Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself. by Linda Kinstler, The New York Times, August 20, 2024 Linda Kinstler is a junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows and the author of “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
UNHCHR: Situation of Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance unedited version A/HRC/57/19 August 19, 2024 Summary In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 51/1, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, highlighting some concerning… Read more »
CPA: The Intersectional Trends of Land Conflicts in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, August 20, 2024 The-Intersectional-Trends-of-Land-Conflicts-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf (cpalanka.org) 15 years after the end of the Civil War, Sri Lanka continues to experience deep ethnic divisions and has failed to address the root causes of the conflict that halt moving to a post-conflict society. Unfortunately, the decades-long problem of land has continued in… Read more »
Thousands Still Living without Land Deeds in Mannar
by Tamil Guardian, London, August 7, 2024 The issues faced by the people in Mannar due to the occupation of land has left thousands feeling helpless, said Fr. S. Marcus, President of the Mannar Citizens Committee. “For the last five years, there has been much effort by various private companies to lay claim for a… Read more »
Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1983
by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981-1984), Vol.I (Report), Colombo, dated September 2002, published April 24, 2003 Commission appointed July 23, 2001 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge Commissioners: Suppiah Sharvananda, Esq. (retired Chief Justice) Sathyaloka Sasita Sahabandu Esq., President’s Counsel Mohammed Mohammed Zuhair Esq., President’s Counsel Part 1 For… Read more »
200 Years of Malaiyaha Tamil Labour in Sri Lanka
A brief history of 200 years of involuntary migration, imposed statelessness, exploitation and marginalization of Upcountry or Malaiyaha Tamil tea plantation workers. by SALAM & Maynmai, Jamhoor, India, June 6, 2024 View fullsize Tea Estate, Ceylon. Image: 1891 collection, V&A 200 years ago, the British empire brought Tamil plantation workers against their will from southern… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Uncomfortable Relationship With Its Disappeared
Over three decades, more than 30 mass graves have been found, but answers to many questions remain elusive by Kris Thomas, New Lines Magazine, USA, April 29, 2024 Kris Thomas is a Colombo-based writer and journalist In 2018, when the second-largest mass grave was discovered in Mannar, a Tamil-dominated coastal town in Sri Lanka, investigators… Read more »
HRW: Authorities Target Religious Minorities
Renewed UN Resolution Needed to Counter Government’s Divisive Campaign by Human Rights Watch, New York, July 28, 2024 (New York) – Sri Lankan authorities are conducting a campaign to deny Hindus and other religious minorities access to places of worship and other property and redesignate locations as Buddhist sites, Human Rights Watch said today. Government agencies, including the… Read more »
HRW Briefing Note on Human Rights in Sri Lanka
by Human Rights Watch, New York, June 21, 2024 Introduction Resolution 46/1 was adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and is due for renewal in September 2024. It mandates the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project, which gathers evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions, as well as ongoing reporting by OHCHR. Renewing the… Read more »
UK PM to PM Jayawardene re Black July 1983
by British Prime Minister, London, November 28, 1983, thanks to Mario Arulthas, July 26, 2024 https://x.com/MarioArul/status/1816552074169008428
Black July 1983: 40 Years On
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, London, July 2023 An overview of the events of the Black July Pogrom of 1983, and its relationship to Sri Lanka’s continued cycles of violence and impunity. SLCPJ 2023-July-Black-July-40-Years-On Introduction Forty years ago today, on 23rd July 1983, a mass anti-Tamil pogrom broke out in Sri Lanka,… Read more »
UNHRC 56: Sri Lanka Core Group Statement
Delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French, Geneva, June 19, 2024 Thank you Mr President, This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. High Commissioner, Thank you for your recent report on accountability for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka… Read more »
TRG Calls for Action and Accountability Following UNHRC Report
on Sri Lanka’s Enforced Disappearances by Tamil Rights Group, Markham, Canada, June 25, 2024 Markham, Canada – Over fifteen years following the end of Sri Lanka’s Genocidal war against Eelam Tamils, families of the forcibly disappeared are still searching for answers about the whereabouts of their loved ones. The recent UN Human Rights Office report released on… Read more »
Israel and the Leahy Law
by Charles O. (Cob) Blaha, JustSecurity, June 10, 2024 [It has been something of a mystery why the US military has been able to cooperate with the Sri Lankan military despite the Sri Lankan’s war crimes and worse since the US supposedly has laws requiring rigorous vetting before such cooperation. The article perhaps has some… Read more »
Reflecting on Sri Lanka in the Shadow of Palestine
A Hierarchy of Grief and the Politics of Mourning by Tania Perera & Asha L. Abeyasekera, Polity.lk, Colombo, May 20, 2024 On 18 May, Sri Lanka marked the 15th anniversary of the end of war. In 2009, many Sinhala people in the South took to the streets to spontaneously celebrate what they imagined as a… Read more »
Tribunal: ‘Horrified’ by Plight of SL’s Plantation Workers
Their wages remain far below the living wage required in the context of Sri Lanka’s current costs of living, following hyperinflation during the crisis, a recent study found by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, June 12, 2024 An international tribunal of former judges from the region said it was “horrified by the stark realities” of… Read more »
Like Sri Lanka Once Did, Israel has Turned ‘Safe Zones’ into Killing Fields
But there is one important difference between the two cases: The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. by Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, Al-Jazeera, Qatar, June 11, 2024 While our eyes were on Rafah’s “Block 2371” – the small area in south Gaza which the Israeli military designated as a “safe… Read more »
TG: Nowhere to Hide
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 9, 2024 Britain’s Metropolitan Police made a significant announcement this week; only the second of its kind. A man accused of committing war crimes in Sri Lanka was arrested in South London. Though this is just a single person being investigated it sends a powerful message to those in Colombo… Read more »
TG: International Criminal Court and Beyond
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 2, 2024 Recent weeks have seen several senior politicians from the two leading opposition parties in the UK, reiterate the importance of ensuring Sri Lanka is referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Keir Starmer, the man widely tipped to become Britain’s next prime minister, called on the ruling government… Read more »
Burning of the Jaffna Public Library
43rd anniversary remembrance by British Tamils Forum, London, June 1, 2024 June 1st evokes the scar of the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the irreplaceable asset of Tamil people. This calculated arsenic destruction was one of the major cultural genocides against Tamil people masterminded by Sri Lankan state to destroy historic evidence of Tamil… Read more »