TORONTO — AS the United States gears up for a political brawl over immigration next year, one of the concerns shaping the debate will be the fear that English-speaking Americans will be culturally and linguistically overwhelmed by newcomers, many of them Spanish-speaking. An example of what is in store was the autumn cyberspat between the Telemundo… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
ICG: Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election
by International Crisis Group, Brussels, December 9, 2014 ICG Presidential Election 2015 Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential election promises more competition than was initially anticipated. But with that comes a great risk of violence. Long-term stability and post-war reconciliation can only be achieved through a peaceful election resulting in a government committed to serving the interests… Read more »
CM Wigneswaran Speech in India
Wigneswaran Kannabiran Memorial Lecture Nov 2014 After brief intro in Tamil, CM – Justice CW Wigneswaran’s speech is in English.
OHCHR Condemns Persistent Disinformation Designed to Discredit UN investigation on Sri Lanka
GENEVA (7 November 2014) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Friday criticized the continuing attacks by the Sri Lankan Government on the integrity of the UN Human Rights Office’s ongoing investigation into alleged grave human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka, and condemned the intimidation of human rights… Read more »
Amnesty Briefing on Sri Lanka for ICCPR Review
Amnesty UN INT_CCPR_CSS_LKA_18252_E Amnesty International has submitted a 40-page briefing on Sri Lanka to the U.N. Human Rights Committee in connection with the Committee’s review during this month of Sri Lanka’s fifth periodic report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The briefing can be found at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_CSS_LKA_18252_E.pdf INTRODUCTION Amnesty… Read more »
Radical Monk in Myanmar Pledges to Protect Global Buddhism
“This is not a multireligious country,” Bodu Bala Sena’s founder, Kirama Wimalajothi, said. “This is a Sinhalese country.”
Tamil Americans Urge Pres. Rajapaksa to Respect Sri Lanka’s Commitments to the United Nations
Today Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa spoke before the United Nations General Assembly on the status and future of Sri Lanka, yet overtly neglected to address the ongoing human rights abuses and limitation of democratic freedoms. USTPAC joins with others committed to human rights and calls on President Rajapaksa to honor Sri Lanka’s commitments to the United Nations and… Read more »
From Glasgow to Kashmir
by Jonah Blank, ‘Foreign Policy,’ New York, September 20, 2014 In Thursday’s vote, the people of Scotland did not opt for independence. But they may well have lowered the bar for separatists all around the world — not least among the countless ethnic groups of Asia. The Caledonian contest came down to the very end,… Read more »
Philippine Bill Would Give Muslims Autonomy
The Bangsamoro region would have local self-government, including locally recruited law enforcement officials — a critical demand by the rebels, given the allegations of human rights abuses in the region by the Philippine police and military, many of whom are Christians from the north. About four million people would live in the Bangsamoro region. Of the Philippines’ population of 107 million, about 5 percent are Muslim, most of them living in the south; about 80 percent are Roman Catholic.
The region would also retain most of the tax revenue generated from its natural resources. The central government would retain control over currency, foreign policy issues and national defense….Opponents of the agreement have said that it infringes on Philippine sovereignty, essentially creating a separate Muslim state in the south. A number of organizations have said they will contest the law’s constitutionality in the Supreme Court, and the rebels have said they will reject the measure if the court strikes down the main provisions dealing with autonomy or revenue-sharing.
From Kurdistan to Texas, Scots Spur Separatists
STEENOKKERZEEL, Belgium — For Kurt Ryon, the mayor of Steenokkerzeel, a Flemish village 10 miles northeast of Brussels, watching the Scottish independence campaign in the final days before the referendum is like watching a good soccer match. “They were losing for the first half and most of the second half,” he said, “but now we’re… Read more »
NPC Resolution on OISL
The following resolution was tabled by the Council Member Hon. M.K. Shivajilingam and adopted by the Northern Provincial Council, Sri Lanka on September 10, 2014 … Read more »
The Need for a Strong Victim and Witness Assistance and Protection Mechanism
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) welcomes the Bill titled “Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses” (referred to as the Bill) issued on 11thAugust 2014. At the outset, CPA acknowledges that the Bill in its present form is an improvement on previous drafts but reiterates the need for further reform if… Read more »
‘Sinhala Colonisation a Great Worry for Tamils’
The most urgent step necessary in Sri Lanka is to halt the Sinhala colonisation programme being implemented by the government to change the very identity of the traditional Tamil areas, Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sambanthan said on Wednesday. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Mr. Sambanthan said the programme was aimed… Read more »
Karen Parker on Self-Determination 2008
Part 1 Part 2
Witness Testimony to OISL
http://www.canadiantamilcongress.ca/article.php?lan=eng&cat=pr&id=144 URGENT Appeal from CTC: Witness Testimony from Tamil Canadians Needed in Support of UN Investigation Our Dear Community, As many of you may know, on August 5th, 2014 the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced it will accept submissions pursuant to the mandate… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Intransigence
Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Tuesday that his government would not cooperate with the United Nations investigation begun last month into suspected human rights abuses, including possible war crimes, committed during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Mr. Rajapaksa’s intransigence puts Sri Lanka in the company of North Korea and Syria, two countries that also barred… Read more »
Hidden from View, Sri Lanka is Trampling Over the Rights of its Tamil Population
It may have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, but within Sri Lanka the message has been received clearly and chillingly: while a fuss may be made about a well-connected Sinhalese activist, the government can do what it likes to the Tamil population in the north and no one will lift a finger.
Losing Battles but Winning Wars
by Fred Carver, Independent Policy Digest, Washington, August 9, 2014 Jean-Marc Ferré/UN Photo To many external observers the Government of Sri Lanka appeared to lose the plot somewhat during the recent UN Human Rights Council (HRC) session. A series of overt and heavy handed attempts to silence dissent, even as the session was discussing a… Read more »
India’s Sri Lanka Policy Must Include Caution
New Delhi’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka so far has been characterized by oscillation and inconsistency. It had been unduly defined by Tamil Nadu in the 1980s and is now being increasingly influenced by hazy notions of South Asian integration and “Hindu Buddhist unity”, the latter fuelled by ill-informed sections of the RSS. The latter… Read more »
Britain’s Dirty War Against the Tamil People 1979-2009
Britain’s_Dirty_War by Phil Miller This document, published by the International Human Rights Association Bremen, is an updated version of the evidence Phil gave to the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka… 1. Introduction When Prime Minister David Cameron travelled to Sri Lanka in November 2013, his visit to the northern city of Jaffna was widely seen as British… Read more »