by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, July 20, 2026 Black July remains one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lanka’s post-independence history. Every year, SLC commemorates July 1983, when the Sri Lankan state committed a 7-day anti-Tamil pogrom, killing around 3,000 Tamil civilians and injuring, raping, and forcibly displacing thousands more. In… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
About Black July
by BlackJuly.com, USA, November 27, 2023 About Forty years after July 1983, Black July is often described as “riots” which were a “spontaneous reaction” to the ambush of 13 soldiers. This description is patently false. It does not take long, when going through the original facts, to see that the truth is quite the opposite…. Read more »
Whose Self-Determination?
Tamil Guardian editorial, July 17, 2026 When Argentina’s players unfurled a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” after their World Cup semifinal victory over England this week, the British state required no time for reflection. Within a day, Downing Street had urged FIFA to investigate, ministers had denounced the gesture, and the Prime Minister’s spokesperson… Read more »
ITJP: Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP)
Architecture of Denial by International Truth & Justice Project, Sri Lanka, South Africa, July 16, 2026 ITJP ENG_ARCHITECTURE-OF-DENIAL-SRI-LANKA-S-OFFICE-ON-MISSING-PERSONS Summary Sri Lanka’s first permanent disappearance commission, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), mandated in August 2016,1 has spectacularly failed to deliver truth, accountability or meaningful redress over the last decade. The OMP in Sri Lanka has… Read more »
TG: Transitional Justice Cannot Exist Without Truth
Sri Lanka and the continuing erasure of the Eelam Tamil genocide by Simhanjana Gopikrishna Sumathi, Tamil Guardian, London, June 29, 2026 “It happened; therefore, it can happen again…it can happen everywhere.” — Primo Michele Levi, Jewish Holocaust survivor Seventeen years after Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka continues to stand as one of the starkest examples of… Read more »
TG: Prison Rules
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, July 13, 2026 Last week saw the second deadliest episode of prison violence in Sri Lanka’s history. Over two days at Negombo Prison, at least 28 people were killed, among them seven prison officers, and more than a hundred were wounded. By the time the violence which began on Sunday evening… Read more »
ITJP: Chemmani Mass Grave
‘We are still searching” by International Truth & Justice Project, Sri Lanka, South Africa, July 13, 2026 ITJP CHEMMANI-MASS-GRAVE-WE-ARE-STILL-SEARCHING-JULY-2026 Executive Summary ‘We are still searching,’ is how the statements of the families typically end. It has been thirty years of waiting for a body to mourn, let alone justice. Chemmani mass grave in the northern Jaffna… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Coast Belongs to the Future, Not Foreign Companies
by The Collective for Climate and Economic Justice, Groundviews, Colombo, June 25, 2026 Photo courtesy of Amila Udagedara On June 17, 2026 delegates filed into the Galle Face hotel for the Mineral Sands Technical Conference. Inside, the Chamber of Commerce was doing what it does best: opening doors for capital and closing them on everyone… Read more »
Chemmani Excavation: A Defining Test
for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation by Raj Sivanathan, Groundviews, Colombo, June 21, 2026 The visit by Minister of Justice Harshana Nanayakkara to the ongoing excavation site at Chemmani in Jaffna has once again focused national attention on one of the country’s most sensitive and unresolved human rights issues. His assurance that the government is committed… Read more »
Urgent Concerns Regarding the Imminent Deployment of Sri Lankan Forces to Haiti
by International Peace & Justice Project Sri Lanka & 14 other organizations, June 25, 2026 Final Joint Statement Sri Lanka Haiti Deployment_logos_included NGO STATEMENT URGENT CONCERNS REGARDING THE IMMINENT DEPLOYMENT OF SRI LANKAN FORCES TO HAITI 25 June 2026 International human rights and victims’ groups call on the United Nations, the Government of Haiti, and… Read more »
SLC: New Proposal Calls for Independent National DNA Bank
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, February 20, 2026 PRESS RELEASE: New Proposal Calls for Independent National DNA Bank to Identify Sri Lanka’s Disappeared A new concept paper published on 19 February by the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice sets out an independent plan to establish a National DNA Bank… Read more »
SLC & BTF: No Sri Lankan Military Deployment to Haiti
Until there is credible accountability, independent vetting and justice for victims by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice & British Tamils Forum joint statement, London, May 6, 2026 The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice (SLC) and the British Tamils Forum (BTF) are deeply alarmed by reports that Sri Lanka may once again… Read more »
Digital Rights Foundation’s Sri Lanka Chapter
Fragments, not architecture: how a Digital Rights Foundation report’s Sri Lanka chapter misreads a pervasive surveillance state …The authors Prihesh Ratnayake and Omar Rajarathnam mention Tamils and Muslims without treating unequal exposure as the central analytical problem, which is where it belongs, since Sri Lanka’s security state has never distributed suspicion evenly and surveillance lands hardest… Read more »
Vaddukoddai – 50 Keynote Speech
by Thavathiru Velan Swamigal, Chief Coordinator, Vaddukoddai-50 Ezhuchi Maanadu Organising Committee, Jaffna, June 20, 2026 Vaddukoddai – 50 Keynote Speech … We Reclaim Our Nation Today, we have gathered not merely to commemorate a historical event. Rather, we have come together to reflect upon a defining turning point in the history of the Eelam Tamil… Read more »
Impunity, Inequality, and Resistance: Fifty Years On
by J. S. Tissainnayagam, North Eastern Monthly, May 22, updated June 23, 2026 The 50th anniversary of the Vaddukoddai Resolution falls on 14 May. Despite the intervening half-century, the conditions in Sri Lanka that gave birth to the Resolution remain almost intact, forcing Tamils to resist Sinhala hegemony and stand up for dignity, justice and equality. The… Read more »
UNHRC 62: Sri Lanka Core Group Statement
by UK Ambassador Eleanor Sanders on behalf of Sri Lanka Core Group, Geneva, June 16, 2026 Thank you Mr President. This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the United Kingdom. High Commissioner, we thank your Office for its continued work on Sri Lanka. We acknowledge government… Read more »
Action Against Hunger Calls for a New Investigation
Twenty Years On, the Killing of 17 Humanitarian Workers Remains Unpunished by Action Contre le Faim, Paris, June 15, 2026 Twenty years ago, on August 4, 2006, 17 staff members of Action Against Hunger, engaged in delivering humanitarian aid, were executed in our office in Muttur, Sri Lanka. They were wearing T-shirts and vests clearly… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Victims of Sexual Violence In Conflict
Decades Without Justice by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, June 17, 2026 Yasmin Sooka of ITJP discusses with Johann Soufi of OSLAP & Sherine Xavier of Social Architects https://www.youtube.com/live/qr4P-mor-Fs?si=DvYNhYlxrWSbNKmq *** Documentary featured in the discussion Post Script Lanka – YouTube
TG: Sri Lanka’s First Anti-Tamil Pogrom
Remembering 1956 by Tamil Guardian, London, June 15, 2026 This week marks 70 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come. Violence first flared as Tamil… Read more »
TG: Scared of a Song
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 12, 2026 Sangeethsan Ganeskumar walked free on bail today, ten days after Sri Lankan police decided his music was a crime. The 24-year-old rapper from Kilinochchi, known as HipHop Sangee, had performed at a temple festival, filmed the evening, set the footage to his own music and uploaded it. For this,… Read more »