by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene, Sunday Times, Colombo, July 6, 2025 In a global arena where the United Nations is desperately struggling to cope with a pronounced irrelevance as the world’s ‘superpowers’ continue to pound the Gaza Strip with all its might and main, of what use are symbolic visits and symbolic messages by the champions of… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Facing the Truth of July 1983
by Kumar Rupesinghe, Sunday Observer, Colombo, July 17, 2003 See: Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Ilankai Tamil Sangam Before I begin an assessment of the final report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence from 1981-1984, I would like to recollect some encounters I had with former President… Read more »
How New DNA Science Could Help More Families of the Missing
Emerging methods are improving the ability to identify even highly degraded human remains by Damien Cave, The New York Times, July 4, 2025 The world is facing an abundance of tragic events that produce large numbers of the dead and missing people, including wars in Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan and the Middle East, as well as… Read more »
The Story of Chemmani and the Graves That Refuse to Stay Buried
by Roy Fernando (SJ), Groundviews, Colombo, June 30, 2025 Some truths are not uncovered by force. They rise slowly, persistently, from the ground because the dead cannot remain forgotten forever. In the quiet village of Chemmani, nestled within the war scarred terrain of the Jaffna peninsula, a patch of soil became the unlikely custodian of… Read more »
TG Explainer – Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and the Chemmani Mass Graves
by Tamil Guardian, London, July 2, 2025 Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was an 18-year-old Tamil schoolgirl from Jaffna whose brutal rape and murder in 1996, along with the killing of her mother, younger brother, and a neighbour, became one of the most notorious atrocities of Sri Lanka’s genocide of Tamils. Her case exposed a grisly network of… Read more »
Türk: ‘The Haunting Past Becomes Visible’
UN human rights chief reflects on Chemmani visit by Tamil Guardian, London, June 25, 2025 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reflected on his visit to the Chemmani mass grave site near Jaffna on Wednesday, reiterating the importance of ensuring “independent experts with forensic expertise” are allowed to be used to excavate… Read more »
Jaffna Monitor: A Mother’s Endless Wait
by Dr. Nalayini Jegathesan, Jaffna Monitor, 2019 A Mother’s Endless Wait Jaffna Monitor 2019
From Chemmani To Geneva
Will Sri Lanka Face Its Truth? by Wimal Navaratnam, Brampton, Canada, June 30, 2025 From Chemmani to Geneva Contents Background and Context of the High Commissioner’s Visit …………………………………………………… 4 Context: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Volker Türk’s Engagement and Key Messages During the Visit ………………………………………………… 4 Transitional Justice and Accountability: …………………………………………………………………………. 5 Repeal of Draconian Security Laws: ………………………………………………………………………………… Read more »
Adayaalam: A Phantom that is Real
Persisting culture of surveillance and intimidation in the North-East by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, February 2025 Adayaalam A-Phantom-that-is-Real_-Persisting-Culture-or-Surveilance-and-Intimidation-in-the-NorthEast This report sheds light on the prevailing patterns of surveillance, intimidation, and arrests that activists, civil society members, and journalists face in the North-East of Sri Lanka, and is one of the recent studies exploring… Read more »
Sri Lanka Core Group Statement June 2025
Sri Lanka Core Group statement for the Interactive Dialogue on the High Commissioner’s Annual Report. Delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders. From: UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Eleanor Sanders Published 17 June 2025 Delivered on: 17 June 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you Mr… Read more »
Amnesty: HRC59 Statement on HCHR’s Report
IOR 40/9564/2025 17 June 2025 ITEM 2: INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE ON THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER HUMAN RIGHTS MUST POINT THE WAY OUT OF OUR CURRENT PERIL UN Human Rights Council Fifty-ninth regular session 16 June – 9 July 2025 High Commissioner, We thank you for your report and update raising alarm across a… Read more »
Oral statement of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
United Nations Human Rights Council 59th Regular Session Agenda Item 2 Oral statement of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in the Interactive Dialogue on the High Commissioner’s Annual Report 17 June 2025 High Commissioner, The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) thanks you for your report and address today. We particularly share your concerns regarding… Read more »
New Sri Lanka Mass Grave Discovery Reopens Old Wounds for Tamils
by Jeevan Ravindran, AlJazeera, Doha June 16, 2025 So far, 19 bodies have been found. Thousands of Tamils were disappeared during the civil war that ended in 2009. A rusted gate behind which Sri Lankan excavators are digging the latest mass grave they have found from the country’s 26-year-long civil war, in Chemmani, Sri Lanka… Read more »
Adaptation of Archaeological Techniques in Forensic Mass Grave Exhumation: Chemmani
The experience of ‘Chemmani’ excavation in northern Sri Lanka by PR Ruwanpura, UCP Perera, HTK Wijeyaweera and N Chandrasiri, Ceylon Medical Journal, 2006 Sep;51(3):98-102 1251-1-4695-1-10-20091023 Abstract There have been several mass grave excavations in Sri Lanka during the period of 1995 to 1998. Excavation of mass graves in the Chemmani area of northern peninsula of… Read more »
Letter re Repeal of PTA from Civil Society
Letter re PTA May 2025 English Letter re PTA May 2025 Tamil Letter re PTA May 2025 Sinhalese 29th May, 2025 Secretary, Ministry of Justice and National Integration, Colombo 10 Re: The Repeal of the PTA – Do not replace with a new terror law We, as concerned peoples of Sri Lanka, respond to the… Read more »
TG: Sri Lanka’s Genocide Blueprint
Tamil Guardian editorial, June 2, 2025 There was a marked shift in global politics last week as states around the world, including staunch allies of Israel, began to criticise its ongoing military offensive in Gaza. It comes as a senior United Nations humanitarian official repeatedly issued a stark reminder of the international community’s failure to… Read more »
Why Citing Sri Lanka to Justify Gaza Is Strategically and Legally Dangerous
The problem is that Sri Lanka is not a model of anything durable. It is a case study in how military triumph achieved through mass atrocity leads to long-term state failure. Genocide may remove an armed group, but it also erodes legitimacy, triggers unintended consequences, and breaks the systems that sustain governance. by Maxwin Paul… Read more »
TG: A Global Reckoning
Tamil Guardian editorial, May 27, 2025 Last week, thousands of Tamils gathered at Mullivaikkal, on the very beaches where tens of thousands were massacred by the Sri Lankan state in 2009, to mark the 16th anniversary of the genocide. The turnout was remarkable, the largest since the end of the armed conflict, and a powerful testament… Read more »
TG: There Can Be No More Denial
Tamil Guardian editorial, May 19, 2025 Today, Tamils around the world are commemorating 16 years since the massacres at Mullivaikkal. Though more than a decade-and-half has passed, the situation on the island for Eelam Tamils seems as precarious as ever. There has been no accountability for the atrocities that took place. The seizure of historic… Read more »
Mullivaikkal Declaration 2025
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 21, 2025 See in original Tamil at TamilWin தமிழீழ வரலாற்றின் சாட்சியாக முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் பிரகடனம் 2025 – தமிழ்வின் Marking sixteen years since the Mullivaikkal genocide, the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Public Forum released a statement on 18 May 2025, reaffirming the Tamil nation’s unwavering commitment to justice, self-determination, and resistance against continued structural oppression… Read more »