Posts Categorized: Human Rights

TNA Statement on Draft Resolution

TNA Statement The Tamil National Alliances welcomes the draft text of a resolution on Sri Lanka tabled by the co-sponsors of the resolution today. In particular, we welcome the draft resolution’s call on Sri Lanka to involve foreign and Commonwealth judges, lawyers, investigators and defenders in a judicial mechanism to be set up in Sri… Read more »

HRW: UN Resolution Could Advance Justice

(Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution ensuring a robust international role in Sri Lanka’s justice mechanism for abuses during the country’s brutal civil war, Human Rights Watch said today. The resolution, expected to be adopted on October 1, 2015, contains a number of strong provisions but will need to… Read more »

A Hybrid Court, But How Strong Will It Be?

The Governments of Sri Lanka, the United States, the United Kingdom, Montenegro, and Macedonia have published the text of a joint resolution which will form the basis of the follow up to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ “OISL” report. You can read the text here. What happens now? This resolution can be amended… Read more »

TNA & US Reaction to Tabled UNHRC Resolution

September 24, 2015 TNA Statement on the draft text of the resolution on Sri Lanka: The Tamil National Alliances welcomes the draft text of a resolution on Sri Lanka tabled by the co-sponsors of the resolution today. In particular, we welcome the draft resolution’s call on Sri Lanka to involve foreign and Commonwealth judges, lawyers,… Read more »

UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka Tabled

A/HRC/30/L.29 Received from (main sponsors): The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America Date and Time: 24/09/2015  17:17   HRC 30th Session – Draft Resolution   Item 2:  Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka   The Human Rights Council,   Pp1… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Watershed Moment

In the coming days, a United States-led core group at the United Nations Human Rights Council will put forward its resolution on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, responding in part to the OISL (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation into Sri Lanka) report released on Sept. 16. The resolution, which is… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Intervention at UNHRC Informals

Intervention-by-Ambassador-Ravinatha-Aryasinha-at-the-First-informal-session-on-the-Draft-resolution-on-Sri-Lanka It was pointed out that all these mechanisms will be evolved and designed by a wide process of consultations with all stakeholders including victims, communities, political parties, civil society representatives, the military, the High Commissioner and his office, bilateral partners, relevant international organizations as well as members of the diaspora who wish to be… Read more »

Joint Statement on OISL Report by 22 Civil Society Organizations from NE

JOINT STATEMENT ON THE OISL REPORT 18 September 2015 JOINT STATEMENT ON THE OISL REPORT We welcome the report of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Inquiry on Sri Lanka (OISL) released on 16 September 2015. The report is to-date the most comprehensive fact-finding report on the atrocities that have been committed in… Read more »

A Reckoning on Sri Lanka War Crimes

The United Nations Human Rights Council released its report Wednesday on possible war crimes committed during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war. As many as 40,000 Tamils were killed by the military during the final months of the conflict, which ended in 2009. Citing a “horrific level of violations and abuses” in… Read more »

Statements at UNHRC on Sri Lanka Sept. 14

UNHCHR Zeid statement Six years ago, we were confronted with serious violations and loss of civilian life in the last months of Sri Lanka’s long civil war. This Council has been deeply engaged with the need for accountability, as a necessary step towards reconciliation in that country. On Wednesday I will release the report of… Read more »

FM’s Speech at UNHRC

Statement by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, MP Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka General Debate of the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council Geneva, 14 September 2015 Mr. President High Commissioner for Human Rights Excellencies Distinguished delegates I would like to begin by thanking you, and the members of the Council for the… Read more »

Minimum Requirements for an Accountability Mechanism in Sri Lanka

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, September 2015 Minimum Requirements for an Accountability Mechanism Sri Lanka has a dismal record of achieving truth or justice through the various Commissions of Inquiry it has established in the past, with no accountability of any kind domestically for any past violations. The context of… Read more »

Sri Lanka Join the ICC

https://ciccglobaljustice.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/sri-lanka-give-all-victims-a-chance-for-justice/ Sri Lanka: Give all victims a chance for justice ⒸPeter Pawlowski/Flickr With its new leaders promising to put Sri Lanka on a path towards reform and reconciliation, justice for grave crimes must not be neglected. By joining the ICC, Sri Lanka can signal to its citizens and the international community that it is ready to… Read more »

AI: Time for Sri Lanka to Act on Justice

By Amnesty International, 8 September 2015, Index number: ASA 37/2420/2015 ASA3724202015ENGLISH The Sri Lanka government must act immediately to deliver on its commitment to accountability and to end impunity and protect human rights, including by ensuring the conclusion of prosecutions and bringing about legal and institutional reform, including criminalization of enforced disappearances, legal recognition of… Read more »

Amb. Stephen Rapp on Sri Lanka’s War Crimes Investigation

At the end of August, the United States announced that it would support Sri Lanka’s plan for investigating alleged war crimes that occurred during the final years of the country’s long-running civil war, which ended in 2009. This announcement signaled a shift in position for the State Department, which had long insisted on an international… Read more »

US Stand on Sri Lanka Perverts International Justice

AT the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva next week, the US is to sponsor a resolution on war crimes in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the Colombo government. This is despite wide recognition that Sri Lankan leaders are implicated in these war crimes. The resolution is said to ask for a domestic… Read more »

Missing, Missing, Missing for 25 Years ….

(Officer in charge of the Vantharumoolai refugee camp, 1990) Many may not know that when September 5, 2015 dawns it will be 25 years of waiting for 158 families who ‘lost’ a member or two on that day in 1990 from the VANTHARUMOOLAI REFUGFEE CAMP at the Eastern University. They did not go missing as… Read more »