Sweden Is Trying to Find Out by M. Gessen, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2025 At the end of the 1990s, a Swedish company called Lundin Oil started drilling in a war-torn region of what was then Sudan. To secure the drilling sites, the company contracted with the Sudanese government. Over the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
HRW: Sri Lanka Struggles in Aftermath of Devastating Cyclone
Longstanding Discrimination Against Marginalized Communities Worsens Catastrophe by Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, December 11, 2025 Sri Lanka is suffering a series of floods and landslides brought upon by Cyclone Ditwah this past November. Climate experts believethe intensity of seasonal storms, which also recently devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, are likely… Read more »
The Great Flood
by B. Skanthakumar, Polity, Colombo, December 5, 2025 Cyclone Ditwah ripped through Sri Lanka between 27 and 29 November. The toll is devastating. Seven days later, the official count is 486 deaths and 341 missing. To which should be added five navy and one air-force officer killed in rescue operations; and an electricity board technician… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Bloody Past is Re-emerging from the Soil
A blue schoolbag in a mass grave by Helen Regan, Kumanan Kanapathipillai, Kunal Sehga, Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Atlanta, GA, USA, November 29, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/world/video/sri-lanka-mass-grave-hanako-montgomery-digvid . . EDITOR’S NOTE: This article contains images and descriptions that some readers may find distsurbing. Two human skeletons lie entangled on the rough earth – the arms of one wrapped… Read more »
Essential Jaffna Tamil
by N. Malathy, November 12, 2025 Sociological study of Jaffna Tamils is not extensive. We have not had a well-known academic among us in this area. Karthikesu Sivathamby’s books (“யாழ்ப்பாண சமூகத்தை விளங்கிக் கொள்ளல்,” கார்த்திகேசு சிவதம்பி, 1990; “Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Politics”, Karthikesu Sivathamby, 1995) about us are the best I have seen. All are… Read more »
‘Uprooted — Voices of Tamil Dispossession and Resilience’
MEDIA RELEASE Uprooted — Voices of Tamil Dispossession and Resilience MP4 video of Mr. Ana Pararajasingham on his book — fa06ec34-bcfd-4e5c-8597-290df08410c0 Published in late September and now available on Amazon, Uprooted explores the displacement of Sri Lanka’s Tamil people through the voices of those who lived it — thirty-four individuals across the globe who, while… Read more »
War Crimes Indictment Reveals a Hard Road to Justice for Syria
Prosecutors say a Syrian security official accused of torture hid in plain sight in Europe for years, protected by Israeli and Austrian intelligence agents. By Carlotta Gall and Saad Alnassife, The New York Times, Nov.12, 2025, updated Nov. 14, 2025 Our reporters traveled all over Europe, including to Vienna, to interview survivors of torture who will… Read more »
UNHRC 2025 Resolution on Sri Lanka
UK Core Group Statement to introduce Item 2 Resolution on Sri Lanka. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Kumar Iyer. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Kumar Iyer CMG Delivered on: 6 October 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honour to… Read more »
ABC: More than 200 Skeletons Uncovered in Mass Grave
In Sri Lanka, exposing its haunting history by Nicholene Canisius, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 4, 2025 Saaratha Iruthayanathar was six years old when she last saw her father leaving to get groceries, during the Sri Lankan civil war. To this day, she still does not know whether he is dead or alive. While travelling by… Read more »
US State Dept.: 2024 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report
by US Department of State, Washington, DC, August 12, 2025 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report US State Dept 2024 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After the widely contested September 21 presidential elections and November 14 snap parliamentary elections, civil society groups called on the first voter-elected presidential administration since 2022 to build on the demands for good governance… Read more »
Two Steps Backwards
Tamil Guardian editorial, , London, September 15, 2025 To call the latest draft resolution from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva disappointing would be far too kind. It is not simply a missed opportunity, but a disastrous step backwards in the long and painful struggle for justice for the Tamil people. Sixteen years… Read more »
ICG: Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power Faces the Legacy of Civil War
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his National People’s Power government are struggling to build a more stable, inclusive political culture in Sri Lanka. A mix of bold action and political skill will be needed. Support from the UN Human Rights Council can help. by Alan Keenan, International Crisis Group, Brussels, September 5, 2025 The election… Read more »
UN Human Rights Council 60th Session
Geneva, September/October 2025 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) oral report based on his written report, September 8, 2025 https://youtu.be/u_hebwD0fRE?si=BMN-_48S-QVsKH1Q Full interactive dialogue on Sri Lanka, September 8 HCHR, plus statements of country groups, starting at 2hrs, 57min, 54sec – 1st Meeting – 60th Session of Human Rights Council | UN Web TV Country statement,… Read more »
ITJP: Killing of Journalist Nimalarajan Mylvaganam
Killing Sri Lankan Journalists by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, September 7, 2025 Full report in English (Tamil & Sinhala also available) KILLING-SRI-LANKAN-JOURNALISTS_THE-CASE-OF-NIMALARAJAN-MYLVAGANAM_Final_ENGLISH_Web_compressed Press Release: Sri Lanka Has Shielded Killers of Journalists, Finds New Report Examining Investigation Failures in BBC Reporter’s Murder. Johannesburg – Sri Lanka has systematically shielded the killers of journalists… Read more »
Chemmani: Seven New Sets of Human Remains Exhumed
by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan and T. Pratheepan – Jaffna, Ceylon Today, September 4, 2025 Seven new sets of human remains were fully exhumed from the Chemmani mass grave yesterday (3), while additional nine sets were identified. This marks the continuation of the third section of the second phase of excavations at the site, which began… Read more »
Fact Finding Report of HRCSL on Chemmani
by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Colombo, September 2025 Fact-Finding-Report-of-HRCSL-on-Chemmani-Mass-Grave-Site This report details the main findings, observations, and recommendations of the HRCSL emerging from its visit and subsequent developments surrounding the exhumations and excavations at the mass grave site in Chemmani. The findings and observations are organised under specific themes: (1) the functions and… Read more »
Memories of Mass Murder
Unearthed bones in Chemmani reopen the wounds of Sri Lanka’s war years and the silence that followed. by Saikiran Kannan, Frontline, The Hindu, Chennai, September 1, 2025 The excavators kept digging in the midday heat, when something soft-blue rose above the dusty earth: a child’s school bag, its nylon straps still looped around a tiny… Read more »
Sri Lanka Faces Renewed Global Scrutiny Ahead of UNHRC Session
by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, Ceylon Today, Colombo, August 16, 2025 Sri Lanka is once again under the global human rights spotlight as the 60th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) approaches. With mounting momentum for the adoption of a resolution targeting the country’s human rights record, questions remain over how the newly… Read more »
Buried Tales of Past Violence from Chemmani
Chemmani is Sri Lanka’s collective shame and evidence of systemic failure to deal with extra-judicial killings and deliver truth, justice and accountability by Dilrukshi Hanunnett, The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 6, 2025 More recently reprinted from The Associated Press, NY, see below also: A wartime mass grave in Sri Lanka yields a baby bottle,… Read more »
‘Quest for Human Rights: The Sri Lanka Ethnic Issue’
by Sunil C. Roy, VAP Enterprises, New Delhi, 1987 Comment by former Sangam Founder and Editor, Dr. Rajan Sriskandarajah: Just prior to the 1987 Indian military intervention in Sri Lanka’s national (ethnic) conflict, a booklet detailing the persecution of the Tamils, was widely distributed all over the world. Although it was printed & distributed privately,… Read more »