by Kasun Yapa Karunaratne, Journalists for a Democratic Society, Europe, November 1, 2016 In a damning report to the UN, Sri Lanka’s top human rights body has confirmed that the country’s police force maintain secret detention centers as exposed by local and international rights activists. The much feared Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) runs these illegal… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Why Just Counting the Dead in Syria Won’t Bring Them Justice
A full tally of the war’s horrific violence requires estimates, models, and sophisticated pattern analysis to understand who’s responsible and why. by Patrick Ball, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 19, 2016 Nearly 18,000 people died in Syrian government prisons between March 2011 and December 2015. My colleagues and I at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group(HRDAG)… Read more »
Jaffna Press Club: Remembering Mylvaganam Nimalarajan
October 19, 2016 Today, 16 years have passed since our colleague Mylvaganam Nimalarajan was assassinated. Along with the lack of justice for hundreds of thousands of Tamil people massacred in the Tamil homeland in the island of Sri Lanka, there has similarly been no justice for journalists and media workers, including Nimalarajan. The culture of… Read more »
GTF welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur’s statement
Issued for immediate release PRESS STATEMENT 22 October 2016, London Global Tamil Forum welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur’s statement on minority rights and calling on Sri Lanka to act decisively to not to lose the momentous opportunity to bring lasting peace and reconciliation among all communities The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) welcomes the end-of-mission… Read more »
Statement of UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, on the conclusion of her official visit to Sri Lanka, 10-20 October 2016 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20709&LangID=E by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, 20 October 2016 In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, I conducted an official… Read more »
Land Grabbing & Accountability
by South Asia Centre for Legal Studies, Colombo, September 27, 2016 Despite land grabbing being a common feature of many armed conflicts and an integral part of discriminatory policies against minority groups, it is insufficiently addressed in post-conflict or transitional justice accountability processes. While truth-commissions, in particular the Truth Commission in El Salvador, have highlighted… Read more »
Can Sri Lanka Hold On to Its Fragile Peace?
But it’s not Power or other foreign officials whom the government needs to win over. Far more crucial is the Tamil minority that feels left behind by the country’s postwar progress and embittered by the Sinhalese majority’s seeming indifference to its plight. And this is where the young woman with the tiny photograph comes in…. Read more »
Still Missing in Mullaitivu
by Meera Srinivasan, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, October 1, 2016 More than seven years after the brutal three-decade-long civil war ended in Sri Lanka, people are still picking up the pieces and searching for their loved ones. The last time Mary Sabamalai saw her son Mayuran was in 2008, when he came home for his 21st birthday…. Read more »
SL HRC Letter re Proposed Amendment to Criminal Procedure Act
The passage of the new Bill will hinder the efforts of the Government which has expressed its determination to stop torture in Sri Lanka. by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, September 21, 2016 HRC SL Letter-to-PM-on-21.09.2016 Proposed Amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act Depriving Suspects of Access to Lawyers until their Statements… Read more »
Why Referendums Aren’t as Democratic as They Seem
The Interpreter By Amanda Taub & Max Fisher, ‘The New York Times,’ October 4, 2016 The voters of the world have had quite a year: They rejected Colombia’s peace deal; split Britain from the European Union; endorsed a Thai Constitution that curtails democracy; and, in Hungary, backed the government’s plan to restrict refugees, but without… Read more »
India’s Disturbing Oscar Entry Takes on Police Torture
by BBC, London, September 28, 2016 A thriller in Tamil language has been chosen as India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Oscars. Sudha G Tilak writes on an unusually gritty crime drama on police brutality and corruption. A homeless young man is walking down a street after watching a… Read more »
Political Justice is Not Enough to Rebuild Sri Lanka
by Timothy Ryan, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC, September 28, 2016 For Sri Lanka, gender equity will be fundamental to a stable, peaceful and equitable futureThe civil war that raged for 26 years in Sri Lanka was always about more than political grievances. The politics were rooted in economic and social disenfranchisement of the Tamil minority by the Sinhala… Read more »
Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions)(Amendment) Bill
So it is tens of thousands in numbers who have met with this fate. In amending the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, now, there is provision to issue a different kind of certificate and that is a certificate of absence. This is a most welcome move; one about which we would congratulate the Government… Read more »
Why International Law Still Matters
Sands allows his extraordinary book to revolve around a simple question: Do we need the crime of genocide? Does the category add anything to the power and effectiveness of crimes against humanity? “The term ‘genocide,’ with its focus on the group,” Sands writes, “tends to heighten a sense of ‘them’ and ‘us,’ burnishes feelings of… Read more »
OMP – Upholding or Denying Justice?
by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], FCII, September 25, 2016 Sri Lanka ranks second in the list of countries after Iraq to record the largest number of disappearances with unofficial estimated numbers of about 90,000 since the 1980s. Out of these disappearances, enforced or involuntary disappearances are reported to be around 65,000. Enforced Disappearances always involve state… Read more »
Oakland Institute at UNHRC: Militarisation and Land Grab
by Anuradha Mittal, UN Human Rights Council side event, Geneva, September 22, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0hZU-WmVM0&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
USTPAC Deeply Disturbed by Sri Lankan Justice Minister’s Statement
USTPAC Press Statement_Justice Minister War Crimes_160923 WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In an interview with BBC Sandeshaya, Sri Lankan Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe categorically rejected all allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lanka’s armed forces and stated the government would take legal action against anyone who alleges the armed forces committed war crimes. Furthermore, he said that anyone who… Read more »
AI: Keep Victims at the Centre of Justice, Truth and Reparation Efforts
by Amnesty International, London, August 29, 2016 Amnesty ASA3747212016ENGLISH Amnesty ASA3747212016TAMIL Amnesty International’s written statement to the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (13 – 30 September 2016) … Public consultations, the bedrock on which Sri Lanka’s transitional justice process must be built, are underway. However, implementation has been undermined by lack of… Read more »
Report of Working Group on Enforced Disappearances
Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on its mission to Sri Lanka 9 to 18 November 2015, Geneva, July 8, 2016 Report of WGEID on mission to Sri Lanka_A-HRC-33-51-Add.2 Introduction … 6. Enforced disappearances have been used in a massive and systematic way in Sri Lanka for many decades to suppress political dissent,… Read more »
A Broken System
by Raisa Wickrematunge, @raisalw, ‘Shorthand Social,’ no date, accessed September 7, 2016 It all started when Malaka* and Rohan* (names changed to protect identity) went to meet relations in Wattegama. Returning from the visit, they saw two policemen making off with their motorcycles, which they had parked on the main road. They confronted the officers, who began… Read more »