Imperfect harmony The city state is less racially harmonious than its government likes to think by The Economist, London, July 31, 2021 DAVE PARKASH and his girlfriend were strolling down the street one evening in June when an irate man accosted them. Tan Boon Lee accused Mr Parkash of “preying” on his girlfriend, whom Mr Tan,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
L&ST: Understanding Rule of Law, Human Security & Prevention of Terrorism in Sri Lanka
by Ermiza Tegal, Law & Society Trust, Colombo, February 2021 Understanding_Rule_of_Law_Human_Security_and_Prevention_of_Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka_English 6. Conclusion This report aimed to respond to three main questions (1) what are the international legal standards in relation to arbitrary arrest and detention particularly in the context of countering terrorism? (2) what is Sri Lanka’s domestic legal framework in protecting the rights… Read more »
In Sri Lanka, The COVID Response is Exacerbating Religious & Ethnic Tensions
by Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch in cooperation with Stanley Center for Peace & Security, June 22, 2021 Podcast interview with J.S. Tissainayagam at In Sri Lanka, The COVID Response is Exacerbating Religious and Ethnic Tensions | UN Dispatch In May 2009, the long running civil war in Sri Lanka ended with the defeat of… Read more »
Atrocities Cast Shadow on Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Response
by J.S. Tissainayagam, Stanley Center for Peace & Security, Iowa, USA, May 17, 2021 Ranjini,* a housewife, lives in Kilinochchi, a town in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Earlier this year, the government began vaccinating the public against COVID-19. But this has made her fearful: she is not sure if she will be injected with… Read more »
TG: Echoes of the Past
by Tamil Guardian, London, July 23, 2021 This year marks 38 years since Black July: the anti-Tamil pogrom where thousands of Tamils were killed by brutal state-supported Sinhala mobs. It was a week of violence that saw Tamils murdered, tortured and displaced. It remains a premeditated and meticulously coordinated act of genocide. The remnants of… Read more »
Yet Another Incident in July 1983
by Basil Fernando, TamilNet, July 24, 2008 A poem, based on an eye-witness account of an event during 1983 pogrom captures the determination of a Tamil father at the time of his agonising death. The poem by Basil Fernando, a Sinhala lawyer, encapsulates the impelling spirit of the Tamil struggle of the post-pogrom years. Mr…. Read more »
The Myth of Security and the Prevention of Terrorism Act
False Promises by Ambika Satkunanathan, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 14, 2021 For decades human rights activists have highlighted the draconian nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which promises safety and security, yet in practice makes each citizen vulnerable to being arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured and even convicted of an offence the person did not… Read more »
‘Stateless’: Detention Camp Drama Floats Adrift
Despite agile performances, the Australian drama focuses on the wrong characters, giving its refugee stories short shrift Eelam Tamils have a small subplot in this series. Showing on Netflix — Editor by Maria Fontuora, Rolling Stone, USA, July 13, 2020 In 2004, an Australian citizen named Cornelia Rau was wrongly imprisoned in an immigrant detention… Read more »
Report of the Consultation Task Force, Nov. 2016
by Consultation Task Force, Sri Lanka, November 17, 2016 CTF-Final-Report-Volume-I-Nov-16 As the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms no longer has a website and our link to this report of the Consultation Task Force at Consultation Task Force Final Report – Ilankai Tamil Sangam no longer works, we are posting the PDF here. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A…. Read more »
UN Human Rights Council 47
Core Group statement on Sri Lanka by UK Mission to UN, Geneva, Switzerland, June 22, 2021 The Human Rights Council takes place in Geneva. This statement is on behalf of Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Malawi, Montenegro and the UK, the Core Group on Sri Lanka. Council resolution 46/1 called upon the Sri Lankan Government to… Read more »
Lessons from the Murugappan Family
Does community support matter? by Niru Perera & Charishma Ratnam, Overland, Australia, June 21, 2021 Why is it that most politicians don’t say their names? They are referred to as ‘The Sri Lankan family’ or the ‘Tamil asylum seekers’. They are the Murugappans. The parents, Priya and Nades, are both asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka and… Read more »
Amnesty: Sri Lanka Struggles to Respond Effectively to COVID-19 Third Wave
by Amnesty International, London, June 10, 2021 Index number ASA 37/4262/2021 Amnesty Sri Lanka Struggles to Respond to Covid 3rd Wave ASA3742622021ENGLISH [pdf] As several countries with access to vaccines lift restrictions and seem to be coming out of the pandemic, Covid-19 continues to pose significant challenges in South Asia and beyond, and Sri Lanka… Read more »
ITJP: New Appointments in Sri Lanka Torpedo What Left of the Transitional Justice Mechanisms
by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, June 1, 2021 Final-OMP-RO-Press-Release Johannesburg: The appointment of the war-time police chief to the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) in Sri Lanka completes the militarisation of this transitional justice mechanism established under the previous government. The move obliterates any chance of truth and justice for the Families… Read more »
Remembering the Jaffna Public Library
“A city’s public library is the eye of the city by which the citizens are able to behold the realness of their heritage, and behold the still greater greatness of their future.” … Read more »
Fears over Sri Lanka’s Rising Coronavirus cases and its Militarised response
‘We are bracing ourselves’ by Thusiyan Nandakumar, Tamil Guardian, London, May 4, 2021 Amidst a devastating wave of coronavirus in India, across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka infections have also been rapidly rising, with newly diagnosed cases breaking records every day. Clusters are now appearing across the island, sparking fears not only of a… Read more »
Amnesty: Assessment of Outcomes of 46th Session of UNHRC
And recommendations for follow-up by Amnesty International, London, April 22, 2021 IOR4039142021ENGLISH.PDF (amnesty.org) SRI LANKA We welcome the adoption of landmark resolution 46/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, which is an important step forward and offers renewed hope of long-awaited justice for victims of the country’s 30-year civil conflict. The… Read more »
HRW: Reject ‘Political Victimization’ Findings
Government Seeks to Absolve Allies for Abuses, Prosecute Officials Pursuing Justice by Human Rights Watch, April 30, 2021 (New York) – Sri Lanka’s parliament should reject a resolution to exonerate officials implicated in human rights abuses and to prosecute police and prosecutors investigating them, Human Rights Watch said today. Adopting the resolution, brought before parliament on… Read more »
Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India
Conceptual Framework of Repatriation Success by Miriam George, Anita Vaillancourt, and s. Irudaya Rajan, Refuge, Vol. 36, No.3, 2016 Sri Lankan Refugees in India Repatriation Success 2016 Abstract Repatriation to Sri Lanka has become a primary challenge to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Indian refugee camps, and a matter of significant public discussion in India… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Muslims Face Backlash
Two Years After Easter Attacks Sri Lankan government ramps up restrictions on minority community. by Jumaina Siddiqui, Melissa Nosell, US Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, April 29, 2021 Two years after the Easter Sunday attacks that left 269 dead and injured more than 500, Sri Lanka’s Christian community is still waiting for justice while its… Read more »
Inside Camps, Outside Battlefields
Security and Survival for Tamil Women by Nimmi Gowrinathan, St Antony’s International Review, 9, no. 1 (2013): 11-32, Oxford, UK Gowrinathan Inside Camps Outside Battlefields 2013 Abstract In May of 2009, images of displaced Tamil people trapped behind the barbed wireof internment camps flashed across the world. “Everybody wanted to get out of those camps, but they… Read more »