by Thambu Kanagasabai, Toronto, December 10, 2016 Sri Lanka became a member of the United Nations in 1955, bound with obligations to observe the provisions of the United Nations and other United Nations Conventions. Some of the most important Conventions ratified by Sri Lanka are as follows:- International Convention on the Elimination of all forms… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
MRG: Continued Violations Against Religious Minorities in Sri Lanka
by Minority Rights Goup, London, December 8, 2016 mrg_rep_srilan_dec16 Executive summary Though Sri Lanka’s three-decade long armed conflict came to an end in 2009, hopes for a peaceful transition have been marred by ongoing violence against the country’s minorities. Post-war triumphalism and resurgent ethnonationalism, including the formation of Buddhist nationalist groups, has contributed to an… Read more »
BTF: Proliferating Buddhist Structures in Tamil Homeland
by British Tamil Forum facebook page, London, October 29, 2016 BTF releases book titled, ‘Proliferating Buddhist Structures in Tamil Homeland – Sowing the Seeds of Disharmony’
Remembering and Rebuilding
by Tamil Guardian, London, November 27, 2016 Today, Tamils across the globe will collectively light candles, lay flowers and bow heads in memory of those who gave their lives resisting state oppression. Marking the legacy of these heroes has become an integral moment of solidarity for the entire nation. In the Tamil homeland, commemorations have… Read more »
Torture Is ‘Common Practice’ in Sri Lanka
by Nick Cummings-Bruce, ‘The New York Times,’ December 7, 2016 GENEVA — President Maithripala Sirisena swept to a surprising election victory about two years ago promising political changes and human rights protections in Sri Lanka. On Wednesday, a United Nations committee questioned the government’s commitment to fulfilling those promises, pointing to the continued use of… Read more »
UN Committee Against Torture Concluding Observations on Sri Lanka
int_cat_coc_lka_25983_e Key Points: – The UN Committee Against Torture is calling for an independent mechanism to investigate allegations of torture and sexual violence in the “rehabilitation” programme for 12,000+ suspected former cadres. (paragraph 26). – The Committee says allegations of unlawful detention, torture and sexual violence by security forces in Sri Lanka should be investigated… Read more »
Adayaalam: Student Killings, Aava Gang and Securitisation of Jaffna
by Adayaalam, Jaffna Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research releases its first Situation Brief: Student Killings, Aava Gang and Securitisation of Jaffna You can read the full brief here or acpr-2016_november_situation_brief_no_1 Follow Adayaalam’s work on their facebook page and on twitter.
Five Takeaways from the UN Torture Review
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, November 18, 2016 Five takeaways from the UN Committee Against Torture review of Sri Lanka This week saw the conclusion of the UN Committee Against Torture’s review of Sri Lanka, a regular process of expert-based scrutiny designed to monitor implementation of the Convention Against Torture. The… Read more »
Committee Against Torture Considers Report of Sri Lanka
by UN Committee Against Torture via UN Information Service, Geneva, November 16, 2016 The review may also be viewed at http://webtv.un.org/meetings- events/human-rights-treaty- bodies/committee-against- torture/59th-session/ Committee against Torture CAT/16/27 16 November 2016 COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE CONSIDERS REPORT OF SRI LANKA … Read more »
Sri Lanka Confirms Existence of Illegal Torture Cells
by Kasun Yapa Karunaratne, ‘Journalists for a Democratic Sri Lanka,’ Europe, November 1, 2016 In a damning report to the UN, Sri Lanka’s top human rights body has confirmed that the country’s police force maintain secret detention centers as exposed by local and international rights activists. The much feared Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) runs these… Read more »
No Justice without Foreign Input – Wigneswaran
by Ceylon News, Colombo, November 7, 2016 Pointing out that the Sri Lankan government has not taken any step to include foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators in the war crimes accountability mechanism as agreed in the UN, the Northern Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran has told a visiting UK Minister on Monday that there would no… Read more »
Atrocities Prevention Experts Report Released
A major task was to identify ways to improve the ability of U.S., foreign, and international courts to prosecute atrocity crimes. To this end, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and State were tasked with developing proposals that would strengthen the U.S. Government’s ability to prosecute perpetrators of atrocities found in the United States, and permit… Read more »
HRW: Police Shooting of Two Students More of the Same
by Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch, New York, November 6, 2016 Two students from northern Sri Lanka’s Jaffna University were shot by police near a checkpoint in the early hours of October 20, 2016. Both died from their wounds. Initially, police denied the shooting, saying that Sundiraja Sulakshan and Nadarasa Gajan died in an accident…. Read more »
Erasing the Past: Memorialization
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, November 2, 2016 Erasing the Past: New Report Documents Repression of Memorialization in North-East Sri Lanka PEARL’s latest report examines government obstruction of memorialization among Tamils in the North-East (Washington, DC; November 1, 2016) PEARL’s new report, “Erasing the Past: Repression of Memorialization in North-East Sri Lanka,” documents… Read more »
My Rights are an Entitlement, not a Favour
by Namini Wijedasa on her blog, October 29, 2016 You know what, I’m not comfortable with the yardstick used by some to measure the performance of this government. I’m not happy with being asked to appreciate and be grateful for regaining some of my most basic rights, such as the freedom to express myself freely…. Read more »
Northern Muslim Expulsion & Tamil Leadership
By Shahul Hasbullah, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ November 2, 2016 Prof. Shahul Hasbullah Last Sunday, October 30, 2016, a commemoration event was organised in Colombo by the newly formed group “North Muslim Civil Society” on the theme of “A necessary Solution for Northern Muslims”. I was struck by the fact that the chief guest and guest of… Read more »
Sri Lanka Confirms Existence of Illegal Torture Cells
by Kasun Yapa Karunaratne, Journalists for a Democratic Society, Europe, November 1, 2016 In a damning report to the UN, Sri Lanka’s top human rights body has confirmed that the country’s police force maintain secret detention centers as exposed by local and international rights activists. The much feared Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) runs these illegal… Read more »
Why Just Counting the Dead in Syria Won’t Bring Them Justice
A full tally of the war’s horrific violence requires estimates, models, and sophisticated pattern analysis to understand who’s responsible and why. by Patrick Ball, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 19, 2016 Nearly 18,000 people died in Syrian government prisons between March 2011 and December 2015. My colleagues and I at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group(HRDAG)… Read more »
Jaffna Press Club: Remembering Mylvaganam Nimalarajan
October 19, 2016 Today, 16 years have passed since our colleague Mylvaganam Nimalarajan was assassinated. Along with the lack of justice for hundreds of thousands of Tamil people massacred in the Tamil homeland in the island of Sri Lanka, there has similarly been no justice for journalists and media workers, including Nimalarajan. The culture of… Read more »
GTF welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur’s statement
Issued for immediate release PRESS STATEMENT 22 October 2016, London Global Tamil Forum welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur’s statement on minority rights and calling on Sri Lanka to act decisively to not to lose the momentous opportunity to bring lasting peace and reconciliation among all communities The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) welcomes the end-of-mission… Read more »