Posts Categorized: Human Rights

US Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/human-rights-council-37-joint-statement-on-sri-lanka by UK Mission to the UN, Geneva, March 21, 2018 This joint statement was delivered at the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council on behalf of Macedonia, Montenegro, the United States & the United Kingdom the during the UN High Commissioner’s report on Sri Lanka, held on 21 March 2018. This statement is on… Read more »

Deputy HC Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka

by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore, March 21, 2018 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22875&LangID=E Moving now to our written update on progress in promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka (A/HRC/37/23) between March 2017 and January 2018. We welcome the Government’s constructive engagement with OHCHR and the human rights mechanisms, including its cooperation with visits of this… Read more »

SLCPJ: Updated Scorecard on GoSL’s progress

by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, March 7, 2018 A narrowing window: our updated scorecard on the government of Sri Lanka’s progress on justice and reconciliation Today we release an update to our ‘Keep the Promise’ campaign, monitoring the government’s pledges to bring about a meaningful process of justice and reconciliation. Those… Read more »

VR: Res. 30/1 Implementation Monitor #3

UNHRC Resolution 30/1 Implementation Monitor: Statistical & Analytical Review No. 3 by Verite Research, Colombo, February 26, 2018 This is Verité Research’s latest study on the Sri Lankan government’s commitments on reconciliation and accountability. The ongoing UNHRC Session began on 26 February 2018, and will include a discussion on Sri Lanka’s progress in this regard. This report… Read more »

Sri Lanka Bans Cluster Munitions

The transparency now required of Sri Lanka as a state party to these treaties could help to formally answer questions about past cluster munition and land mine use. ITJP Universal Jurisdiction Combatting Impunity in Sri Lanka March 15 2018 by Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch, New York, March 14, 2018 Sri Lanka has become the 103rd country to join… Read more »

Anti-Muslim Riots Signal a New Social Fissure

by ‘The Economist,’ London, March 8, 2018 Sinhalese nationalists may be looking for an enemy COLOMBO: THE trigger was supposedly a road-rage incident, said to have involved members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, near the popular tourist destination of Kandy. A lorry driver from the country’s biggest ethnic group, the Sinhalese, ended up dead. Angry… Read more »

Sri Lanka Imposes Emergency to Quell Communal Riots

by Times of India, March 6, 2018 HIGHLIGHTS Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency to quell anti-Muslim riots that have killed at least two people and damaged dozens of mosques and homes in the central district of Kandy. Here’s what led the Maithripala Sirisena government to take the extreme measure: *… Read more »

US Embassy Statement

by US Embassy, Colombo, March 6, 2018 March 6, 2018 – COLOMBO:  Rule of law, human rights, and equality are essential for peaceful coexistence.  It is important that the Government of Sri Lanka act quickly against perpetrators of sectarian violence, protect religious minorities and their places of worship, and conclude the State of Emergency swiftly, while… Read more »

Statement by Tamil Civil Society Condemning Violence against Muslim Community

Courtesy Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, March 6, 2018 We strongly condemn the violence being unleashed against the Muslim people in Kandy this week and in Amparai earlier last week. Initial reports from Amparai and Kandy make clear that the police by inaction were complicit in the violence.  We, as Tamil civil society organizations who work in… Read more »

It’s the Tamil Economy, Stupid

by J.T. Janani, Tamil Guardian, October 29 – November 12, 2008 [originally posted December 1, 2008 at http://www.sangam.org/2008/12/Tamil_Economy.php?uid=3174] A 2 part series looking at the economic drivers behind the Sri Lankan state’s genocide of the Tamils ‘The Economist’ of August 6th 2003 summarised the genocide of Black July 1983 thus: “Two weeks ago Tamils owned 80% of the… Read more »

ATC, BTF, USTPAC Welcome UN Human Rights Commissioner’s Report on Sri Lanka and Call for International Action

20180302 ATC_BTF_USTPAC_On_OHCHR Report GENEVA, March 2, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC), the British Tamils Forum (BTF) and the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) welcome the report by High Commissioner Zeid to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) as the current Council session commenced on the progress made by Sri Lanka in implementing the HRC resolutions it… Read more »

Bremen Tribunal Prosecutor Contextualises the Bellinzona Court case

by ‘HumanRights.de,’ Bremen, Germany, February 23, 2018 Dr. Andy Higginbottom was the prosecutor for the Bremen session of the People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka in 2013. Last week, he, together with two of the judges at the Bremen Tribunal, Dr. Denis Halliday and Dr. Maung Zarni responded to the Bellinzona case at our press conference… Read more »

HRW: Key Elements for HRC 37 Statements on Sri Lanka

by Human Rights Watch, January 15, 2018 HRW Sri Lanka HRC37 letter We write to seek your support in ensuring that the upcoming consideration of Sri Lanka’s progress towards implementation of its commitments under UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution 30/1 accurately and substantively reflects the situation within the country, including both progress to date… Read more »

UN High Commissioner’s Report on Sri Lanka 2018

by High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, January 25, 2018 OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka 25 Jan 2018 Human Rights Council Thirty-seventh session 26 February–23 March 2018 Agenda item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promoting reconciliation,… Read more »

Rome Declaration

from ‘ICET,’ February 8, 2018 Rome Declaration in Italian & English – Rome_Declaration-english-italy-2018 Rome Declaration – 5 February 2018 1. The seven decades long genocide being committed by successive governments of Sri Lanka should be investigated by an international independent body outside the scope of Sri Lankan government-controlled judiciary. 2. Those tens of thousands who are still missing… Read more »

PEARL: Remembering the Kumarapuram Massacre

by People for Relief and Equality in Lanka, Washington, DC, February 11, 2018 22 years ago today, in a small Tamil village in the North-East of Sri Lanka, a group of soldiers murdered 26 people, left 24 others injured, and gang-raped a 15-year-old girl. Twenty years after the Kumarapuram massacre, on July 27, 2016, an… Read more »

‘Very Fair to Say SL Army Committed Genocide’

— Former UN staffer by ‘The Economic Times,’ India, from Press Trust of India, January 27, 2018 The atrocities committed against Tamils during the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka amounted to ethnic cleansing and even today a huge drive is underway to change the demography of the Tamil-dominated region, noted photographer and former UN… Read more »

Panel in Washington discusses Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka

by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, February 5, 2018 A panel event on mass atrocities discussed the lack of progress made by Sri Lanka in the realm of transitional justice, in Washington DC last week. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Ferencz International Justice Initiative and the National Endowment for Democracy held an event on promoting justice for… Read more »

ITJP: : What Vetting of Sri Lankan Diplomats?

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka & International Truth & Justice Project, February 7, 2018 ITJP JDS press-release-7-feb-2018 vetting SL diplomats Johannesburg: The UK, the UN and the international community have an obligation to step up their screening and vetting of Sri Lankan public and security officals for alleged involvement in atrocities during and… Read more »