UN-Sri Lanka

Image: The placard asks by implication: When will you start issuing ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) ©Sunanda Deshapriya. The Government has extended, by two more years, legal provisions that enable issuance of a ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) to families of war-time missing and disappeared persons. The Registrar-General’s Department issued a Gazette Extraordinary last Wednesday to extend the effective […]

Image: Sri Lanka has failed to implement many of the recommendations from the WGEID. © Sunanda Deshapriya. 2019. We thank the Working Group for its follow-up report on Sri Lanka. This month marks the two years anniversary of the legislative establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). While we welcome the independent work carried out by […]

Image: UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French  delivered the statement. UN Human Rights Council 42 – UK delivers Core Group Statement on Sri Lanka UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French outlined that the UK remains steadfast in its commitment to help Sri Lanka deliver peace, reconciliation and prosperity for all communities. This […]

Image: Waiting for the justice for disappeared relatives © Sunanda Deshapriya. Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the report of its visit to Sri Lanka from 9 to 18 November 2015 (A/HRC/33/51/Add.2) 4. On 29 November 2018, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requested the Government of Sri […]

Image: Families of the disappeared gathered in front of UN, Colombo and handed over a memorandum. © Sunanda Deshapriya. August 30 was the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Despite Government figures indicating more than 65,000 complaints of disappearances in Sri Lanka, for most Sri Lankans, most media and the Government, it was just […]

Image: A relative of a disappeared writing on the memorial wall at OMP on 30 Aug 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya. UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka- Statement on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. “No-one has been forgotten” Today we stand up for the rights of the victims of enforced disappearances and their relatives. […]

Image: Shavendra Silva, joined the army in 1984 and was its chief of staff from January ( REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte ) GENEVA (27 August 2019) – A group of UN experts expressed serious concern at the appointment of Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva as Sri Lanka’s army chief, and urged the Government to advance long overdue reforms of […]

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed. GENEVA / COLOMBO (26 August 2019) – Simmering ethno-religious tensions in Sri Lanka require urgent action by the authorities to strengthen respect for freedom of religion or belief in Sri Lanka, says UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed. […]

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pointed fingers at the security forces over its failure to conclude investigations into some high-profile criminal cases, The Sunday Morning learnt. Reports on six high-profile investigations were handed over to the Attorney General’s (AG) Department last week. Meanwhile, following the updated report on investigations that had been submitted by the […]

Image: General Shavendra Silva is seen at the Ampara Air Force camp in eastern Sri Lanka August 24, 2009.  © 2009 Reuters/Stringer/Files. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, HRW. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a general whose forces have been credibly accused of war crimes as the commander of the national army. The move would seem to confirm the […]

The Delegation of the European Union (EU) issues the following statement in agreement with the Embassies of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the UK High Commission, the Embassies of Norway and Switzerland.  We fully share the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s serious concerns about the appointment of Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the […]

Lieutenant-General Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th Division during the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, and UN investigationshave implicated the division in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN High Commissioner for Human […]

Major General Shavendra Silva was appointed as the 23rd Commander of the Sri Lanka Army today (19).He received his letter of appointment from President Maithripala Sirisena this morning.Major General Silva joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Cadet Officer in 1984 and held the position of Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka Army prior to […]

Image: Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association, delivers his End of Mission statement at the Media Briefing in Colombo. GENEVA / COLOMBO (26 July 2019) — The people of Sri Lanka must act together to secure democracy, human rights and the rule of law, says the UN […]

SPECIAL STATEMENT BY HON. TILAK MARAPANA, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT – 25.07.19 It has been brought to my notice that last Tuesday (23 July) and Wednesday (24 July) several Members of the Parliament have brought up the issue of the visit of the Special Rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and of association, […]

Image courtesy of Tamil Diplomat. by Meera Srinivasan. Five students were shot dead in 2006 at Trincomalee. A magistrate court in Sri Lanka has acquitted Special Task Force (STF) and police personnel accused of killing five students in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, in 2006. According to the State-run Daily News, the Trincomalee Chief Magistrate on Wednesday released […]

In her opening speech at the HRC 41 Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said that Sri Lanka should be given a priority to bringing political, religious and other community leaders together to address root causes of all forms of violence and discrimination. “In Sri Lanka, I am concerned that the terrorist attacks two months ago have fuelled increasing […]

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 […]

Image: Sampanthan meeting Michele Coninsx . Press Release/10.06.19. Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate(CTED) Ms Michele Coninsx met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance Mr Sampanthan in Colombo Yesterday (8th June 2019). Highlighting the importance of the implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Council […]

Image: The Amadiyya community centre in Pasyala hosts refugees and asylum seekers forced to leave their homes since the April 21 attacks in Sri Lanka. Credit: UNHCR/Caroline Gluck. By Caroline Gluck NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka, May 31 2019 (IPS) – Thirteen-year-old Bariea, a Pakistani asylum seeker in Sri Lanka, is taking shelter at a mosque in the city of […]

(New York) – Ten years since the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, the government has failed to provide justice for the conflict’s many victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The conflict ended on May 18, 2009, with the total defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Sri Lankan government pledged to provide […]

On the tenth anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s three decade-long internal armed conflict, Amnesty International calls on the government of Sri Lanka to end impunity and put accountability for crimes under international law and human rights violations and abuses at the heart of its transitional justice process. The horrific Easter Sunday attacks on […]

Image: Relatives of people who went missing during Sri Lanka’s civil war taking part in a candle light vigil. File   | Photo Credit: Getty images. Meera Srinivasan. Some of the lands of survivors are yet to be released, relatives are still missing and reconciliation is afar. Given a choice between living in a camp for displaced […]

Statement by the United Nations in Sri Lanka on the prevailing situation in the country. 2019 May 14 (Colombo, Sri Lanka) – The United Nations in Sri Lanka is concerned about emerging incidents of communal violence and tension in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. The United Nations calls on the Government and […]

Joint Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Karen Smith, United Nations Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, on attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka . (New York, 13 May 2019) Recalling their recent statements against violent extremism and hate speech, the United Nations Special Adviser on […]

 R .Sampanthan. As I have often stated earlier, the future of the country is not purely an economic issue. It is a very multifaceted issue. Even the future economy of the country is dependent upon several issues; it is dependent upon its unity and its strengths based upon the unity; it is dependent upon the […]

DR. S. W. Premarathan – Attorney at Law. President Maithripala Sirisena, in the course of his speech to the nation on National Day, said that he is concerned about the interference of the members of the international community in the internal affairs of the country. There is no doubt that he had in his mind […]

Image: Shakthika Sathkumara Annya Wipulasena. When post-modernist, award winning novelist Shakthika Sathkumara walked into the Polgahawela Police Station on 1st April morning along with his lawyer and two other associates, what followed was completely unforeseen. About four Buddhist monks were at the station already. Sathkumara, a 33-year-old father of two, was hoping to avoid a confrontation […]

(Maneshka Borham/ Sunday Observer) The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) this week further strengthen its case against Sri Lanka’s top military chief, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne after he was linked to the now famous case of 11 missing youth believed to have been abducted by a ‘Navy abduction for ransom gang’between 2008 – 2009. Arrested by the […]

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 […]