The draft resolution on Sri Lanka tabled by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva has been prepared after “careful reflection and after extensive dialogue and bilateral engagement at the highest levels of the U.S. government,” the U.S. has said.The resolution has been roundly condemned by both the Sri Lankan government and the vocal Tamil […]

India yet to decide on rights resolution against Sri Lanka Sri Lanka steps up diplomatic offensive Support US-backed resolution at UN rights council: Jayalalithaa The litmus test in Sri Lanka Former Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president, M. Karunanidhi, on Friday once again urged the Central government to vote in favour of the […]

India should assert leadership at the UN Human Rights Council, and insist on concrete answers and actions The time has come for India to be bolder and more confident on human rights at the international level. Its growing stature in international affairs demands this leadership position. The current session of the UN Human Rights Council […]

”Faced with intense international scrutiny, Sri Lanka is cutting a defiant pose. Government-backed protests have filled the streets decrying “foreign intervention” and a “Western conspiracy.” Even as the U.S. and its allies mobilize support for more action, representatives from Colombo are lobbying tooth and nail with members of the Human Rights Council to defeat any […]

“In a wide ranging interview Tamara Kunanayakam, Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, explained the motivations of the West and mostly the United States for pushing a resolution against Sri Lanka: “What, in fact, are the US trying to tell us with their draft resolution? They are not saying that our LLRC report […]

Since February 2012, Mr Herman Kumara has been subjected to a media smear campaign, repeated threats, surveillance and intimidation following rounds of protests by fisher people in the Chilaw and Negombo areas against an increase in fuel prices by the Government.Herman Kumara was the Secretary General of the World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) and […]

A nurses’ trade union yesterday claimed that a German NGO had gifted Rs. 3,000 million to the Health Ministry to relocate the Mahamodara Teaching Hospital after the Tsunami catastrophe, but that project had not been implemented.President of the Government Nursing Officers Association Saman Rathnapriya told The Island that what had happened to those funds was […]

For Sri Lanka, the battleground has shifted from the Wanni jungles to the cool precincts of Geneva, where the United Nations Human Rights Council is meeting. Here it is trying to defeat a resolution — drafted by the United States of America and now being considered by the council — that calls for Sri Lanka […]

Col R Hariharan President Mahinda Rajapaksa confronted his moment of truth at Geneva on February 27 when the 19th meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) started discussing Sri Lanka. It was third time Sri Lanka’s accountability issue had figured at the 47-member body. This time it is going to be difficult for Sri […]

A draft resolution that appears in media reports as has been tabled by the USA at Geneva UNHCR, while specifying the ‘constructive’ LLRC recommendations that has to be implemented, talks of only de-militarizing the North but not the East and confines the model of political solution to undefined devolution of powers to the provinces and […]

While police deny reports that arrests have been made in connection with a double murder in Kahawatte, there is suspicion that the alleged killers are getting protection from politicians.The key suspect in the murder of a woman and her daughter at Kotakethana is L.M. Dharmasiri, a Godakawela Pradeshiya Sabha member and coordinating secretary to minister […]

The Colombo High Court has fixed the trial to hear an abduction case involving an official of Deputy Resettlement Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna.Colombo High Court Judge Devika Tennakoon has fixed the trial for June 20. The trial would hear the case against one of the Deputy Minister’s officials, Pubalapillai Kandarasa alias Rajan. The suspect […]

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday made public her government’s difficulties that arose out of frequent visits of Sri Lankan officials, army officers and VIPs to Tamil Nadu without informing the government. File photoThe Hindu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday made public her government’s difficulties that arose out of frequent visits of Sri Lankan officials, army […]

According to the Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, 5,761 cases of involuntary disappearances remain outstanding in Sri Lanka.  The report was submitted to the 19th session of UNHRC on 06th Feb 2012.However, these numbers do not include disappearances that had taken place in the Wanni during 2007- 2009. The report […]

The US is proposing a resolution on Sri Lanka in the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), which started last week. While the Sri Lankan government has opposed the move, the resolution will do nothing to address the war crimes and gross abuses of democratic rights by the military in the […]

Party representative have requested the Commissioner to issue temporary ID cards The main opposition in Sri Lanka says that over two thousands registered voters in two electoral bodies in the north are unaccounted for.United National Party (UNP) quoting the elections commissioner (EC) said nearly 10-15% of people out of 21,000 registered voters in Pudukudiiruppu (PDK) […]

Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and other relevant instruments,Reaffirming that States must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, as applicable,Noting the Report […]

Police headquarters has launched an inquiry into the circumstances which led to the police opening fire on a group of gamblers during a raid in the Dankotuwa police area last Sunday afternoon.One person who was wounded in police shooting is recuperating at the Negombo District General Hospital. Following an initial inquiry, the police interdicted an […]

”Fears felt by civil society groups extend beyond Sri Lanka. In September 2011, activist Sunanda Deshapriya was sharply criticized in the state media for his attendance at an informal meeting during the HRC sessions in Geneva. In such a climate, several Sri Lankan human rights groups and victims of abuses who had planned to travel […]

The government has collected Rs 1,580.4 million as tax revenue, during the past five years, from 810 casinos in the country, Parliament was told yesterday. Deputy Finance Minister Geethanjana Gunawardena, responding to a question raised by UNP Kurunegala District MP Daysiri Jayasekera said that those casinos were currently under the registration of the local government […]

Minister Wimal Weerawansa says he is asking bishop of Jaffna Rev. Rayappu Joseph by the name of God not to further fuel hatred or sabotage country’s peace.Thirty one northern catholic clergy, including the Mannar bishop, have issued a very serious statement, claiming war crimes in Sri Lanka, contrary to the statement by the catholic bishops, […]

‘Jathika Hela Urumaya, Party says that,Rev. Rayappu Joseph, the Bishop of Mannar, who requests the United Nations Organization that an investigation should be launched regarding the supposed war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka, should be immediately produced before court, as it is a violation of the constitution of this country.Jathika Hela Urumaya also says that, […]

Special Rapporteur on human rights workers yesterday criticized the Sri Lankan national media. Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions, Ms Margaret Sekaggya said: “Regarding other parts of the world, I have once again been alerted that should human rights defenders in Sri Lanka seek the protection of my mandate, they, their families […]

”We call upon the Sri Lankan State to view the proposed resolution at the UN Human Rights Council as a tool for the implementation of its vision for a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community and for ensuring long lasting peace for the women who have lost so much and continue to suffer. The Sri Lankan government […]

In a pan-Tamil Nadu fasting campaign organised by the Communist Party of India with the support of many major political parties of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, the Government of India was urged to declare Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa as guilty of genocide. The CPI demand supported by the ruling AIDMK and by political parties […]

Kalana SenaratneColombo, The year 2009 was when the Western group of States at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) made a serious diplomatic blunder, by attempting to pass a resolution against Sri Lanka. The West missed the plot. This was just days after a bloody three decades long war had ended in Sri Lanka; just […]

The fundamental rights petition filed before the Supreme Court by 13 employees of Katunayake Free Trade Zone claiming their fundamental rights were violated when police attacked the peaceful agitation carried out by the employees against a fraudulent pension scheme the government attempted to force on private sector employees will be heard.The Supreme Court took this […]

Thousands of Tamils from across Europe protested in front of UN headquarters in Geneva Monday demanding the creation of an international tribunal to try “war crimes” committed in Sri Lanka.Some 2,000 protestors, according to the SDA-ATS Swiss news agency, waved banners and placards in favour of self-determination for the Tamil minority and denounced “genocidal acts”. […]

Five former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were released last year by the occupying SL forces for integration with their families after the genocidal SL military’s ‘rehabilitation’ programme, have been reported missing last week. On 27 February, two men, who came in a vehicle, asked for Mr. Muththiah and took […]

An EPDP paramilitary operative on Saturday raped and killed a 13-year-old student of Neduntheevu Maha Viththiyaalayam, Jesudasan Lakshini, triggering anger among the villagers of Neduntheevu (Delf), an islet off Jaffna. The villages encircled the camps of the Sri Lanka Navy and the SL Police on Sunday and demanded that the civilian representatives of the islet […]