”The Council reaffirms the right of everyone to unhindered access to and communication with international bodies; and urges States to take all appropriate measures to prevent the occurrence of intimidation or reprisals. ” Action on Resolution on Cooperation with the United Nations, its Representatives and Mechanisms in the Field of Human RightsIn a resolution (A/HRC/24/L.17/Rev.1)OpenElement […]

by Groundviews  09/29/2013 The President’s recent and wide-ranging interview on Al Jazeera is interesting on a number of counts (download the episode in HD here). For starters, our President is clearly grossly uninformed or deliberately seeks to misinform. Take for example his assertion, around 8:50 into the interview, that European Union election monitors said the […]

General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), M.T. Hassan Ali, requested the government to respect the outcome of the Northern Province polls, and expedite the process to find a political solution to the Tamil question. Addressing the media, MP Hassan Ali said, although the government had taken the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and […]

Action on Decision on the Establishment of a Special Fund for the Participation of Civil Society at Various Fora In a decision (A/HRC/24/L.16) on the establishment of a Special Fund for the participation of civil society at various fora, adopted without a vote, the Council requests the Secretary-General to establish a Special Fund for the […]

Seema SenguptaAs a large majority of the sizable 715,000 eligible voters from Sri Lanka’s troubled north went into makeshift polling booths to cast their preferences for electing a 38 member provincial council on September 21, India’s influence was written all over. From a five member election observer team led by former election commission chief N. […]

The war in Sri Lanka is not over by Shivam Vij Shivam Vij It would not be an exaggeration to say that the recent Northern Provincial Council polls in Sri Lanka would not have been held had it not been for the immense pressure that Colombo faced from New Delhi. But for international pressure, Colombo […]

Election law violations are rampant Former Chief Elections Commissioner of India, N. Gopalaswami, who headed the Mission of International Election Observers in the recently held provincial elections said, Sri Lanka’s Election Commissioner is ‘powerless’.The report issued by the international monitors stated the negative perception about the election could have been largely controlled or eliminated, had […]

Sri Lankan provincial councils, including the Tamil-dominated Northern, will not have discretion over land and police matters and they will have to operate within the existing limits of power, a government spokesman said on Sunday. “Provincial councils would have to operate within the existing limits (of powers),” Minister of Information and government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella […]

 NPC election: Results in retrospect  by Udaya Gammanpila (JHU) The much anticipated Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election is now over.  People have different opinions about the results, looking at them from different perspectives.  The most salient feature of the election results is the landslide victory recorded by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).  Some were dismayed […]

  Wigneswaran at Nallur Kovil Champika says Wigneswaran should be arrested for violating laws  Secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Minister Champika Ranawaka, said if the Chief Minister elect of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, acts in violation of judicial orders and attempts to call for international intervention in national affairs, he should be […]

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva  Sri Lanka received strong cross-regional support in the Human Rights Council from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America on Thursday ( 26 September 2013) which uniformly welcomed and commended the country’s significant progress achieved in the reconciliation process.Speaking at the General Debate under Agenda Item 10 which […]

Pillay interviewed by ABC journalist ”And this is where the human rights council comes in, they have urged Sri Lanka to implement their own recommendations and I then reported to the council that that has not happened. Now, the LLRC recommendations fall short of our expectations on what should be done for proper accountability.” The […]

Former Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan, said the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) should be vested with police and land powers.Pillaiyan, expressing his views over the outcome of the NPC polls, said regardless of who came to power in the North, the police and land powers allocated under the 13th […]

Minister says he Tobaco industry tried to bribe Editorial Ceylon Today  The battle against the butt it appears has now entered the realms of whodunit, with the Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena, introducing a subornment element to the saga of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. Days after the Supreme Court issued a stay order halting […]

Sri Lanka’s disturbing human rights record means it should be barred from hosting a key Commonwealth summit in November or chairing the organization, Amnesty International said ahead of a key meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers today.The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group – made up of foreign ministers and Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma, who gather to address violations […]

[TamilNet, ]The United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navanetham Pillay, in her latest oral update to the UN Human Rights Council is more concerned with whitewashing the Sri Lankan government than looking at the tragic situation of Tamils, writes Malaysia’s Penang State Deputy Chief Minister Professor P. Ramasamy, in an article sent to TamilNet on […]

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, delivers his speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. In an interview later at his hotel, he deflected criticism of his government’s rights record and said the U.N. and Western powers seemed bent on harassing Sri Lanka. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press / September 27, 2013) […]

Pooja Patel , FORUM-ASIA Thank you, Mr. President. FORUM-ASIA appreciates the High Commissioner’s updates to the Council on her mission to Sri Lanka, as well as her serious efforts to meet with a broad section of victims, civil society representatives, local authorities and opposition politicians, as requested in our letter to her prior to the […]

Nimalka Fernando Nimalka Fernando ( IMADR) Thank you Mr. President,IMADR welcomes the visit of High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and her oral update thereon conducted under item 2. We also would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Madam High Commissioner for providing precious time in the busy schedule to listen […]

Tamils vote for autonomy ( photo Hindustan Times) Bob Rae  Vote reveals Sri Lanka’s unavoidable truth: Other voices must be heard The results are in for the provincial election in Sri Lanka’s northern most province, the area around Jaffna, and they are clear as a bell: nearly 80 per cent of voters, despite much evidence […]

Two leaders of confronting nationalisms: Rajapaksha and Sampanthan  Laksir Fernando  If political realism is any indication, Sri Lanka again is in trouble waters after the three PC elections and the polarization between the two nationalisms, Sinhala and Tamil, is higher than what it was before the commencement of the war. If the NPC election was […]

AMB Ravinatha    While strongly repudiating UN Human Rights Chief Navinethem Pillay’s assertion that if certain concerns are not comprehensively addressed, she believes ‘the international community will have a duty to establish its own inquiry mechanisms’, Sri Lanka said that she has no mandate to make such a claim. In response to Pillay’s remarks, Sri […]

JHU questions Northern Tamils Minister Ranawaka: Tamils are not a democratic community The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) claims the Tamils in the North did not vote out of their own free will at the provincial council elections. JHU MP and government minister Champika Ranawaka said that the perception the Tamils did not get misled and […]

Tamil civilians plead with UN officials not to leave Vanni in September 2008. Photograph from TamilNet. By PTI – UNITED NATION In a rare admission of “systemic failure” of the UN, its chief has said the world body had failed during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s ethnic war in 2009 that saw military defeat […]

Add caption September 25, 2013 The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today set a deadline for the government to address human rights concerns by March 2014 in the absence of which she believes the international community will have a duty to establish its own inquiry mechanisms.In a statement on Sri Lanka, which […]

TNA CM candidate C.V. Vigneswaran NEW DELHI: Welcoming elections to three Sri Lankan provincial councils, including the Northern, India today said the government there has honoured its commitment while asserting that it was looking forward to implementation of other important commitments such as 13th amendment of the Constitution. The Ministry of External Affairs said the […]

By United Nations News Citing his efforts to ensure that economic growth benefits all segments of society in his own country, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today called on the United Nations to study the international community’s failure to improve the lot of the impoverished worldwide. “According to World Bank projections, by 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa […]

Jaffna after elections;  AFP photo Kalana Senaratne    The TNA has swept the polls in the North. More importantly, the Tamil people have voted courageously, convincingly, and clearly. It was an expected outcome, but as President Rajapaksa took off to New York, he would have known that numbers and statistics on paper, more than just mind-made […]

Mandana Ismail had to fled the country Investigations regarding the armed gang of thugs who recently broke into the house of Sunday Leader Co-Editor Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema’s house in pursuit of certain documents, have currently come in a standstill, Police sources say. Ms. Abeywickrema had informed the Secretary of the Ministry of Law and Order […]

Lands Development Minister Janaka Bandara Tennakoon’s son Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon secured the highest number of votes from the Matale District while the Minister’s cousin, Thilina Bandara Tennakoon, was elected from the Kandy District.Deputy Minister Nandimitra Ekanayake’s son Chinthaka was elected from the Matale District. Ekanayake’s brother, former Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake, clinched the second position […]