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 »
Posts Categorized: Government
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 »
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 »
Putting the Wolf to Guard the Sheep
Sri Lanka’s Witness Protection Authority by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, February 13, 2017 ITJP Sri-Lanka-Witness-Protection-Report Executive Summary The new body set up in Sri Lanka to protect witnesses and victims of crimes, the “National Authority” includes three appointments made by the Government of President Maithripala Sirisena that give rise to grave concerns… Read more »
The Proposed Constitution
… Will It Accomodate the Just Demands of the Tamils or Abandon Them to Choose Their Own Destiny? By: Thambu Kanagasabai, January 2, 2016 Sri Lanka, the tear shaped island, according to researchers, came into existence about 7000 years ago when the island separated from the Indian sub continent while the narrow strip of shallow… Read more »
Sovereignty can be Bought and Sold like a Commodity
by Stephen Presser, Aeon.co, January 2, 2017 Though it is not often thought of as a commodity, sovereignty resembles one in that it can be bought and sold. Indeed, the purchase of sovereignty was a primary vehicle of American expansion. In a series of treaties that helped create the United States of today, governments operated… Read more »
Federalism Addresses Minority Rights: Prof. R. Sivachandran
by Kelum Bandara, ‘The Daily News,’ Colombo, December 30, 2016 Prof. R. Sivachandran, a Central Committee member of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), in an interview with the Dailymirror by email, advocates the Federal structure of government for the North and East. The ITAK is the dominant ally of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) at… Read more »
CM Jayalalitha & Federalism
by Garga Chatterjee, ‘First Post,’ India, December 10, 2016 Does Jayalalithaa’s death signal the fall of federalism in Indian democracy? The death of J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and supremo of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), calls for an assessment of her and the party’s political role in her… Read more »
ACPR: Subcommittee on Centre-Periphery Relations
by Adayaalam, Jaffna, December 2, 2016 The Sub-Committee on Centre-Periphery Relations and the Unitary State acpr-2016_november_issue_brief_no-_1 ACPR is cautiously optimistic about the report of the CPR Sub-Committee which contains recommendations that have the potential to positively contribute to a genuine restructuring of the State that accommodates the concerns of the numerically smaller communities vis a… 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 »
Call for Autonomous Unit in North-East Renewed
By Shamindra Ferdinando, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, November 6, 2016 The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils resident overseas has called for the creation of an ‘Autonomous Tamil Region’ (ATR) in a re-merged Northern and Eastern Province to address their grievances. The two provinces comprise eight administrative districts. The GTF has… Read more »
Devolution of Land Powers
by Verite Research, Colombo, October 2016 Devolution of Land Powers_A guide for decision-makers Executive Summary This is a practical guide for decision-makers on devolving land powers in Sri Lanka. It is meant to help comprehend the complex and sometimes contradictory provisions in relation to the devolution of powers over land. The guide is presented in… Read more »
Counter Terror Smarter
By Michael German, US News & World Report, October 26, 2016 The counterterrorism debate is again playing out like so many times before. As soon as police identified a Muslim-American, Ahmad Khan Rahami, as a person of interest in a bombing attack in New York City, policymakers automatically inferred links to international terrorist groups and… Read more »
Tamils Resort to Nationalism to Shore Up Eroding Political Base
By JS Tissainayagam, ‘Asian Correspondent,’ September 30, 2016 In its list of demands, the ‘Eluga Thamil’ (Tamils Arise!) rally in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on Sept 24 included phrases that form the bedrock of Tamil nationalism – ‘Tamil nation,’ ‘sovereignty’ and the ‘right to self-determination.’ This is because the Sri Lanka government and Tamil politicians supporting the regime are… Read more »
Can Sri Lanka Hold On to Its Fragile Peace?
But it’s not Power or other foreign officials whom the government needs to win over. Far more crucial is the Tamil minority that feels left behind by the country’s postwar progress and embittered by the Sinhalese majority’s seeming indifference to its plight. And this is where the young woman with the tiny photograph comes in…. Read more »
SL HRC Letter re Proposed Amendment to Criminal Procedure Act
The passage of the new Bill will hinder the efforts of the Government which has expressed its determination to stop torture in Sri Lanka. by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, September 21, 2016 HRC SL Letter-to-PM-on-21.09.2016 Proposed Amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act Depriving Suspects of Access to Lawyers until their Statements… Read more »
Why Referendums Aren’t as Democratic as They Seem
The Interpreter By Amanda Taub & Max Fisher, ‘The New York Times,’ October 4, 2016 The voters of the world have had quite a year: They rejected Colombia’s peace deal; split Britain from the European Union; endorsed a Thai Constitution that curtails democracy; and, in Hungary, backed the government’s plan to restrict refugees, but without… Read more »
The President at the UN
Political appointees of the President perceive political appointees of the PM as their enemies, and independent of any direct order or edict, block, manoeuvre and curry favour with scant regard for actual policy development, implementation or reform. This results in scenarios very far removed from the roseate picture of Sri Lanka painted at the… Read more »
Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions)(Amendment) Bill
So it is tens of thousands in numbers who have met with this fate. In amending the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, now, there is provision to issue a different kind of certificate and that is a certificate of absence. This is a most welcome move; one about which we would congratulate the Government… Read more »
OMP – Upholding or Denying Justice?
by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], FCII, September 25, 2016 Sri Lanka ranks second in the list of countries after Iraq to record the largest number of disappearances with unofficial estimated numbers of about 90,000 since the 1980s. Out of these disappearances, enforced or involuntary disappearances are reported to be around 65,000. Enforced Disappearances always involve state… Read more »