Remembering ‘Thanthai’ SJV Chelvanayagam ( Born: March 31, 1898, Ipoh, Malaysia. Died: April 26, 1977, Jaffna, Sri Lanka) on his 123rd birth Anniversary, March 31, 2021: I. T. A. K. Headquarters, Colombo 18-12-49. Speech delivered on December 18, 1949 at the Inaugural business meeting of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
TIC: UNHRC Resolution
TIC PRESS RELEASE 25 March 2021 Resolution of the UN Human Rights Council – March 2021 The Tamil Information Centre (TIC) welcomes the Resolution on Sri Lanka adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 23 March 2021 at its 46th Session, titled “Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka” (A/HRC46/L.1/Rev.1)…. Read more »
Strategies for the Renaissance of Irrigation Glory
by Nimal Wijesinghe, Daily News, Colombo, February 27, 2021 There is an awakening in the field of irrigation development in the country. The ancient kings treated rainwater as a highly precious national asset and constructed small, medium and large-scale tanks and anicuts for collecting and storing every drop of rainwater for irrigational, agricultural and drinking… Read more »
UNHRC Resolution 46/1
A welcome move for the United Nations, Security Council and International Community to uphold accountability and rein in Sri Lanka. by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law; University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 31, 2021 At the 46th Session of UNHRC, the final Resolution on Sri Lanka was passed with 22 members voting… Read more »
UNHRC Outlines Sri Lanka Abuses, But Demurs on Action
by Kate Cronin-Furman, JustSecurity.org, New York, March 26, 2021 (Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series on the spotlight placed on allegations of war crimes and other abuses in Sri Lanka during the February 22 to March 23, 2021, session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The series includes voices from former… Read more »
UNHRC Resolution 46/1
March 23, 2021 webcast of vote A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 Tabled March 16, 2021 Human Rights Council Forty-sixth session 22 February–23 March 2021 Agenda item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Albania,* Australia,* Austria, Belgium,* Bulgaria, Canada,* Croatia,* Cyprus,*… Read more »
The Uyghur Genocide
An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention by Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, Washington, DC, March 2021 Executive Summary 1. This report concludes that the People’s Republic of China (China) bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention… Read more »
When War Criminals Run the Government
Not Too Late for the International Community to Vet Sri Lankan Officials by Sondra Anton & Tyler Giannini, JustSecurity, March 16, 2021 (Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series on the spotlight placed on allegations of war crimes and other abuses in Sri Lanka during the February 22 to March 23, 2021, session… Read more »
UNHRC Resolution – Improved, but Insufficient
for Accountability & Justice by Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 14, 2021 Sri Lanka’s contemptuous stand regarding UNHRC Resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1 as rejected by it has come under discussion in the current 46th Session of the UNHRC which is expected to pass a… Read more »
Accountability in Transition to Nowhere
by Ambika Satkunanathan, Daily FT, Colombo, March 15, 2021 In Sri Lanka, historical acts of commission and omission by successive governments have led the Tamil population to believe there is little possibility they will be treated as equal citizens and included as full members of a multi-ethnic polity. Here, a poverty-stricken young mother in Jaffna… Read more »
ITJP: Geneva Briefing Notes
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, February 2021 TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE WORK GENEVA BRIEFING NOTES With Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, the ITJP has jointly authored 6 BRIEFING NOTES to frame the discsussion on Sri Lanka for the March 2021 session of the UN Human Rights Council. They are in English and… Read more »
Why Does India Not Have a Geneva Game-Plan?
by Kumar David, Colombo Telegraph, March 10, 2021 Why is there uncertainty, even at this late stage, about the stand India will take on the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka’s long ended civil war and overlapping allegations that the current regime harbours authoritarian ambitions? India’s silence is both curious and significant. There are three substantive players in the… Read more »
Endless War
by Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute, California, March 2021 Endless War Oakland Institute March 2021 *** The Destroyed Land, Life, and Identity of the Tamil People in Sri Lanka —FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— March 7, 2021; 10:00PM PT Media Contact: Anuradha Mittal, amittal /A_T/ oaklandinstitute /D_O_T/ org” data-extlink=””>amittal /A_T/ oaklandinstitute /D_O_T/ org(link sends e-mail); +1 510-530-5126 As the 46th… Read more »
1985 Thimpu Talks
Sinhala-Tamil conflict and the India factor by S Sivanayagam, Tamil Information Centre, London, 2000 Thimpu Talks 1985 by Sivanayagam *** zfinal_Thimbu_080900_final (sangam.org)
Keep the Promise
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, March 2021 The promise Following a landmark international investigation, in September 2015 the United Nations released a major report on serious human rights violations committed during the final stages of the civil war and the surrounding period (2002-2011). The document, known as the ‘OISL Report’ was clear in… Read more »
Upholding or Upending Accountability & Justice
byThambu Kanagasabai LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 4, 2021. The 46th Session of UNHRC now in progress has generated heated comments and discussions in Sri Lanka and elsewhere among Tamils as well as the Council is readying to pass a final Resolution against Sri Lanka after five tiring… Read more »
Sowing the Seeds of Conflict
Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 18, 2021 Letter to HCHR Sowing-the-Seeds-of-Conflict Feb 18 2021 Signed by Chair of the ‘Elders’ Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland Juan Manuel Santos, the Nobel Peace Prize winning former president of Colombia All the former UN Human Rights High Commissioners since the Human… Read more »
Weaver 1988: The Gods & the Stars
by Mary Anne Weaver, The New York, March 21, 1988 Weaver The New Yorker 1988
Experts Dismayed by Regressive Steps
Call for renewed UN scrutiny and efforts to ensure accountability by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, February 5, 2021 UN human rights experts have expressed their deep concern on 5 February 2021 about the reversal of important democratic gains achieved since 2015 and roll back on limited progress made on accountability,… Read more »
OHCHR: Sri Lanka on Alarming Path
Towards recurrence of grave human rights violations – UN report by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, January 21, 2021 OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka 27 January 2021 GENEVA (27 January 2021) – A new UN report published on Wednesday warns that the failure of Sri Lanka to address past violations… Read more »