Posts Categorized: International

UN’s Cyclone Ditwah Situation Report #6

by United Nations office in Sri Lanka, January 23, 2026 UN Cyclone_Ditwah__SitRep #6 Jan 23 2026 Cyclone Ditwah has triggered the most extensive flooding and landslide damage in the past two decades in Sri Lanka, impacting approximately 2.2 million people across all 25 districts of the country. According to the Disaster Management Center, the cyclone… Read more »

Namal Rajapakse in Odisha

by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, Daily Sun, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Januaray 28, 2026 Editorial Namal Rajapaksa in Odisha Jan 28 2026 …Against this backdrop of decline, disgrace and diminishing legitimacy, Namal Rajapaksa has emerged as the principal political inheritor of the family brand. Despite facing multiple legal cases relating to corruption and alleged money laundering, he has… Read more »

HRW: Rohingya Genocide Case Moves to Judgment

World Court Concludes Hearings in Gambia’s Landmark Action Against Myanmar by David Esposito & Shayna Bauchner, Human Rights Watch, New York, January 29, 2026 On January 29, the three-week hearings on the merits of Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar before the International Court of Justice came to a close. The case, filed in 2019, alleges that Myanmar’s… Read more »

OSLAP: Preserving Evidence

Advancing Accountability for Sri Lanka by OHCHR’s Sri Lanka Accountability Project, September 1, 2025 250919-infographic-oslap-s-repository-for sri lanka evidence A Snapshot of OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project’s Repository Understanding OSLap’s Repository What it is • OSLap’s repository contains over 112,000 materials documenting human rights violations, abuses, and serious crimes committed in Sri Lanka over the past… Read more »

HRW: UN Finds Systemic Sexual Violence During Civil War

Impunity Prevails for Abuses Against Women, Men; Survivors Suffer for Years by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 14, 2026 (Geneva) – A new United Nations report about sexual violence related to Sri Lanka’s civil war is another step forward in the struggle for accountability for crimes under international law that were committed in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch… Read more »

Amnesty: OHCHR Report Must Spur Government Action

On accountability for conflict-related sexual violence by Amnesty International, London, January 13, 2026 Responding to a new report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on accountability for conflict-related sexual violence committed in the context of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict, Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, said: “This important report… Read more »

OHCHR Brief on Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka

by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, January 13, 2026 Entire report: OHCHR CRSV brief English January 2026 and 2026-crsv-brief-english.pdf Executive Summary OHCHR brief on sexual violence in Sri Lanka Executive Summary January 2026 “We Lost Everything – Even Hope For Justice” OHCHR Brief on Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka… Read more »

Deep Learning From Operation Sindoor

Five Takeaways From a Four-Day War by Sameer Lalwani, Shailender Arya and David Brostoff, War on the Rocks, Washington, DC, January 22, 2026 Tensions between India and Pakistan — two countries that President Donald Trump claimed had been fighting for 1,500 years — escalated rapidly over a few days in May 2025. On May 7–10, the… Read more »

Paranagama Commission Report 2015

by Paranagama Commission, August 2015 Paranagama Commission report Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Complaints of Abductions and Disappearances 2015 Acknowledgements In presenting this Report of our Commission to His Excellency the President I, as Chairman, wish to place on record my grateful thanks to all those who played a part in making this Report possible…. Read more »

Can a Corporation Be Complicit in War Crimes?

Sweden Is Trying to Find Out by M. Gessen, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2025 At the end of the 1990s, a Swedish company called Lundin Oil started drilling in a war-torn region of what was then Sudan. To secure the drilling sites, the company contracted with the Sudanese government. Over the… Read more »

HRW: Sri Lanka Struggles in Aftermath of Devastating Cyclone

Longstanding Discrimination Against Marginalized Communities Worsens Catastrophe by Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, December 11, 2025 Sri Lanka is suffering a series of floods and landslides brought upon by Cyclone Ditwah this past November. Climate experts believethe intensity of seasonal storms, which also recently devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, are likely… Read more »

Ten Jolting Takeaways from Trump’s New National Security Strategy

by Rick Landgraf, War on the Rocks, Washington, DC, December 5, 2025 The new National Security Strategy is out, and it’s a shock to the system. It is not just the latest public articulation of principles, ambitions, and priorities around which the United States organizes its foreign policy. Instead, it reads like a manifesto for a radically… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Bloody Past is Re-emerging from the Soil

A blue schoolbag in a mass grave by Helen Regan, Kumanan Kanapathipillai, Kunal Sehga, Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Atlanta, GA, USA, November 29, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/world/video/sri-lanka-mass-grave-hanako-montgomery-digvid . . EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article contains images and descriptions that some readers may find distsurbing. Two human skeletons lie entangled on the rough earth – the arms of one wrapped… Read more »

War Crimes Indictment Reveals a Hard Road to Justice for Syria

Prosecutors say a Syrian security official accused of torture hid in plain sight in Europe for years, protected by Israeli and Austrian intelligence agents. By Carlotta Gall and Saad Alnassife, The New York Times, Nov.12, 2025, updated Nov. 14, 2025 Our reporters traveled all over Europe, including to Vienna, to interview survivors of torture who will… Read more »

UNHRC 2025 Resolution on Sri Lanka

UK Core Group Statement to introduce Item 2 Resolution on Sri Lanka. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Kumar Iyer. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Kumar Iyer CMG Delivered on: 6 October 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honour to… Read more »

ABC: More than 200 Skeletons Uncovered in Mass Grave

In Sri Lanka, exposing its haunting history by Nicholene Canisius, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 4, 2025 Saaratha Iruthayanathar was six years old when she last saw her father leaving to get groceries, during the Sri Lankan civil war. To this day, she still does not know whether he is dead or alive. While travelling by… Read more »

US State Dept.: 2024 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report

by US Department of State, Washington, DC, August 12, 2025 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report US State Dept 2024 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After the widely contested September 21 presidential elections and November 14 snap parliamentary elections, civil society groups called on the first voter-elected presidential administration since 2022 to build on the demands for good governance… Read more »

From Thileepan to Today

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, September 29, 2025 Remembering Thileepan’s sacrifice 38 years on | Tamil Guardian An unprecedented number of events took place across the North-East last week. Hunger strikes were staged. Flames were lit and garlands laid. The elderly and children gathered together. A kavadi even procession took place, with hooks piercing the flesh… Read more »

Two Steps Backwards

Tamil Guardian editorial, , London, September 15, 2025 To call the latest draft resolution from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva disappointing would be far too kind. It is not simply a missed opportunity, but a disastrous step backwards in the long and painful struggle for justice for the Tamil people. Sixteen years… Read more »