Posts Categorized: Politics

The Need for Accountability in Sri Lanka’s Criminal Justice System

A Glance at Seven Emblematic Cases by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, March 1, 2019 This report examines seven emblematic cases to evaluate the levels of accountability in the prosecution of cases of human rights violations within Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system. The report is structured in three parts. First, it establishes several recurrent trends… Read more »

Strawmanning Terror

Attempting to justify the Counter Terrorism Act By Mass Movement for Social Justice, ‘Daily FT,’ Colombo, February 27, 2019 The current President and Government were elected in 2015 on the promise of repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Since enactment in 1979, the PTA has been widely condemned for creating a draconian system featuring… Read more »

Master Plan for Economic Development in the Northern province Launched

by The Sunday Times, Colombo, February 22, 2019 The ‘Framework for an Economic Development Master Plan’  aiming to be a tool to create a ‘blueprint’ for  long-term growth and development of the Northern Province was launched today at the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, addressing a gathering at the launch said during the last four… Read more »

ICJ: Written Statement to HRC

by International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, February 7, 2019 Full statement The ICJ has submitted a written statement on Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council ahead of its 40th Session in Geneva. Almost ten years after Sri Lanka emerged from a period of conflict and massive human rights violations, the Government of Sri Lanka still… Read more »

NE Civil Society Letter to HCHR

by North East civil society, January 30, 2019 2019_january_tamil_mothers_to_michelle_bachelet Your Excellency, Re: Your Report to the UNHRC in March 2019 on Sri Lanka We the undersigned civil society groups, in particular from the North and East of Sri Lanka, members of war victims’ associations, other likeminded organisations and individuals concerned about the current state of… Read more »

Reluctance Towards BJP Will Prevail In South

BJP’s simple majoritarian plank doesn’t work in the complex of southern India by Ramu Manivannan, ‘Outlook India,’ New Delhi, January 31, 2019 The BJP and its allies are in control of 22 states in India. This is a staggering proposition to boast vis-à-vis the Congress, notwithstanding the recent setbacks in assembly elections. Though the BJP’s… Read more »

Amnesty: Flickering Hope

Truth, Justice, Reparations & Guarantees of Non-recurrence by Amnesty International, London, January 24, 2019, Index number: ASA 37/9715/2019 In 2015, Sri Lanka co-sponsored Resolution 30/1 at the UN Human Rights Council to demonstrate the newly elected government’s commitment to break with impunity for a past marked by serious human rights violations. While the Resolution was welcomed… Read more »

The Crucial March 2019 Session of UNHRC

Judging Sri Lanka’s Credibility & Commitments to Human Rights By: Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka UN Human Rights Council’s March 2019 Sessions is poised to debate and discuss the Council’s Final Reports on Sri Lanka’s progress in implementing its 30-01-2015 Resolution which had more than 25… Read more »

Ying & Yan

by Sanjana Hattotuwa, his blog, December 12, 2018 Mahinda Rajapaksa issued two press releases on the 3rd of December. One in Sinhala, the other in English. The press release was in response to the interim stay order issued by the Court of Appeal, basically putting Rajapaksa out of the job he was unconstitutionally appointed into and… Read more »

ICES: Sex Ratio and Vulnerability in Northern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka

by Kalinga Tudor Silva, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, 2018 ICES Sex-Ratio-and-Vulnerability-Book-No-2 Comparing the results of 1981 and 2012 population censuses in Sri Lanka, thecurrent study examined the impact of the war on the population dynamics in theNorthern and Eastern provinces with a focus on changes in the sex ratio. The sexratio in the… Read more »

ICJ 1981 – Ethnic Conflict & Violence in Sri Lanka

by Virginia Leary, International Commission of Jurists, 1981, with a supplement 1981-1983 https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/1983/08/Sri-Lanka-ethnic-conflict-and-violence-fact-finding-mission-report-1983-eng.pdf   Ethnic conflict and violence in Sri Lanka: report of a mission to Sri Lanka in July-August 1981, with a supplement for the period of 1981-1983 AUGUST 1, 1983 In view of the events of July – August 1983 in Sri Lanka, the… Read more »

Resolution of US Massachusetts House of Representatives

Resolution of US Massachusetts House of Representatives Calling for the Restoration of the Separate Sovereign State of Tamil Eelam 18 June 1981 [see also  Proclamation of Eelam Day by Edward J.King, Governor of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 16 May 1979  Human Rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka –  US Congress Resolution – Hon. Mario Baggio of… Read more »

Diasporas as a Force in Foreign Affairs

The case of Tamils in Britain and Canada by Matthew Godwin, London School of Economics, August 17, 2018 A number of factors impact whether or not diasporas influence host country foreign policy, writes Matthew Godwin. He looks at two major decisions facing Canada and the UK toward Sri Lanka, and explains how pressure from the Tamil… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Crisis of Democracy

by Neil DeVotta, ‘East Asia Forum,’ Australia, December 3, 2018 Through three decades of post-independence civil unrest, Sri Lanka operated as a flawed yet commendable democracy. But in the past month, the country’s politicians have unleashed a democratic crisis and become a laughing stock. On one occasion legislators engaged in fisticuffs in parliament, and attacked the… Read more »

Dictatorial & Discriminatory Democracy of Sri Lanka

by Thambu Kanagasabai, November 26, 2018 The classic definition of democracy by the world statesman Abraham Lincoln ‘democracy is by the people, for the people and of the people” simply confirms the power of people and how the power should be used for the rights, welfare and dignity of the people. Democracy took its roots… Read more »

Crisis at Sri Lanka’s Core

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, November 26, 2018 Almost four years into the ‘good governance’ government, Sri Lanka’s image of stability and progress unravelled last month in a day. President Sirisena’s sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa followed by the dissolving of parliament and call for fresh elections, ended any semblance of stability. Revealed instead was… Read more »

Use of Cluster Munitions in Sri Lanka

by Kumarathasan Rasingam, November 19, 2018 Sri Lanka is the 103rd country to join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Sri Lanka acceded to the Convention on March 01, 2018. Under the Convention, Sri Lanka is required to show transparency and report annually in a public document on use, stockpiling, clearance and destruction. These obligations… Read more »

Khmer Rouge Leaders Found Guilty of Genocide

in Cambodia’s ‘Nuremberg’ moment Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are the two most senior living leaders of regime that presided over deaths of at least 1.7 million in Cambodia by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, South-east Asia correspondent, ‘The Guardian,’ London, November 16, 2018  About two million people died during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime. Two of its senior leaders… Read more »

MAP: A Threat to Reconciliation & Accountability

by Andrew Ianuzzi, Richard J. Rogers & Heather Ryan, Justiceinfo.net, November 7, 2018 On October 26, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. For the Monitoring and Accountability Panel, this political come-back risks undermining the limited progress made in transitional justice in the aftermath of a civil war that ended… Read more »