Image: Sirisena with the some of the attendees of the meeting. (original photo by PMD phot0). Addressing the Sri Lankans living in United States at the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to UN in New York  September 26 Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena  has said that only incidents [ human rights violation by  soldiers] outside the war field,  […]

Media urged to use RTI, other tools Opposition and Government join in calling for more responsible reporting Journalists should be the compass of citizens, says Norwegian Ambassador Media freedom is essential to a functioning democracy, but reckless use of such freedoms will be the death of it. This was the key takeaway at the 20th anniversary celebration […]

Former Secretary to the then Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, has held him and Lt. Commander Sumith Ranasinghe accountable if 11 children had gone missing after being abducted. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday (26), informed Colombo Fort Acting Magistrate Deemani Baddewela that Rear Admiral Shamal Fernando, the former Secretary to former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, […]

Image: Sarath Weerasekara addressing the HRC 39. Making an intervention under the agenda  item 6 of the  on going 39th session of the Human Rights Council, former Rear Admiral of Sri Lanka Navy, Saratha Weerasekara asked Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet not to speak to the cowards of this Government but to speak to them. Sarath Weerasekara is […]

Since 2012, several landmark resolutions have been approved by various UN bodies on the issue of the safety of journalists. IFEX’s 5-minute guide explains what they are, and how civil society can use them to keep governments accountable. This is one in a series of IFEX explainers aimed at strengthening the ability of civil society […]

Image: The Island  report  according to Minster Samaraweera is a complete lie. 28 Sep 2018. Minister says CID never made submissions in court that plot had been established through Indian national or any other means. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has not made any statement to establish or corroborate the allegations of a plot to […]

(26 Sep 2018)President Maithripala Sirisena called upon the international community to look at Sri Lanka with a fresh perspective and consider the tremendous progress made by the government towards reconciliation, restoration of democratic freedoms, human rights and the rule of law and extend the fullest support to the build a progressive, democratic, free and equal […]

Jaffna Police has initiated an investigation over an incident where a female lawyer has come to the court wearing a saree with an image of Buddha printed on it. Following a tip off received by the Police on its emergency number 119 police initiated investigations and the lawyer in question was summoned to the police […]

Sri Lankan police on Friday filed an injunction in an attempt to prevent an event commemorating Lt Col Thileepan’s fast unto death. The event is currently being planned for September 26 to take place in Nallur, Jaffna. The police allege the event is for a member of a ‘terrorist organisation banned in Sri Lanka and […]

Image: Lt. Commander Krishan Welagedara. Lt. Commander Krishan Welagedara provided damning evidence to CID sleuths in 2012, when he was able to help the agency to establish that the 11 youths abducted by a suspected navy gang were held in detention at Gun Site at the Trincomalee Naval Base. A Navy Intelligence officer, Welagedara was privy […]

 On 14th September, eight Tamil detainees in the Anuradhapura prison, detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) since around 2009 commenced a fast. Their cases are yet to be concluded, with a major reason for delays being the non-attendance of officials from the Attorney General’s department who are prosecuting the cases. One of the […]

During the time of Sri Lanka’s ‘Civil War’, there were regular interventions by Human Rights (HR) activists on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions. Foreign Ministry officials as well as others such as the Attorney General had to travel to Geneva to present the Sri Lanka Government’s case. Today, the situation […]

The International Day for the Universal Access to Information (also known as the World Right to Know Day) is observed every year on September 28. This provides Sri Lanka an opportunity to take stock of how its Right to Information (RTI) law is working. It was in June 2016 that Sri Lanka became the 108th […]

Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar – A/HRC/39/CRP.2. 1718. All social media platforms active in Myanmar, including messenger systems, should apply international human rights law as basis for content moderation on their platforms. In doing so, they should respect the rights of their users to freedom of expression […]

The key state witness in an abduction case has written to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, complaining that his employer, the Sri Lanka Navy, is victimising him and blocking his promotion. Lt. Cmdr. Krishan Welagedara is a leading witness in a Habeas Corpus application filed in respect of five young Sinhala, Tamil and […]

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division on Sunday took statements from the editors of the three Jaffna based newspapers in relation to a Tamil homeland display at a temple festival in Aanaikkottai. The editors of Uthayan, Valampuri and Thinakkural were questioned following approval by Jaffna Magistrate Court. Last month the TID summoned five Tamils along with […]

Media Releases | Tue, 18 Sep 2018. On receipt of media reports from Italy that a Sri Lankan with a Diplomatic Passport has been arrested at Malpensa Airport in Milan for allegedly trying to smuggle four youths into Italy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated immediate inquiries to ascertain the veracity of this information. Accordingly, the […]

September 18th, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) notes the improved version of the Counter Terrorism Bill to repeal and replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which has reportedly obtained Cabinet approval last week. While the process of preparing the Bill could have been much more transparent and inclusive, the final […]

18 September 2018. “This time President Sirisena’s sword is nearing his own neck; not mere smoke flooding his eyes.” Penchant for playing with fire President Gamaralalage Sirisena has always had a penchant for playing with fire. He did fire-play at the local government elections when he made a disastrous U-turn and went round country blasting […]

Image: Sri Lanka flag at the entrance to   Palais des Nations, UNHRC head office in Geneva. 17 September 2018. The recent interventions of President Maithripala Sirisena into issues of governance brings out sharp differences of opinion within the government coalition he heads. The most significant of these is his bid to break free from the commitments […]

“Without liberty, the understanding would be to no purpose, and without understanding, liberty (if it could be) would signify nothing.” Locke (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding) The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) doesn’t always get it right. In May 2018, it predicted that Nawaz Sharif’s party, PML-N, will win Pakistani elections scheduled for July. That was […]

Image: Screen shot of the video; S.B. Disanayake and Dilan Perera. Two former ministers who served during the Rajapaksa regime have admitted that LTTE members including Tamils who had surrendered to the Army had been killed. This allegation has been levelled against the Sri Lankan security forces for almost ten years by the war affected […]

At 3.30 am on September 10, Admiral Ravindra Wijeguneratne, the country’s highest ranking military official, boarded a Qatar Airways flight bound for Singapore. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was travelling overseas to attend the 208th National Day celebrations in Mexico, according to his Office. The trouble was, September 10 was also the day Admiral […]

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in its latest report, has forecasted that the party backed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa will win the next Presidential and Parliamentary election. The country report on Sri Lanka, generated as premium content by the London based international research outfit on September 10, forecasts on a wide range of subjects in […]

At the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, President Maithripala Sirisena will announce a set of new proposals for consideration at the March 2019 session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR). He will also submit these proposals to the United nations Secretary General António Guterres as well as […]

(September 14, 2018) Continuing controversy over Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Ravi Wijegunaratne, wanted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection with allegedly aiding and abetting Lt. Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, a suspect in two major wartime cases, leaving for Mexico on Sept. 10 has taken a dramatic turn with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) […]

Image: iral Ravindra Wijegunaratne. Sri Lanka cabinet snubs President over arrest of military chief. ECONOMYNEXT – President Maithripala Sirisena summoned an emergency cabinet meeting to defend the country’s senior-most military officer who is facing imminent arrest for allegedly shielding a mass murder suspect, but failed to secure agreement. The noon meeting of the cabinet ended after […]

Nearly 300 unidentified bodies were buried in Colombo’s public graveyards between 2013 and 2018 alone while dozens more are interred in a similar manner around the country. From January to August this year, a total of 67 unidentified bodies were brought to the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer (JMO). Only 32 of them were claimed. The […]

Executive Summary: The establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) marks a significant milestone in the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to address the issues of the missing and the disappeared. Established under the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act No. 14 of 2016 as an independent commission, the […]

Here in Sri Lanka, the response to recent communal riots was to temporarily ban social media. An extra-ordinary move indeed. We should ask ourselves whether it was Facebook that caused the riots in 1915, the 1970s, the 1980s. Or is it a convenient excuse to stifle criticism of the Government’s handling of the crisis and […]