Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Rupert Colville Location: Geneva Date: 27 March 2020 Subject: Sri Lanka We are troubled by reports that the convicted perpetrator of the Mirusuvil massacre, in Sri Lanka, has received a Presidential Pardon and was released from jail this week. Former Army sergeant Sunil Ratnayake was sentenced in 2015… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Sri Lankan Leader Frees Soldier Convicted in Civilian Deaths
by Associated Press in The New York Times, March 26, 2020 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Thursday freed a soldier who was sentenced to death for killing eight civilians during the country’s civil war. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said he pardoned Sunil Ratnayake and ordered the justice ministry to release him. Ratnayake… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
A military mindset by Thusiyan Nandakumar, The Polis Project, London, March 2020 This is part of a series of conversations interrogating militarization of medicine and public health and its adverse effects as various communities deal with COVID19. You can watch the video of this conversation with Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar on our Instagram handle In the… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment
a Violation of UN Charter and Fundamental Human Rights by Thambu Kanagasabai, PRESIDENT, The Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Organization Late President JR Jayewardene of Sri Lanka after allowing and being complicit in the massacres of Tamils in the 1977, 1983 pogroms and justifying them as a normal reaction of Sinhalese to take revenge… Read more »
Biloela (பிலொ-ஈலா) Tamil Family Symbolizes Our Plight
by N. Malathy, March 16, 2020 We are ONE but We are Many From all the Lands on Earth We come We’ll share a dream and sing in one Voice I am, You are, WE are Australians A verse by a supporter of the Biloela family. Nades and Priya arrived by boats in Australia seeking… Read more »
ICRC 1995 Annual Report
by International Committee of the Red Cross, May 31, 1996 ICRC 1995 annual report for Sri Lanka
Statement by the President on the Situation in Sri Lanka and Detainee Photographs
by US President Barack Obama, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, Washington, DC, May 13, 2009 For Immediate Release May 13, 2009 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE SITUATION IN SRI LANKA AND DETAINEE PHOTOGRAPHS South Drive 4:12 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Good to see… Read more »
Tsunami Disaster & the People in the Northeast
of the island of Sri Lanka by Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, December 29, 2004 Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation Media Release Press Conference at Swiss TRO Headquarters, Geneva “Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation has grave concerns that our ability to respond in a timely manner is being hindered by excessive administrative, bureaucratic and control requirements ” Contact: Director, Disaster Management… Read more »
Banning of Silva is a Small Victory for Tamils
by Visvajit Sriramranjan, The Hofstra Chronicle, NY, February 25, 2020 Last week, Shavendra Silva, the chief of the Sri Lankan Army, was banned from entering the United States. Silva is a known war criminal who spearheaded the genocide of the Tamil people, an ethnic minority group native to southern India as well as northern and… Read more »
Report of the SR on Freedom of Religion to Sri Lanka
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session43/Pages/ListReports.aspx A/HRC/43/48/Add.2 Advance Unedited Version Distr.: General 28 February 2020 Original: English Human Rights Council Forty-third session 24 February–20 March 2020 Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Visit to Sri Lanka Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Evasion of UNHRC Resolutions
and defiling of human rights and accountability by: Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The United Nations Human Rights Council was established in 2006 by the UN to investigate allegations of human rights violations against member states. After investigations, it makes recommendations for implementation by the state… Read more »
HRW: UN Rights Council Should Uphold Sri Lanka Commitments
Weak Response from Country Core Group Ignores Victims’ Plight by John Fisher, Human Rights Watch, March 3, 2020 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/03/un-rights-council-should-uphold-sri-lanka-commitments During his presidential campaign and after his election, Gotabaya Rajapaksa left little doubt that Sri Lanka would not enforce its commitments on justice and accountability agreed to at the United Nations Human Rights Council. So the foreign minister’s announcement… Read more »
ICJ: Justice & Accountability for Crimes under International Law in Sri Lanka
by International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, February 28, 2020 At the UN Human Rights Council, the ICJ today urged renewed international action to ensure justice and accountability for crimes under international law in Sri Lanka. The statement, delivered during a discussion of updates and reports from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, read as follows:… Read more »
From Being Tortured in Sri Lanka to the U.S. Supreme Court
by Ashoka Mukpo, American Civil Liberties Union, February 24, 2020 On a frigid day in early February, Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam stands under an awning on a street corner in lower Manhattan along with one of his attorneys, Celso Perez of the ACLU. Both are bundled in heavy winter jackets. Perez is holding his phone up and… Read more »
Joint Statement by the Core Group on Sri Lanka
by Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro & UK, Geneva, February 27, 2020 http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/human-rights-council/watch/item2-general-debate-contd-11th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rights-council/6136566318001 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/un-human-rights-council-43-item-2-joint-statement-by-the-core-group-on-sri-lanka UN Human Rights Council 43: Item 2 Joint Statement by the Core Group on Sri Lanka International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French delivers joint statement by the Core Group on Sri Lanka Thank you Madam President This statement is on… Read more »
UNHCHR: Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka
by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, February 18, 2020 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session43/Pages/ListReports.aspx Oral updates and introduction to country reports of the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner UN Human Rights Council, February 27, 2020 http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/human-rights-council/watch/hcsg-country-reports-10th-meeting-43rd-regular-session-human-rights-council-/6136487778001 I move to our update on Sri Lanka, HRC/43/19, assessing the progress made in implementing Human Rights Council resolution… Read more »
SLC: Keep the Promise
by Sri Lanka Campaign, London, February, 2020 The promise Following a landmark international investigation, in September 2015 the United Nations released a major report on serious human rights violations committed during the final stages of the civil war and the surrounding period (2002-2011). The document, known as the ‘OISL Report’[1] was clear in its view that many… Read more »
AI: Fulfil the Demands of the Families of the Disappeared
by Amnesty International, February 14, 2020 In Sri Lanka, many families of the forcibly disappeared mark 14 February as ‘Missing Lovers Day’ in remembrance of their loved ones and to demand truth and justice The Sri Lankan government must deliver justice, truth and reparation to the families of the forcibly disappeared, Amnesty International said today,… Read more »
More Skeletal Remains Discovered in Sri Lanka’s Former War Zone
by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe, February 12, 2020 A judge has ordered methodical excavations of a site in Sri Lanka’s former war zone after construction workers discovered skeletal remains considered as belonging to humans. The bones were unearthed from the Mankulam hospital site in the Mullaitivu district when land clearance was done… Read more »
PEARL welcomes US sanctions against Sri Lankan army chief
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, Washington, D.C., February 14, 2020 Today, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo banned Sri Lanka’s army chief Shavendra Silva from entering the US due to “credible information of his involvement, through command responsibility, in gross violations of human rights, namely extrajudicial killings, by the 58th Division of… Read more »