This report aimed to respond to three main questions (1) what are the international legal standards in relation to arbitrary arrest and detention particularly in the context of countering terrorism? (2) what is Sri Lanka’s domestic legal framework in protecting the rights… Read more »

Atrocities Cast Shadow on Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Response

by J.S. Tissainayagam, Stanley Center for Peace & Security, Iowa, USA, May 17, 2021 Ranjini,* a housewife, lives in Kilinochchi, a town in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Earlier this year, the government began vaccinating the public against COVID-19. But this has made her fearful: she is not sure if she will be injected with… Read more »

TG: Echoes of the Past

by Tamil Guardian, London, July 23, 2021 This year marks 38 years since Black July: the anti-Tamil pogrom where thousands of Tamils were killed by brutal state-supported Sinhala mobs. It was a week of violence that saw Tamils murdered, tortured and displaced. It remains a premeditated and meticulously coordinated act of genocide. The remnants of… Read more »

Yet Another Incident in July 1983

by Basil Fernando, TamilNet, July 24, 2008 A poem, based on an eye-witness account of an event during 1983 pogrom captures the determination of a Tamil father at the time of his agonising death. The poem by Basil Fernando, a Sinhala lawyer, encapsulates the impelling spirit of the Tamil struggle of the post-pogrom years. Mr…. Read more »

The Myth of Security and the Prevention of Terrorism Act

False Promises by Ambika Satkunanathan, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 14, 2021 For decades human rights activists have highlighted the draconian nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which promises safety and security, yet in practice makes each citizen vulnerable to being arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured and even convicted of an offence the person did not… Read more »

‘Stateless’: Detention Camp Drama Floats Adrift

Despite agile performances, the Australian drama focuses on the wrong characters, giving its refugee stories short shrift Eelam Tamils have a small subplot in this series. Showing on Netflix — Editor by Maria Fontuora, Rolling Stone, USA, July 13, 2020 In 2004, an Australian citizen named Cornelia Rau was wrongly imprisoned in an immigrant detention… Read more »

Report of the Consultation Task Force, Nov. 2016

by Consultation Task Force, Sri Lanka, November 17, 2016 CTF-Final-Report-Volume-I-Nov-16 As the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms no longer has a website and our link to this report of the Consultation Task Force at Consultation Task Force Final Report – Ilankai Tamil Sangam no longer works, we are posting the PDF here. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A…. Read more »

UN Human Rights Council 47

Core Group statement on Sri Lanka by UK Mission to UN, Geneva, Switzerland, June 22, 2021 The Human Rights Council takes place in Geneva. This statement is on behalf of Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Malawi, Montenegro and the UK, the Core Group on Sri Lanka. Council resolution 46/1 called upon the Sri Lankan Government to… Read more »

Lessons from the Murugappan Family

Does community support matter?  by Niru Perera & Charishma Ratnam, Overland, Australia, June 21, 2021 Why is it that most politicians don’t say their names? They are referred to as ‘The Sri Lankan family’ or the ‘Tamil asylum seekers’. They are the Murugappans. The parents, Priya and Nades, are both asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka and… Read more »

Amnesty: Sri Lanka Struggles to Respond Effectively to COVID-19 Third Wave

by Amnesty International, London, June 10, 2021 Index number ASA 37/4262/2021 Amnesty Sri Lanka Struggles to Respond to Covid 3rd Wave ASA3742622021ENGLISH [pdf] As several countries with access to vaccines lift restrictions and seem to be coming out of the pandemic, Covid-19 continues to pose significant challenges in South Asia and beyond, and Sri Lanka… Read more »