by International Commission of Jurists, Switzerland, March 30, 2017 Sri Lanka: criminal justice reform needed to overcome challenges to accountability for human rights violations Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system must undergo serious reform in line with international human rights standards in order to provide justice for victims of human rights abuses, the ICJ said in… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Government
Flip-flopping on Accountability – A Timeline
by ‘Groundviews.org,’ Colombo, March 27, 2017 Sri Lanka recently co-sponsored a resolution at the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council, allowing Sri Lanka two more years to implement the recommendations made in Resolution 30/1 of 2015. One of the most controversial topics has been the level of international participation in a judicial mechanism…. Read more »
Foreign Judges Can Hear Cases
by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, ‘Ceylon Times, March 26, 2017 Attorney-at-Law and Co-Founder of South Asian Centre for Legal Studies Niran Anketell who has litigated human rights, constitutional law, and civil cases in Sri Lankan Courts for over seven years speaks to Ceylon Today on the government co sponsoring the United Nations Human Right Council’s resolution… Read more »
PEARL Report Examines Kumarapuram Massacre and Acquittals 20 Years Later
Impunity Reigns in Sri Lanka: PEARL Report Examines Kumarapuram Massacre and Acquittals 20 Years Later by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, USA, March 20, 2017 PEARL’s new report, Impunity Reigns in Sri Lanka: The Kumarapuram Massacre and Acquittals, provides an in-depth analysis of the Kumarapuram massacre case and, more broadly, examines barriers to… Read more »
Statement by Former Members of the CTF
Statement by Former Members of the Consultation Task Force Colombo, March 15, 2017 CTF Eng_Statement_150317 15th March 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) was mandated to ascertain the views of the public on the reconciliation mechanisms proposed by the Government of Sri Lanka and incorporated in the resolution co-sponsored… Read more »
Sturgeon Says Scotland Could Hold Independence Vote
In ‘Autumn of 2018’ by Reuters, posted on ‘The New York Times,’ March 9, 2017 EDINBURGH — Scotland could hold an independence referendum in the autumn of 2018, just months before Britain is due to leave the European Union, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC, and a second poll in a month suggested… Read more »
ITJP Report on Joseph Camp, Vavuniya, Sri Lanka
ITJP_Joseph_camp_report_FINAL also available at http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/joseph-camp in English, Tamil & Sinhalese, with Portugese & Spanish press releases. This is a case study dealing with just one of Sri Lanka’s many known torture sites and is based on 46 detailed testimonies from survivors and a wealth of supporting documentation. The report documents horrifying physical and sexual abuse by the military and interrogation rooms equipped… Read more »
Five Army Top Brass Named as Running Torture and Rape Camp in Sri Lanka
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 »
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 »