by Thusiyan Nandakumar | MedAct, October 16, 2020 | As states around the world continue to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, fears are mounting in many places for already disenfranchised and vulnerable communities. In Sri Lanka, a region that has been torn by decades of ethnic conflict and suffers from continued reports of human rights abuses, those… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Assessment of FaceBook’s HR Impact in Sri Lanka
by Chloe Poynton, Article One, San Francisco, May 12, 2020 In 2018, Article One partnered with Facebook to conduct two country-level human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Today, Facebook published the executive summaries of both reports, a step we applaud and hope to see more of. Understanding how online engagements can… Read more »
When Will the EU, US, UK & UNHRC Take Action
To find the missing? By; Kumarathasan Rasingam, October 12, 2020 The mothers, fathers, relatives of the missing are on the streets for more than 1340 days on sit-in protest demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. They are holding EU, US & UN Flags and the pictures of their loved ones who are… Read more »
Review: ‘Keenie Meenie: Britain’s Private Army’
by Tamil Guardian, London, October 7, 2020 Streaming on YouTube, October 8, 2020 at 2pm EST at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZokBJZyVqk Phil Miler’s explosive new documentary, “Keenie Meenie: Britain’s Private Army”, provides detailed insight into how a private British company went on to effectively set up one of Sri Lanka’s most notorious military units and sheds light on the United… Read more »
Human Rights Half Measures: Avoiding Accountability in Postwar Sri Lanka
by Kate Cronin-Furman, Cambridge University Press’ World Politics journal, Vol. 72, Issue 1, November 11, 2019 Abstract Why do repressive states create human rights institutions that cost them money and political capital but fail to silence international criticism? The academic literature assumes that states engaging in disingenuous human rights behavior are hoping to persuade (or… Read more »
Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Sri Lanka
by Kumarathasan Rasingam, October 3, 2020 The Universal Declaration for Human Rights [UDHR] was adopted on 10th December 1948 by the United Nations at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. The UDHR contains thirty Articles. Articles 1 and 2 outline the philosophical claim of the UDHR and emphasise that human beings are born free in… Read more »
Amnesty on Enforced Disappearances
by Amnesty International statement to US Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Latin America, October 1, 2020 https://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/government-relations/advocacy/amnesty-lantos-statement-enforced-disappearances/ … Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka has one of the world’s highest number of enforced disappearances, with estimates ranging from 60,000 to 100,000 arising in connection with internal armed conflicts since the late 1980s. One emblematic… Read more »
How ‘Jakarta’ Became the Codeword for US-Backed Mass Killing
by, Vincent Bevins, The New York Review of Books, May 18, 2020 Suspected communists under armed guard, Jakarta, Indonesia, December 1, 1965 In May 1962, a girl named Ing Giok Tan got on a rusty old boat in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her country, one of the largest in the world, had been pulled into the global… Read more »
U.K. Conservation Society Details Links to Colonialism and Slavery
The National Trust said a third of the properties it manages had direct links to colonialism or slavery. Some have a “hugely uncomfortable” history, it said. by Elian Peltier, The New York Times, September 22, 2020 LONDON — The country house of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, an ardent imperialist; an estate in northern England… Read more »
Remembering Thileepan’s Sacrifice 33 Years On
by Tamil Guardian, London, September 26, 2020 Today marks 33 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death, in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people. Thileepan began his fast on the September 15, 1987, with 100,000 people… Read more »
PEARL Condemns Sri Lanka’s Latest Assault on Tamils’ Right to Remember
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, USA (Washington D.C.; September 24, 2020) — PEARL is deeply concerned by reports that a Sri Lankan court has banned commemorations of Lt. Col. Thileepan, who died while conducting a hunger strike for Tamil rights in 1987. PEARL condemns the arrest, pursuant to the ban, of those… Read more »
Transitional Justice at the UN Security Council
International Community Commits to Nuanced, Comprehensive Transitional Justice at UN Security Council Open Debate by International Center for Transitional Justice, New York, September 21, 2020 As the world continues to grapple with the deadly coronavirus pandemic and a global economic downturn, United Nations (UN) member states will convene this week for the annual General Assembly,… Read more »
A New Domestic Process in Sri Lanka
Will not bring reconciliation and justice Sri Lanka Campaign, London, Sep 25, 2020 At the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) last week, the Government of Sri Lanka tried dismiss calls for greater international action on Sri Lanka, saying that it is committed to a domestic process to deliver reconciliation and justice. But how could… Read more »
UNHRC Session 45
High Commissioner for Human Rights opening statement, September 14, 2020 In Sri Lanka, I am troubled that the new Government is swiftly reneging on its commitments to the Human Rights Council since it withdrew its support for resolution 30/1. Among other developments, the proposed 20th amendment to the Constitution may negatively impact on the independence… Read more »
Statements re International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearance North & Eastern Province Date 30.08.2020 Hon Ms. Michelle Bachelet Jeria, The High Commissioner Human Rights commission, Geneva Justice for the families that are suffering from enforced disappearance in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Today 30 August is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced… Read more »
State-Sponsored Pogroms Against Tamils in Sri Lanka
And the need for a referendum in Tamils’ homeland [North & East of Sri Lanka] by Kumarathasan Rasingam, August 23, 2020 It is high time and urgent need for the United Nations, UNHRC, ICC and the International Community to find remedial justice to the oppressed Tamils in Sri Lanka. The following facts prove beyond doubt… Read more »
Increasing Suppression of Dissent
Parliamentary Elections Heighten Fears of Renewed Crackdown by Human Rights Watch, New York, August 8, 2020 (New York) – The Sri Lankan government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is waging a campaign of fear and intimidation against human rights activists, journalists, lawyers, and others challenging government policy, Human Rights Watch said today. The crackdown on dissent under the… Read more »
US State Dept. Reports to Congress on Sri Lanka 2009, 2010 & 2012
by US Department of State Report to Congress on Incidents during the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka 2009 Report to Congress by State Measures Taken by GoSL Apr 2012 Factual Supplement to the Report to Congress by State on Measures Taken by the GoSL April 4 2012 Report To Congress on Measures Taken by the… Read more »
Mothers’ Power in U.S. Protests Echoes a Global Tradition
In Sri Lanka, women from the Tamil minority group have been protesting for years to demand information about sons and daughters who were kidnapped by state forces during the country’s civil war and never heard from again. Their activism has drawn international attention and some limited engagement from the country’s government. But when the women’s… Read more »
The Role of Civilians and Civil Society in Preventing Mass Atrocities
by Congo Research Group, Anushani Alagarajah, Dharsha Jegatheeswaran, and Laxana Paskaran, Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Nyathon H. Mai, The Sudd Institute, Zachariah Mampilly with Daniel Solomon, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, July 21, 2020 Preventing Atrocities in a State Unwilling to Address its Past by Anushani Alagarajah, Dharsha Jegatheeswaran, and Laxana Paskaran, Adayaalam Centre for… Read more »