Just a little over a year ago, voters in Sri Lanka rallied to elect a new president, with high hopes that he would usher in a new era of government accountability and bring healing to a country fractured by the brutal civil war that ended in 2009. President Maithripala Sirisena has taken bold steps to… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
US Ambassador to UN’s Remarks on Sri Lanka’s Disappeared
Remarks at the UN Security Council Arria-Formula Meeting on the Global Challenge of Accounting for Missing Persons Ambassador Samantha Power U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations U.S. Mission to the United Nations New York City January 27, 2016 AS DELIVERED Thank you, so much. Ambassador Rycroft, thank you for focusing the Council on this… Read more »
HRW: New Government Makes Significant Progress
(New York) – Sri Lanka’s government, elected in January 2015, ended the pervasive culture of surveillance and censorship and embarked on reforms aimed to undo years of increasingly authoritarian rule, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2016. While it opened dialogues both domestically and abroad, the government still faces key concerns, including… Read more »
HRW: 2016 World Report
Sri Lanka Events of 2015 Elections in Sri Lanka brought about momentous changes after nearly a decade of increasingly autocratic rule. In January 2015, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, in power since 2006, lost to a united opposition front led by Maithripala Sirisena, a former health minister. In August, Ranil Wickramsinghe, longtime leader of the largest… Read more »
144 NGOs & Activists Call on GOSL to Stand by Intl Commitments
We the undersigned activists and organizations condemn President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent statements (BBC Sinhala Service, 21 Jan. 2015, Frontline, 14 Jan, 2015) wherein he appears to be indicating a withdrawal from the obligations the Government had committed to in the consensus resolution passed at the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in… Read more »
SL Campaign Posters
https://twitter.com/SLcampaign/media Insights into the economy behind Sri Lanka’s “white van” abductions – bribes, extortion, human smuggling etc. — Jan.6, 2016
Channel 4 Visit to Sri Lanka
The agony of Sri Lanka’s carapace of peace Six years after the Sri Lankan civil war – @jonsnowc4 visits the site of some of its worst horrors. https://t.co/xUGpRSwJIU — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) January 26, 2016 Our return to Sri Lanka’s killing fields has managed to coincide with two major developments – the first is… Read more »
GTF: Alarmed at President Sirisena’s Recent Comments
GTF Press Statement 25 January 2016 Issued for immediate release PRESS STATEMENT 25 January 2016 Alarmed at President Sirisena’s recent Comments regarding International Involvement on Accountability Mechanism – Global Tamil Forum Global Tamil Forum (GTF) is deeply concerned and disappointed by the recent comments of Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena (BBC, January 21, 2016) concerning… Read more »
HRW: Fulfill Rights Council Call for Justice
by Human Rights Watch, January 25, 2015 (New York) – The Sri Lankan government should fulfill its commitments to the United Nations Human Rights Council by ensuring that foreign judges and prosecutors play a significant role in the mandated accountability mechanism for wartime abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 21, 2016, President Maithripala Sirisena… Read more »
FfT: Response to President’s Backtrack on Justice Process
Our Response to President Sirisena’s Backtrack on Justice Process for Sri Lanka Statement from Freedom from Torture on President Sirisena’s questioning of our 2015 torture evidence in BBC interview of 21 January 2016. Sonya Sceats, Director of Policy and Advocacy, said: “This is an outrageous reversal of promises made to torture survivors and the international… Read more »
ITJP: Statement in Response to Sri Lankan President’s Remarks
ITJP Press Release 22 January 2016 Press Statement in Response to Sri Lankan President’s Remarks in BBC Interview: Sri Lanka President wants ‘ internal’ war crimes court. 22nd January 2016. Johannesburg: The International Truth and Justice Project is deeply concerned that Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena appears to be rolling back on his commitment in… Read more »
Sri Lanka President Wants ‘Internal’ War Crimes Court
Video The president of Sri Lanka has said foreign judges and prosecutors should not be involved in an investigation into allegations of war crimes. In a BBC interview, President Maithripala Sirisena said the country did not need to “import” specialists. Both the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels are accused of atrocities in the civil… Read more »
Myths, Realities and Options for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
by Bhavani Fonseka & Luwie Ganeshathasan, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, January 18, 2016 The 2015 political transition in Sri Lanka witnessed several promises for reform. One area in the reform agenda includes the processes and mechanisms for transitional justice. The resolution titled ‘Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’ adopted at the… Read more »
State-aided Sinhala Colonisation
submitted by International Human Rights Association Bremen Before the armed resistance of the Tamil people took the centre stage, three major processes could be identified aimed at the marginalisation and destabilization of the Tamil nation. The first was the state sponsored colonisation schemes, which under the pretext of development, settled depressed peasants and later lumpen… Read more »
Starvation in Syria Galvanizes U.N.
by Somini Sengupta, ‘The New York Times,’ January 15, 2016 UNITED NATIONS — The images of gaunt, hollow-eyed children in three besieged Syrian towns this week prompted even the usually cautious Ban Ki-moon to bluntly and publicly declare that the people starving civilians on the battlefield were committing war crimes. “Tomorrow,” Mr. Ban, the secretary… Read more »
We Need to Jettison Inherited Prejudices and Wrong Notions
by ‘Adaderana,’ Colombo, January 15, 2015 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran says that an inclusive society cannot be built upon counter-terrorism mindset and state security perspectives and that a heavy military presence in the province lays the foundation for violence. Addressing the National Thaipongal Festival in Jaffna today, he said that the 16th goal… Read more »
PTA is Now an Expired Act – PM
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that his British counterpart David Cameron visited Sri Lanka during a “dark period” and that the government is inviting him to return now that the sun is shining on the country. “British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Sri Lanka during a dark period. We are now publicly inviting him to… Read more »
Need For A Time-Bound Process
The government is set to make some headway in the reconciliation process this month but the failure to set deadlines to complete the process has raised some eyebrows. The government, like the former regime, has been saying as of late that it needs to be given time to address the issues at hand. However going… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Torture Machine Continues in Peacetime
PHNOM PENH, 6 January 2016 (IRIN) – Sri Lanka’s new government has been lauded for efforts at reconciliation after a devastating civil war. Yet, civilians are still being abducted, tortured and sexually abused by security forces, according to a report published today. The abuses carry echoes of the not-so-distant past. War erupted in the early… Read more »
Sri Lanka Accused of Allowing Continuing Human Rights Abuses
As Sri Lanka marks a year since the election on 8 January 2015 which brought President Sirisena to power, Freedom from Torture releases new details of recent torture cases and warns that the Government must place a higher priority on tackling torture by the country’s military, police and security services. The UK human rights charity’s… Read more »