Features

To The Most Rev Archbishop Justin Welby, I must begin by saying that I am not a Christian. But the feelings contained in this plea are being shared by many people who have lived their adult lives believing that service to people is our foremost duty. I beg you to read this in full. We hope […]

(4 August, 2019) The National Police Commission (NPC) decision to prevent the transfer of two senior cops in Kurunegala over their involvement in framing a Muslim doctor in a pseudo illegal sterilisation scare has raised serious questions about its alleged role in the communally charged controversy. The NPC stopped the transfers despite therecommendation for Kurunegala […]

Let us not dissemble about the fact that the killing of five students of Tamil ethnicity in January 2006 was a cold blooded murder of innocents. The dead victims had been awaiting university entrance when they were mowed down. Bright, eager students, these were the best that Sri Lanka promised. No connection to ‘terrorist activities’ […]

There is a tragic disconnect between what Sri Lanka’s leaders say to the public and the patent disbelief with which these words are received. This will eventually have dangerous repercussions beyond the electoral defeat of those men, impacting on the nation as a whole as it is pushed in a perilous direction with raw bitterness […]

A month after hundreds of people were killed in Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, a major local newspaper published a report claiming that a Muslim surgeon was a member of a terrorist group linked to the attacks and had secretly sterilised 4,000 Sinhala Buddhist women. The story was picked up by local television channels […]

Background: The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks have drastically changed Sri Lanka’s social and political fabric. Over the existing ethnic polarization, Sri Lanka now faces polarization on the grounds of religion. On 21st April 2019, 08 suicide bombers led explosions in Sri Lanka killing 252 people and injuring hundreds. Two Catholic churches, one Zion church, and […]

Freedom of expression under threat? : ‘Aathal’ comment lands Derana CEO in hot water. After two Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions were filed at the Supreme Court for what human rights activists and legal officers claim is a dire abuse of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act, the Organised Crimes Division (OCD) […]

Landmark ruling raps Police over Matara schoolgirl unlawful arrest case. Reacting to the growing abuse of power by law enforcement authorities, the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, has issued 20 guidelines to be followed by law enforcement authorities for the secure and advancing the rights of the public. This came as part of the […]

In the wake of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday attacks, we have one (Muslim) Minister confessing to calling the Army Commander to ‘inquire into’ the fate of a Muslim suspect arrested following the Easter Sunday attacks and another (Sinhala) Minister being so bold as to transport Sinhalese rioters attacking Muslim shops in Kurunegala from one police […]

When bombs planted in churches and hotels killed more than 200 people in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, few had realised that the nation had a problem with Islamist militancy. One man who did, reports the BBC’s Secunder Kermani, was Mohammad Razak Taslim. Lying on a hospital bed, Mohammad Razak Taslim’s face contorts with pain. […]

Image: In Bandara Koswatte, the mob attacked the main mosque despite Police and Army presence, says HRCSL. In a letter to Acting Inspector General of Police, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka  has provided evidence of police complicity in the recent anti-Muslim attacks in Sri Lanka and recommended urgent action to be taken . Same quotes form the […]

(Reuters) In Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, a lane that used to be alive with the sound of children playing is silent. An entire family, including three children, died in an explosion at St Anthony’s Church on Easter Sunday, one of a series of coordinated attacks by suicide bombers that killed more than 250 people. An […]

Image: Top row (from left): Sima Samar, Kanak Mani Dixit, Hamida Hossain. Bottom row (from left): Uma Chakravarti, Shahidul Alam, Pamela Philipose, Beena Sarwar. Activists, academics and journalists from across South Asia have issued a statement in solidarity with the artists, thinkers and ordinary people of Sri Lanka. New Delhi: In view of the recent […]

“We would like to ask the media to please be responsible in the way you report news. Please don’t humiliate us unnecessarily or carry un-validated information designed to whip up suspicion and hatred against us. I am the chief administrator of a Jaffna mosque. The Special Task Forces surrounded our area (where Muslims are concentrated) […]

Sri Lanka’s President issued a new set of Emergency Regulations on 22 April. This note explains the contents of Emergency Regulation 15, which concerns the ‘control of publications’, and certain other regulations relevant to publication. There are four features in Regulation 15 worth discussing. Before explaining these features, we should note that a ‘competent authority’ […]

Image: Mourners attend a mass burial, two days after a series of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, at a cemetery near St Sebastian Church in Negombo, April 23, 2019. Reuters. (Speech made by Hon A. Sumanthirn in Parliament today, 24. April 2019.) I rise with a heavy heart […]

From February 3 to April 14 this year, across Sri Lanka, there has been some sort of disruption against a Christian worship service every Sunday – on 11 successive Sundays to be specific. Christians in Sri Lanka suffer violations of their right to religion and belief regularly, but most incidents do not make it to […]

During the past few weeks, I have been watching the many headlines, debates, misinformation, misrepresentation of facts as well as self-congratulatory statements by some members of the delegation that went to Geneva to participate in the 40th session of the Human Rights Council where the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet presented the Report […]

Image: A protester during the Oct 2018 constitutional coup. In democracies, elections usually are significant political turning points. In democratic theory, an election marks two key opportunities to the people as well as the rulers. For the people, it marks the periodic occasion to elect their rulers and grant them authority to rule over them for […]

New Delhi: India’s desire to give some breathing space to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe found a sympathetic ear in the international community. His government is to be granted a further extension of two years to carry out key pledges on transitional justice and accountability. Just before the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) session ends […]

It is now three months since the interpretation of our constitution by the Supreme Court of the country was respected by the President and the relevant political leaders, and the constitutional crisis he created was resolved. Yet the country continues to be trapped in problems of critical concern for all of us. The President The […]

Last week men on social media celebrated Women Police Constables (WPCs) being the barrier between student protesters. This was apparently an achievement for gender equality. It is commonplace for Male Police Constables (MPCs) to get all the ‘action’ of being in the frontlines, while WPCs are often restricted to the offices taking on roles as […]

Conclusions and recommendations. 61. In 2015, by co-sponsoring Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, the Government of Sri Lanka recognized the need to address the past in order to build a brighter future, grounded in accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The lack of decisive steps to that end, and of appropriate […]

Kishali Pinto Jayewardena. (Sunday Times/03.3.19) Verbal gymnastics indulged in by Sri Lankan politicians in respect of the draft Counter Terrorism Act (CTA), now before Parliament awaiting amendments from the sectoral oversight committee, are vastly entertaining in truth. The ‘political hot potato’ Unlikely champions of constitutional rights are emerging from the Rajapaksa-led opposition. This week, the […]

Image: Samantha Power speaking at the event to mark 30 years of Parliamentary Politics of Minister Mangala Samaraweera. (@MangalaLK) Full text of the speech delivered by Ambassador Samantha J Power at the event to mark 30 years of Parliamentary Politics of Minister Mangala Samaraweera. Ambassador Samantha Power. Celebration of Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Read the full report as a PDF:Sri Lanka Briefing Note No 14 Feb. 2019 In the last two months of 2018, Sri Lanka witnessed a political coup led by its President. The coup was short lived. The attempt to overthrow the democratically elected Government and bring back the authoritarian ruler, who was rejected […]

“If they harm me, it is the country they harm.” Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (Hard Talk – Daily Mirror – October 2011)[i] The beautification of Gotabaya Rajapaksa is on full throttle. The names of his front organisations are indicative of the guise he intends to adopt as a presidential contender: The Light (Eliya) and The Intellectual Path (Viyath […]

Sri Lanka today faces another constitutional crisis. At the centre of the crisis is the dynamic between the Constitutional Council, a creation of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, and the executive presidency, itself a creation of the 1978 Constitution. Both the executive powers of the President and the powers of the Constitutional Council are […]

It is no matter for jest when the President of a country publicly singles out national oversight institutions for ferocious censure. And without a doubt, it is even worse when that institution happens to be a national human rights institution. By the very nature of the work that it does and the statutory mandate on […]

Image: Remains of two UN peacekeepers killed in Mali arrive in Sri Lanka. His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Presidential Residence Paget Road Colombo 07 Your Excellency, Re: His Excellency the President’s Statement in the Parliament about the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. We have been made aware of […]