Posts Categorized: Human Rights

Invoking Nuremberg in Colombo

The writer clearly has a distance to travel to understand what took place during & after the war in Sri Lanka.  Has she seen Channel 4’s ‘Killing Fields,’ read the OISL Report or the proceedings of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka, or talked to anyone who was in Mullavaikkal at the end of the… Read more »

SR Counter-Terrorism & Human Rights

Video of SR Emmerson’s media conference at end of his visit https://lk.one.un.org/news/full-statement-by-ben-emmerson-un-special-rapporteur-on-human-rights-and-counter-terrorism-at-the-conclusion-of-his-official-visit/ Human rights and counter-terrorism: UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism concludes visit to Sri Lanka Preliminary findings of the visit to Sri Lanka Colombo (14 July 2017) – The United Nations Special… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Difficulty with Truth

Half a year later, the Sri Lankan Government has let this important initiative languish. Although officials travelling abroad boast about the consultation process and herald it as a signal of the Government’s determination to abide by the Human Rights Council resolution, it has completely ignored the report domestically. Foreign governments watching Sri Lanka’s progress on… Read more »

Navy Officer Arrested in Case of 11 Missing Youth

Note: The Government of Sri Lanka has acknowledged 65,000 missing.  See Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/sri-lanka-admits-65-000-missing-war-insurrection-170723940.html and Hindustani Times at http://www.hindustantimes.com/world/sri-lanka-to-recognise-around-65-000-people-missing-since-civil-war-as-dead/story-z9fUgfnEEiT74RXUmisHwK.html.  Also see TCHR http://sangam.org/2007/11/Killed_1956_2007.php?uid=2619 — Editor by The Associated Press posted in ‘The New York Times’ Asia section July 12, 2017 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka police on Wednesday arrested a senior navy officer in connection with… Read more »

HRW: Minister Threatens Defender of Minority Rights

by Human Rights Watch, New York, June 19, 2017 Investigate, Prosecute Attacks on Muslims, Christians (New York) – The Sri Lankan government should immediately repudiate statements by the country’s justice minister threatening to disbar a prominent lawyer for speaking out against attacks on religious minorities, Human Rights Watch said today. The incident highlights the government’s… Read more »

Normalising the Abnormalcy

Reflections on Self-Determination, Justice and Peace in Post-War Sri Lanka by Prof. K. Guruparan, Melbourne, Australia, June 12, 2017 Text of the Mamanithar Late Prof C.J. Eliezer AM Memorial Lecture delivered on 12 June 2016 at the Monash University, Clayton Campus, Melbourne  I am deeply honoured by this invitation to deliver the Maamanithar Prof Christopher Jeyaratnam… Read more »

What the Families of the Disappeared Want

by K. Guruparan tweet, June 12, 2017 Demands put forward by the reps of the families of the disappeared to Pres. Sirisena during his visit to Jaffna on June 11, 2017 1. Release a list of all those who surrendered or were detained by the Sri Lankan Armed forces during and after the war, and… Read more »

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers

On her mission to Sri Lanka Put into general distribution on March 23, 2017 Available online at http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/35/31/Add.1 Report of the SR Independence Judges Lawyers Mar 2017 Website of the Special Rapporteur Prevention of Terrorism Act 70. At the time of writing, the Prevention of Terrorism Act had not yet been repealed, despite repeated calls for… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Missing People

This is one set of numbers re casualties from Sri Lanka’s war.  The 65,000 missing number comes from those reported to various official Sri Lankan commissions & officially accepted by Pres. Sirisena’s government in 2016.  Accurate figures of casualties are one of the biggest challenges of the war.  The numbers for civilian casualties in this… Read more »

How a Haiti Child Sex Ring was Whitewashed

UN PEACEKEEPERS: HOW A HAITI CHILD SEX RING WAS WHITEWASHED by Katy Daigle and Paisley Dodds, Associated Press in ‘The Washington Post,’ May 26, 2017 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The general sat on a plastic lawn chair in the garden of his mother’s home, the scent of tropical blooms filling the air as he… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Genocidal War as Seen by the World

By: Thambu Kanagasabai  LLM [London], Former Lecturer in Law – University of Colombo, May 30, 2017 Though Sri Lanka unleashed its agenda of marginalization of Tamils starting in 1956 through a program of Budddhisisation and Sinhalisation and a hidden genocidal process, the climax was reached during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from 2006… Read more »

Amnesty: Act Now to Prevent Further Anti-Muslim Violence

by Amnesty International, May 25, 2017 Sri Lankan authorities must act immediately to end attacks on Muslims in the country, and to rein in violent groups that target religious minorities, and take action against perpetrators, Amnesty International said. Index number: ASA 37/6361/2017 Amnesty Anti Muslim Violence May 2017 Sri Lanka: Act now to prevent further… Read more »

Amnesty: Priest Harassed over Memorial to Dear War Victims

by Amnesty International, May 25, 2017 May 25, 2017 URGENT ACTION: PRIEST HARASSED OVER MEMORIAL TO DEAD WAR VICTIMS (SRI LANKA: UA 116.17) Sri Lankan priest, Father Elil Rajendram, is being harassed by the police over his efforts to help families memorialize their loved ones lost during the armed conflict. 1) TAKE ACTION Write a… Read more »

Facing Sri Lanka’s Ghosts

by Devon Haynie, ‘US News & World Report,’ May 18, 2017 With thousands still missing, Sri Lanka’s postwar progress comes to a halt. VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — At some point during its brutal 26 years, the Sri Lankan civil war brought terror or loss to virtually everyone in the country. For Kasipillai Jeyavanitha, a mother… Read more »

The Women Left Behind

by Devon, Haynie, US News & World Report, May 18, 2017 Sri Lanka’s civil war ended eight years ago today, but for its 90,000 war widows, the battle continues. VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — It was midnight in 2008 when several members of Sri Lanka’s security forces barged into Rajendran Geetha’s house and took her husband,… Read more »

Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and Women Development Innovators (WDI), May 11, 2017 *** Sri Lanka: Issues of land and sea grabbing on minorities brought to UN In order to reflect the current situation of minorities in Sri Lanka, IMADR, Minority Rights Group International (MRG)… Read more »

UN Peacekeepers: Keeping the Peace or Preventing it?

The UN peacekeepers’ capacity to commit rape with impunity undermines prospects for sustainable peace around the world. by Nimmi Gowrinathan & Kate Cronin-Furman, Al Jazeera, May 2, 2017 In 2007, more than 100 Sri Lankan peacekeeping troops were sent back to their home country from Haiti in disgrace as a result of sexual abuse allegations,… Read more »

Civil Society Joint Statement on CTA

Joint Civil Society Statement: Sri Lanka’s draft Counter Terrorism Act: a license for continued state oppression, intimidation and torture May 4, 2017 The Sri Lankan cabinet’s approval of the new Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) is further confirmation of the state’s unwillingness to meet its obligations on human rights, to its citizens and the international community…. Read more »