Duminda Silva is above the law, says the Asian Human Rights Commission.This is not due to any constitutional status that he has, as for example, the President of Sri Lanka who is by virtue of article 35 of the Constitution, above the law, the AHRC says in a statement.  In the case of Duminda Silva […]

 S.S.SELVANAYAGAM When the rights petitions of the aggrieved workers of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone complaining of police assault came up before the Supreme Court, the Solicitor General told Court that the investigation is pending and assured that the investigation would be completed within a month. Solicitor General Palitha Fernando informed Court the Confidential Interim […]

 Sri Lanka’s gender gap increased over the last year and gender equality ranking declined from a 16 in 2010 to a 31 this year, a report released by the World Economic Forum showed. The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2011 showed that Sri Lanka has slipped several places from its privileged position in […]

 ”Further, on 9th September, 1990, the army arrested all the members they could find of the four villages in the area of the same army camp, Saththurukondan, Pulliaradi, Kokkuvil and Pannichaiadi, ranging in age from 70 years to 2 months, a total of 184 persons. None of these persons have been seen by anyone after […]

Reporters Without Borders has written an open letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa urging him to take whatever measures are necessary to protect Frederica Jansz, the editor of The Sunday Leader, and to ensure that those responsible for last week’s death threats against her are arrested.The threatening letter Jansz received on 27 October was prompted by […]

Tom KeneallyDear ‘Shooty’, I‘ve just watched our Prime Minister talking about shared Commonwealth values in Perth. My mind turned at once to you and your solitary, late-night death in Villawood detention centre last week. I say solitary, but you may have had a mobile. You may have talked to your girlfriend on the outside that dismal […]

Sri Lanka Army, deployed in the northern part of the island has initiated a number of projects for the development of the education in the area. Constructing and renovating school buildings, distributing school items, offering scholarships to children, organizing education trip to places in the south and organizing seminars for GCE (A/L) and O/L candidates […]

”Folks, let us not wait until the state tells us what to do. We from the university system and from outside it, civil society (by civil society I do not mean NGOs), need to undertake a serious study of the imperatives of education that would act as a public commission and a public document that […]

The contentious Takeover Bill on underperforming State enterprises and underutilised assets had come under fire by the Opposition at the Party Leaders meeting yesterday in Parliament.  At the meeting, representatives of the UNP and TNA have vehemently opposed the bill, questioning why it was being introduced as an urgent bill and stating that the Government […]

Special Correspondent in Colombo (Sri Lanka Guardian) According to news reaching Sri Lanka Guardian, relatives of the LTTE senior activists who were presumed killed in captivity by the security forces are said to be harassed by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) of the Ministry of Defence.The TID is visiting the relatives of the LTTE men […]

Sri Lanka’s Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and ex-Major General in Sri Lankan Army (SLA), Shavendra Silva, has invoked Article-31 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Immunity as his defense to war-crimes charges leveled against him by two Tamil plaintiffs in the District Court of Southern District of New York (Case 11 Civ. […]

The UNP yesterday lashed out at the government for a controversial move to rush through a Bill titled ‘Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilized Assets’.The UNP has alleged that the Rajapaksa administration is playing politics with the national economy.In a letter to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga has warned that some provisions […]

 Sri Lanka will make public its report into the end of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, seeking to allay concerns in the West, which has in the past pushed for an international probe into war crimes allegations. Seven diplomats, from Western nations, India and others, have told Reuters […]

Political context Restrictions on freedoms of association and peaceful assembly in the north of the country  Serious reprisals against human rights defenders seeking accountability for human rights violations Slandering campaigns against human rights defenders and NGOs In 2010 and until April 2011, freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression remained significantly hindered in Sri Lanka, […]

The statue of Thanthai Chelva (SJV Chelvanayakam) located near the Sivan Temple at Thirugnaanasampanthar Street in Trincomalee was decapitated on Sunday night. People who were enraged to notice the desecration on Monday morning placed a cloth on the headless statue. Local people suspect genocidal elements occupying Trincomalee for timing the act, when the Tamil National […]

”Lionel Bopage was for more than 10 years a central leader of Sri Lanka’s Janata Vimukthi Peramuna or People’s Liberation Front (JVP): a revolutionary, Marxist party that exploded onto the scene in 1971 with a failed attempt at armed insurrection. As Bopage gave so much of his time and energy to the party (including about […]