by North East civil society, January 30, 2019 2019_january_tamil_mothers_to_michelle_bachelet Your Excellency, Re: Your Report to the UNHRC in March 2019 on Sri Lanka We the undersigned civil society groups, in particular from the North and East of Sri Lanka, members of war victims’ associations, other likeminded organisations and individuals concerned about the current state of… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
ITJP: Shavendra Silva Dossier
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, January 29, 2019 http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/shavendra-silva Full dossier (Sangam mirror) ENGLISH தமிழ் සිංහල This is a dossier on Major General Shavendra Silva – appointed Chief of Army Staff of the Sri Lankan Army in January 2019. Shavendra Silva was arguably the most important frontline ground commander in the 2008-9… Read more »
Amnesty: Flickering Hope
Truth, Justice, Reparations & Guarantees of Non-recurrence by Amnesty International, London, January 24, 2019, Index number: ASA 37/9715/2019 In 2015, Sri Lanka co-sponsored Resolution 30/1 at the UN Human Rights Council to demonstrate the newly elected government’s commitment to break with impunity for a past marked by serious human rights violations. While the Resolution was welcomed… Read more »
HRW: “Why Can’t We Go Home?”
Military Occupation of Land in Sri Lanka by Human Rights Watch, New York, October 9, 2018 https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/09/why-cant-we-go-home/military-occupation-land-sri-lanka Summary On April 29, 2017, the Sri Lankan navy high command announced it would release 100 acres of land that security forces had been occupying in the Mullikulam area since 2007 to the original owners. For the displaced… Read more »
Time to Deliver Justice
For War Victims in Sri Lanka UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL’S MARCH 2019 SESSIONS By: Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The 40th Sessions of Human Rights Council is scheduled to be held in Geneva from February 22nd to March 22, 2019. This Session assumes greater importance… Read more »
ITJP: Counting the Dead in Sri Lanka
To memorialize the dead, count them & strengthen the case for genocide. – Editor Counting the Dead form by International Truth & Justice Project & Human Rights Data Analysis Group, South Africa & San Francisco, January 7, 2019 Counting the Dead form in Tamil [Tamil description below] HRDAG and ITJP are working on a project… Read more »
HRDAG Report On Disappeared Tamils In Army Custody In Sri Lanka
by Christine Grillo, Human Rights Data Analysis Group, December 12, 2018 HRDAG-ITJPSL-2018-12-12-1 Today, in collaboration with the International Truth and Justice Project, HRDAG has published a report about the 500 Tamils who disappeared while in Army custody in Sri Lanka in 2009. The report is titled “How many people disappeared on 17-19 May 2009 in Sri Lanka?”… Read more »
Release of Land
Sri Lanka Army had released over 69,000 acres of land in North and East since 2009 by ColomboPage, December 17, 2018 Sri Lanka Army said over 69,000 acres of land that was used by the Army in the North East following the end of the war had been released since 2009. The Army said since… Read more »
ICES: Sex Ratio and Vulnerability in Northern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka
by Kalinga Tudor Silva, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, 2018 ICES Sex-Ratio-and-Vulnerability-Book-No-2 Comparing the results of 1981 and 2012 population censuses in Sri Lanka, thecurrent study examined the impact of the war on the population dynamics in theNorthern and Eastern provinces with a focus on changes in the sex ratio. The sexratio in the… Read more »
Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 48 of 1970 [Certified on 20th July 1979]
See also https://www.sangam.org/2008/05/Sieghart2_1984.php & https://www.icj.org/ethnic-conflict-and-violence-in-sri-lanka-report-of-a-mission-to-sri-lanka-in-july-august-1981-on-behalf-of-the-international-commission-of-jurists-with-a-supplement-by-icj-staff-for-the-period-1981-1/ — Ed/ By: Kumarathasan Rasingam PTA: A true example of draconian legislation? Under Section 9 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), people can be arrested in the absence of formal charges filed against them and can be detained for up to 18 months under a detention order issued by the Minister… Read more »
ICJ 1981 – Ethnic Conflict & Violence in Sri Lanka
by Virginia Leary, International Commission of Jurists, 1981, with a supplement 1981-1983 https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/1983/08/Sri-Lanka-ethnic-conflict-and-violence-fact-finding-mission-report-1983-eng.pdf Ethnic conflict and violence in Sri Lanka: report of a mission to Sri Lanka in July-August 1981, with a supplement for the period of 1981-1983 AUGUST 1, 1983 In view of the events of July – August 1983 in Sri Lanka, the… Read more »
After War’s End, a Long Struggle to Patch Invisible Wounds
by Mujib Mashal, ‘The New York Times,’ December 4, 2018 A government psychiatrist in Sri Lanka goes door to door in an area scarred by civil war, doing whatever he can to meet a staggering need for help. KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — One by one the villagers arrive, each carrying a little blue book that… Read more »
Victims of Sri Lankan Government’s Genocidal War
20,000 Identities/Cases confirmed by War Without Witness, Australia, June 13, 2009 http://www.warwithoutwitness.com/SLCasualityReport/VictimsofSriLankanGovernmentsGenocidalWar20,000IdentitiesorCases_WWWReport_13thJun2009_FullReport.pdf Also available at https://sangam.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VictimsofSriLankanGovernmentsGenocidalWar20000IdentitiesorCases_WWWReport_13thJun2009_FullReport.pdf Reporting as of March 23, 2009: https://sangam.org/2009/03/Civilians_Killed.pdf?uid=3380 This “War Without Witness” report is based on firsthand information obtained from Government Hospital authorities, Government Officials, Police and Judiciary sources in Vanni and Sri Lanka, The North East Secretariat of Human Rights, Aid… Read more »
Use of Cluster Munitions in Sri Lanka
by Kumarathasan Rasingam, November 19, 2018 Sri Lanka is the 103rd country to join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention on March 01, 2018. Under the Convention, Sri Lanka is required to show transparency and report annually in a public document on use, stockpiling, clearance and destruction. These obligations… Read more »
Khmer Rouge Leaders Found Guilty of Genocide
in Cambodia’s ‘Nuremberg’ moment Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are the two most senior living leaders of regime that presided over deaths of at least 1.7 million in Cambodia by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, South-east Asia correspondent, ‘The Guardian,’ London, November 16, 2018 About two million people died during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime. Two of its senior leaders… Read more »
Amnesty: Don’t Impede Ongoing Investigations
by Amnesty International, November 19, 2018 Responding to the transfer of Nishantha Silva, Officer-in-Charge at the Criminal Investigations Department and key investigator in high-profile human rights cases, Amnesty International’s South Asia Researcher, Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, said: “We are concerned about the seeming interference by the authorities with investigations into key allegations of human rights violations including… Read more »
MAP: A Threat to Reconciliation & Accountability
by Andrew Ianuzzi, Richard J. Rogers & Heather Ryan, Justiceinfo.net, November 7, 2018 On October 26, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. For the Monitoring and Accountability Panel, this political come-back risks undermining the limited progress made in transitional justice in the aftermath of a civil war that ended… Read more »
Halfway Isn’t Good Enough on Human Rights
Myanmar and Sri Lanka were praised for minimal progress. Now it’s all falling apart. by Kate Cronin-Furman, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, November 5, 2018 Thousands of Sri Lankans poured into the streets on Oct. 30 to demand that President Maithripala Sirisena obey the country’s constitution. The protests came after Sirisena shockingly announced that he was… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Homegrown Crisis
The constitutional chaos is rooted in domestic politics, not geopolitical machinations. by Taylor Dibbert, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, November 5, 2018 Sri Lanka is a country in crisis. The coalition government has fallen apart. President Maithripala Sirisena has dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sirisena also suspended Parliament until Nov. 16…. Read more »
Cushioning Approach to Sri Lanka
For its genocidal human rights violations by Thambu Kanagasabai , LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law – University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 22, 2018 Sri Lanka’s dismal record of human rights violations, abuses, encouraged by an institutionalized culture of impunity, commenced its journey in 1956 and is continuing undeterred and unpunished through local and/or international… Read more »