UN Web TV link: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/human-rights-council/watch/item2-general-debate-contd-4th-meeting-32nd-regular-session-of-human-rights-council/4940474281001 No. 58, Time: 2:06:00 Oral Statement by Pasumai Thaayagam on Accountability, Justice and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka 32nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, June 14, 2016 Geneva Pasumai Thaayagam congratulates and appreciates the UNHRC for a decade of upholding human rights within its member states. We, on behalf… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
NECC: Obligations of the GoSL & UN
by North East Coordinating Committee, June 13, 2016. Courtesy of Groundviews.org We call upon His Excellency High Commissioner of Human Rights and the Representatives of the Member States of the Human Rights Council, 32nd Session, June, 2016 OBLIGATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA AND THE UNITED NATIONS IN SRI LANKA’S TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PROCESS. 1…. Read more »
Testing Time for United Nations and Sri Lanka
by Thambu Kanagasabai, June 10 The armed struggle by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which commenced in 1976 with the failure of peaceful struggles initiated in 1956 by the past Tamil political leaders, reached its climax in the Eelam war IV from 2006 – 2009. The war ended with a victory for Sri Lankan Government… Read more »
House Subcommittee Hearing on Sri Lanka
by US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia & the Pacific, June 9, 2016 Video of Hearing https://youtu.be/9u4ZCiILRrs Subcommittee Hearing Lisa Curtis testimony Subcommittee Hearing Karen Bue testimony Subcommittee Hearing Nimmi Gowrinathan testimony
US Country Reports on Terrorism 2015
by US. Department of State, June 2016 SRI LANKA Overview: The Sri Lankan government maintained a strong military presence in post-conflict areas and continued to voice concern about the possible reemergence of pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sympathizers, but the new, democratically-elected government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized its… Read more »
Preliminary Observations of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges
Preliminary observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers — Ms. Mónica Pinto, Colombo, 7 May 2016 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Official joint visit to Sri Lanka — 29 April to 7 May… Read more »
Preliminary Observations of the Special Rapporteur on Torture
Preliminary observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment — Juan E. Mendez, Colombo, 7 May 2016 United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Official joint visit to Sri… Read more »
2nd Tamil Studies Symposium May 6-7
Full program http://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Tamil-Studies-Symposium-Program.pdf The 2nd Tamil Studies Symposium Bearing Witness: Unspeakable Crimes, Invisible Atrocities 6-7 May 2016 at York University The most challenging paradox of the 21st Century may well be the saturation of our media with news of atrocities, even as many conflicts around the world are described as ‘wars without witnesses’. While news reports… Read more »
Amb. Power Remarks
Ambassador Samantha Power U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations U.S. Mission to the United Nations New York City April 28, 2016 AS DELIVERED There were two reasons that I flew down from New York at the crack of dawn this morning to join you. The first is that I fell in love with Sri… Read more »
China, India Tussle for Influence as Sri Lanka Seeks Investment
by Gauri Bhatia, CNBC, New York, April 25, 2016 Situated almost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, there is no escaping Sri Lanka’s centrality. The country lies just a few nautical miles away from the super-busy east-west shipping route, through which an estimated 60,000 ships pass every year, carrying two-thirds of the world’s oil… Read more »
Syria: War Crimes and the Pursuit of Justice
AS DELIVERED April 14, 2016 Remarks by Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at an Informal Meeting on “Syria: War Crimes and the Pursuit of Justice,” April 14, 2016 Thank you all for your powerful presentations. Thank you, Ambassador al-Thani, for organizing this event and thanks to all of the… Read more »
Capturing the Secret Documents
In hundreds of witness interviews, the CIJA found consistent patterns in interrogation practices across all branches of the security agencies. People were detained following the Crisis Cell’s policy. Besides identifying “new targets,” the results of these interrogations were shared among the agencies. Detainees were routinely kept in inhumane conditions for months or years without entering the judicial system…
Hamada’s account of atrocities at Hospital 601 was later corroborated by approximately fifty-five thousand photographs, smuggled out of Syria by a military-police officer known by the name Caesar, an alias. Before the war, Caesar and his colleagues had documented crime scenes and traffic accidents involving military personnel in Damascus. He uploaded pictures to government computers, then printed them and stapled them to official death reports. Beginning in 2011, however, the bodies were those of detainees, collected each day from security branches and delivered to military hospitals…
Between Caesar’s photographs and the CIJA’s case, Stephen Rapp told me, “when the day of justice arrives, we’ll have much better evidence than we’ve had anywhere since Nuremberg.”…
Last year, when Assad was asked about the Caesar photographs during an interview with Foreign Affairs, he said, “Who said this is done by the government, not by the rebels? Who said this is a Syrian victim, not someone else?”
The American Hug
Fundamental military alignments with US, taking place without open debate, may foreclose India’s options.
Getting US Messaging Right
Getting US Messaging about Sri Lanka’s ‘Democratic Transition’ Right by Taylor Dibbert, ‘The Diplomat,’ Tokyo, March 31, 2016 Nisha Biswal, the U.S. State Department’s assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, spoke at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on Monday. Her prepared remarks were… Read more »
U.S. Policies and Priorities for 2016
Sri Lanka, which is rebalancing its own foreign and economic policy as it emerges from its self-imposed isolation, will benefit from its strategic location as a maritime gateway to some of the largest markets in Asia.
Remarks of Senator Patrick Leahy at USIP
The Leahy Law makes clear that the United States will not tolerate or support foreign partners who violate the personal integrity, dignity, or due process of their citizens. People who order, commit, or cover up such crimes should be prosecuted and punished.
The law also makes clear that those who use torture or shoot prisoners for reasons of political expediency, or because justice systems are slow or inefficient, will not receive U.S. support.
That is what the law requires when a foreign government rejects the need for accountability.
MCC: New Threshold Programs with Sri Lanka
MCC Board Selects Five Countries for MCC Partnerships New Compacts with Cote d’Ivoire, Kosovo and Senegal, and New Threshold Programs with Sri Lanka and Togo https://www.mcc.gov/news-and-events/release/mcc-board-selects-five-countries-for-mcc-partnerships-121715 December 17, 2015 kellyrm /A_T/ mcc /D_O_T/ gov 202-521-3880 WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 17 — The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors held its quarterly meeting on Dec. 16, 2015…. Read more »
Time to Rethink Protection as Syrian Mistakes Echo Sri Lanka
Residents of the Syrian town of Madaya are again reported to be near starvation. The United Nations is said to have underestimated the number suffering under blockades enforced by Bashar al-Assad’s government, adding to earlier accusations that the UN deliberately failed to highlight the problem. The revelations show much more needs to be done to implement Secretary-General Ban… Read more »
Sri Lanka Monitoring and Accountability Panel
http://war-victims-map.org/ Open Letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: ‘Sri Lankan Victims Deserve Real Justice’ Posted on February 4, 2016 by mapuser The MAP notes with concern the recent statement made by President Maithripala Sirisena (BBC interview, 21 January 2016) that he will “never agree to international involvement” in the special war crimes court. This statement… Read more »
FfT: What Does Success Look Like?
FfT survivor_briefing-final Sri Lanka is at a crossroads in the quest for accountability for torture and other serious human rights abuses committed during the country’s civil war (2002-9) and its aftermath. This briefing addresses the question of “what success looks like” for the internationalised justice process promised by the Sri Lankan government, from the perspective… Read more »