An exclusive interview with U.S Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B.Teplitz by A. Jathindra, Centre for Strategic Studies, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, September 25, 2021 Ambassador Alaina B.Teplitz has served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives since 2018. Prior to this, she was the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal. A career member of… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
UNHCHR: Oral Update on Sri Lanka
by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Geneva, September 13, 2021 48th session of the Human Rights Council Geneva, 13 September 2021 Distinguished President, Excellencies, I am pleased to update the Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka and the trends and issues identified in my last report. I acknowledge the inputs sent by… Read more »
CV Wigneswaran Letter to HCHR
by Chief Justice CV Wigneswaran, September 8, 2021 Letter from MP Wigneswaran to HCHR Bachelet Sept 8 2021 Addendum to Wigneswaran letter to Bachelet Sept 10 2021 Honourable Michele Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Geneva. Dear Madam High Commissioner! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Sri Lanka has sent a… Read more »
UN Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice
by UN Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice, September 2021 Human Rights Council Forty-eighth session 13 September–1 October 2021 Agenda item 3 — Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Interactive Dialogue at UNHRC Sept. 16, 2021 – ID: SR on Truth & Justice… Read more »
Genocide Designations Aren’t Enough to Stop Mass Atrocities
by Kate Ferguson, World Policy Review, New York, September 7, 2021 There is extensive evidence that the Chinese government is violating the human rights of ethnic Uyghurs, and that these violations include crimes against humanity and genocide. Satellite imagery, testimonials, demographic data and photographs substantiate the extensive allegations against China, which include the use of mass surveillance… Read more »
SR TJ: Follow-up on 2017 visit to Sri Lanka
by UN Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice, Geneva, September 2021 Follow-up on the visits to Burundi, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli Summary The Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth,… Read more »
Letter from Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances
by Association for Relatives of Enforced Disappearances, North & East Provinces, Kilinochchi, August 30, 2021 (letter courtesy tweet by Tamil Americans United) * * xxx
Counterterrorism Legislation in Sri Lanka 2006
Evaluating Efficacy by N. Manoharan, East West Center, Hawaii, 2006 N. Manoharan Counterterrorism Legislation in Sri Lanka 2006 The study advances two arguments. First, it posits that the process of enactment and enforcement undermined the legitimacy and effectiveness of counterterrorism legislation. Second, it argues that the insurgency rooted in the discriminated minority community was able… Read more »
PEARL Stands with Victims’ Families
on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka by People for Equality & Relief in Lanka, Washington, DC, August 30, 2021 Today, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) stands in solidarity with the Tamil families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka to mark the International Day of the Victims… Read more »
HRW: Families of Sri Lanka’s Forcibly Disappeared Denied Justice
Campaign of Intimidation, Blocking Legal Remedies by Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch, New York, August 25, 2021 As the world prepares to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, justice is further away than ever in Sri Lanka. Despite calls for answers over many years, the government has prevented families of the… Read more »
Amnesty: Listening to the Demands of Families of the Disappeared in Sri Lanka
“Only Justice Can Heal Our Wounds” Amnesty International, London, May 7, 2017 Index Number: ASA 37/5853/2017 SRI LANKA DISAPPEARANCES In Sri Lanka, Enforced Disappearance has touched every community – spanning time, geography, ethnicity, religion, and class. There has been virtually no accountability for these grievous crimes. Despite daunting obstacles, family members of the disappeared have… Read more »
SRTJ: Accountability: Prosecuting and Punishing Gross Violations of Human Rights
and serious violations of international humanitarian law in the context of transitional justice processes Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Fabián Salvioli, Geneva, July 9, 2021 Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice J A_HRC_48_60_E Sept 2021 Summary The Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice,… Read more »
Deterrence, Mass Atrocity, and Samantha Power’s “The Education of an Idealist”
by Anjali Dayal, Medium, November 19, 2019 For nearly two decades, Samantha Power and her work have served as a crucible for larger debates about the United States’ use of force around the world. For critics across the ideological spectrum, Samantha Power, the idea, serves as synecdoche for liberal interventionism. The disagreements her work sets in… Read more »
Indifference and Impunity Continue 15 years after Muttur Massacre
by Action Contre le Faim, France, August 4, 2021 Action Against Hunger honors the memory of humanitarian aid workers assassinated in Sri Lanka in 2006 and continues to demand justice for the murders of our staff. On August 4, 2006, 17 of our colleagues were executed in Muttur, Sri Lanka. These men and women –… Read more »
Reading the Southern Mothers’ Front with Malathi de Alwis
30 years later The report of the Commission of Inquiry for the Western, Southern and Sabargamuwa Provinces (CoI-WSS), the most detailed of all the reports, described the violence of 1988-1991 as a systemic and orchestrated phenomenon, in which those in political power and the law were deeply complicit. It is also unequivocal in concluding that… Read more »
AI: Authorities Falter on Accountability in ‘Navy 11’ Case
by Amnesty International, London, August 4, 2021 The Sri Lankan Attorney General’s Department today decided not to proceed with charges against Wasantha Karannagoda, a former Navy commander, over his alleged role in the abduction of 11 Tamil youth in 2008 and 2009. The Sri Lankan Navy is alleged to have been behind the forcible disappearance of… Read more »
Racial Prejudice Rears Its Head in Singapore
Imperfect harmony The city state is less racially harmonious than its government likes to think by The Economist, London, July 31, 2021 DAVE PARKASH and his girlfriend were strolling down the street one evening in June when an irate man accosted them. Tan Boon Lee accused Mr Parkash of “preying” on his girlfriend, whom Mr Tan,… Read more »
L&ST: Understanding Rule of Law, Human Security & Prevention of Terrorism in Sri Lanka
by Ermiza Tegal, Law & Society Trust, Colombo, February 2021 Understanding_Rule_of_Law_Human_Security_and_Prevention_of_Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka_English 6. Conclusion This report aimed to respond to three main questions (1) what are the international legal standards in relation to arbitrary arrest and detention particularly in the context of countering terrorism? (2) what is Sri Lanka’s domestic legal framework in protecting the rights… Read more »
In Sri Lanka, The COVID Response is Exacerbating Religious & Ethnic Tensions
by Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch in cooperation with Stanley Center for Peace & Security, June 22, 2021 Podcast interview with J.S. Tissainayagam at In Sri Lanka, The COVID Response is Exacerbating Religious and Ethnic Tensions | UN Dispatch In May 2009, the long running civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the defeat of… Read more »
Atrocities Cast Shadow on Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Response
by J.S. Tissainayagam, Stanley Center for Peace & Security, Iowa, USA, May 17, 2021 Ranjini,* a housewife, lives in Kilinochchi, a town in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Earlier this year, the government began vaccinating the public against COVID-19. But this has made her fearful: she is not sure if she will be injected with… Read more »