Posts Categorized: Human Rights

Türk: Sri Lanka has Opportunity to Break from Past

by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, August 13, 2025 Non-official UN languages:Tamil version (PDF) Sinhala version (PDF) GENEVA – A report published today by the UN Human Rights Office calls on Sri Lanka’s Government to seize the historic opportunity to break with entrenched impunity, implement transformative reforms, and deliver long-overdue justice and accountability for serious violations and abuses… Read more »

OHCHR’s 2025 Report on Sri Lanka

by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, August 12, 2025 a-hrc-60-21-auv.pdf OHCHR report on Sri Lanka Aug 12 2025 Summary The present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/1, provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. It notes the new Government’s pledges to address… Read more »

HRW: UN Rights Report Details Security Force Abuses

UN Human Rights Council Should Adopt Resolution that Promotes Accountability by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 15, 2025 (Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights office’s report on Sri Lanka details entrenched and systemic rights violations—including arbitrary detention, torture, and deaths in custody—under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Human Rights Watch said today. The new report by the UN High Commissioner… Read more »

Amnesty: Submission to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances

by Amnesty International, London, July 21, 2025 Index Number: ASA 37/0125/2025 Amnesty Submission to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances July 2025 INTRODUCTION Sixteen years since the war ended, thousands of victims of enforced disappearances continue to suffer as they await truth, justice, and reparation. During its nearly three-decade long internal armed conflict between 1983-2009, Sri Lankan… Read more »

Is Sri Lanka Turning the Page on Its Violent Past?

The new president has the opportunity to help the nation come to terms with its brutal civil war. by Ruth Pollard, Bloomberg News, New York, July 22, 2025 Delve into the recent crop of prize-winning Sri Lankan literature and you will find a country mired in grief. From Shehan Karunatilaka’s 2022 Booker prize-winning The Seven Moons of… Read more »

Fonseka’s Statement Puts Foreign Minister in Difficulty

by LankaWeb, Colombo,  July 18, 2009 Fonseka statement July 2009 Lanka News Web A senior Foreign Ministry official told Lanka News Web that irresponsible comments made by former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka in the past few days put Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a difficult spot during his visit to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)… Read more »

Sarath Fonseka Post-War

TIME US Wants to Talk to Sri Lanka Tiger Tamer Nov 2 2009 http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1934060,00.html by Amantha Perera, TIME, November 2, 2009 To many Sri Lankans, Lieut. General Sarath Fonseka is a bit of a hero. Now the equivalent of the U.S. military’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Fonseka was the former army commander… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Quiet Reckoning with Its Past

Sixteen Years On In a world currently embroiled in multiple conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine Sri Lanka’s experience stands as a stark reminder of the consequences when power eclipses principle…When military triumph is achieved through the disregard of civilian protection, and when the shield of sovereignty is used to justify systemic abuse, the credibility of… Read more »

An Epochal Episode in the Tamil Freedom Struggle

Black July 1983 Reposting from July 10, 2006 by Dharakan, Brisbane, Australia J.R. Jayawardene said, “The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. Really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” Early Ground Work for Genocide  Burning Tamil houses, July 1983. Source:… Read more »

Explainer: Another Mass Grave and the 1990 Sampur Massacres

by Tamil Guardian, London, July 25, 2025 Tamils pay tribute to victims of the massacres earlier this year. Following the discovery of another set of human remains in Sampur this week, just metres from where at least 57 Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri Lankan government forces in July 1990, we re-examine the massacres. ‘We… Read more »

Reflections on Arrival of First Batch of July 1983 Riot Refugees

from Colombo to Jaffna by Ananth Palakidnar, Jaffna Post, July 25, 2025 From the time the land mine explosion took place on July 23, 1983, the Eelanadu regional newspaper, where I was a sub editor, became active on covering every incident in Jaffna and Colombo, as well as India’s stance with regard to the July… Read more »

42 Years Since Black July

by Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, Jaffna Post,  July 2025 The fact that there is still no political solution to the ethnic problem is even more shameful than the worst ethnic violence. Forty two years have passed since the July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom that marked a watershed in inter-ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. Beyond the horrors of more than… Read more »

From Srebrenica to Mullivaikkal

The Long Road from Grief to Justice by GEO LENS Substack, July 20, 2025 This July, the world marked the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, where over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were massacred in July 1995. It remains Europe’s most horrifying atrocity since the Holocaust, recognised by international tribunals as genocide. But for the Tamil people of… Read more »

SSA: July 1983

by Civil Society Movement in Social Scientists Association’s ‘Polity,’ Colombo, July/August 2003 polity-vol-1.3-july-1983 Also: polity-vol-1.3-july-1983.pdf

Maison: Mass Graves of Silence

by Maison du Tamil Eelam, Paris, June 17, 2025 Maison du Tamil Eelam Mass Graves of Silence June 17 2025 Press release Sri Lanka: Mass Graves of Silence Since gaining independence, Sri Lanka has been the scene of serious, systematic human rights violations, particularly targeting a segment of its population. These abuses have left deep… Read more »

From Chemmani to Geneva

Will Sri Lanka Face Its Truth? by Wimal Navaratnam, Canada, June 30, 2025 From Chemmani to Geneva Next Steps and Future Outlook With Volker Türk’s mission now completed, attention shifts to what comes next. All parties – the UN, the Sri Lankan government, Tamil representatives, and international actors – are looking ahead to ensure that… Read more »

Justice for Sri Lanka’s Genocide Against Tamils

by [unclear, although some analysis is provided by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and the document is supported by the Ottawa Tamil Association. the Tamil Genocide Memorial, Tamil American United PAC, the Federation of Global Tamil Organizations, the Ilankai Tamil Sangam, and the  Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA)], 2024 Justice… Read more »

Data from Presidential Truth Commission Report on Black July 1983

by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984, September 2002 Evidence provided to the 2002 Commission by victims who requested compensation for primarily property damage during the violence of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983’s Black July. truth-commission-list_from presidential_commission_report on ethnic violence 1981-1984 [Excel file] Data is from the report of the Presidential Commission and is… Read more »