Accountability

The new Presidential Task Force is headed by Defence Ministry Secretary Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne has been appointed to build a secure country, disciplined, virtuous and lawful society. The other 12 members are; Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva (Commander of the Sri Lanka Army), Vice Admiral Piyal de Silva (Commander of Sri Lanka Navy), Air Marshal […]

Image: Western Province DIG Deshabandu Tennekoon says Police are looking for temporary residents. ECONOMYNEXT – Questions are being raised over a door-to-door survey being conducted by Police in the City of Colombo and its suburbs of residents and the collection of personal data by officers accompanied by unidentified civilians. The Deputy Inspector General of Police […]

The events of 39 years ago set the stage for Sri Lanka’s civil war – and still echo today. By Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan. It was May 31, 1981 when early signs of the looming civil war broke out on the Jaffna peninsula of northern Sri Lanka. An organized Sinhala mob carried out an arson attack on […]

1. President Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament on 2nd March 2020– six months before the due date, amidst the growing danger of COVID-19 pandemic. By this time, the uncertainty relating to the possibility of holding elections during the outbreak had already surfaced. However, the President chose to disregard the looming threat and called an election without […]

Image: Army Commander visited violently anti-minority monk Amapitiye Suman on his trip to East. “We’ll leave behind an iron scrap And the hollow, mocking laugh of generations.” – Tadeusz Borowski (Wherever the earth) While the world struggles with the Wuhan-born COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has taken a great leap towards Hong Kong. Beijing has […]

Transparency International Sri Lanka wrote to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on 22 May 2020, highlighting an opportunity for Sri Lanka to take global leadership in financial transparency during the COVID-19 pandemic. TISL makes 3 key recommendations in this letter – Establish an online platform providing all information on grants/donations received with timely updates on spending […]

Image: on 20th May heavily armed Sri Lanka military patrolled outside TNPF office for the 3rd straight day, tweeted @TnpfOrg. In a series of tweets Tamil National People’s Front has reported continuing police harassment by the police against people, party members, and lawyers who appeared on behalf of the TNPF to argue against the quarantining […]

Most of the victims of horrific Easter Sunday bombings were Christian, majority killed inside three churches, and the bombers were Muslims. Immediately after the attacks, many Muslims unreservedly condemned the attacks and offered support and solidarity to mostly Christian survivors and families of victims. As churches across the country closed in the aftermath of the […]

It’s been 10 years since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka. For thousands of people, missing family members and friends are a constant reminder of the trauma of the conflict. This is the story of Father Francis. On 18 May 2009, a brutal conflict which lasted almost three decades came to an […]

Image courtesy of www.epilepsy.com. (Press release/GTF) The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) joins Tamils worldwide in commemorating the 11th anniversary of the end of civil war in Sri Lanka. The final phase of the war is one of the most brutal in recent history and mass atrocity crimes were systematically committed against the Tamil people. It […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Three minors, all students of the Al-Zuhairiya Arabic School in Karaitivu have filed Fundamental Rights petitions before the Supreme Court alleging that officials who identified themselves as Policemen forcibly took them from their parents and attempted to make them sign false documents. The parents of the children have signed the petitions which have […]

Image courtesy of the Medium Statement from Family of Hejaaz Hizbullah, Attorney at Law.  We have been greatly disturbed by a vile and vicious media campaign being carried out against our husband and brother Hejaaz Hizbullah with the intention of prejudicing public opinion. We believe that this campaign is being carried out with the support […]

(Wednesday 13 May 2020) In an open letter to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice, the Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has called upon the country’s government to abide by due process and uphold the rule of law in the case of Sri Lankan lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah. Former […]

In its response to the allegations of misuse of social media platforms FaceBook and WhatsApp leading to anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka the Facebook, Inc says that “it deplores the misuse of the platform and apologizes for, the very real human rights impacts that resulted”. The full report is attached as a PDF. Overview. Beginning […]

The tragic circumstances and horrific treatment of the family of the deceased from Modara, [Colombo] who was misdiagnosed for COVID19, and thereafter cremated is important to take note. It also leaves a lot of unanswered questions. As recounted by her family to me, the deceased was a 44 years old Muslim woman (media reported her […]

On 23 March, the Secretary to the Treasury released the Pre-Election Budgetary Position report as required by law. On 30 March, further to preliminary comments, I released a detailed statement on the report. The statement advised the President that this report – signed by the Treasury Secretary and Finance Minister – justified the presentation of […]

Image: Pakistani-military-ditators-Gen.Ayub-Khan-Gen.Yahya-Khan-Gen.Zia-ul-Haq-Gen.Pervez-Musharraf (NewsinAsia) The doctrine of necessity was first expounded in the 13th century by English jurist Bracton, who stated ‘that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity’. Glanville Williams described the defence of necessity as involving ‘a choice of the lesser evil. ‘ The doctrine is recognized in criminal law. For […]

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and its Executive Director, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu filed a Fundamental Rights application challenging the decision of H.E the President to dissolve Parliament on the 2nd March 2020 and the decision of the Elections Commission to reschedule elections on the 20th June 2020. Issuing a press statement CPA said,  “Articles 70 […]

In a letter addressed to the Chairperson and other members of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, former MP M.A. Sumantiran says that although the restricting movement is desirable and necessary at this time in our country in order to meet the challenge presented by COVID-19 such restrictions including curfew must be imposed legally […]

Image: The President could perhaps respond positively to the joint opposition statement offering ‘responsible cooperation’. The threefold crisis The threefold crisis that our country faces— public health, the constitutional, and political—is exacerbating day by day. In the latest development, a number of soldiers of the naval and special task forces of the Welisara and Seeduwa […]

Former Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in a letter to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has urged him to exercise his powers as the Head of State at this critical time and to summon the Parliament as soon as possible with the support of all parties represented in Parliament. He said that this was imperative to have the […]

Image: This Doctrine has very bad precedents.  In 1954 Pakistan, the Chief Justice at the time validated the extra constitutional use of emergency powers to dissolve a Constituent Assembly. The legality or the lack thereof of the ongoing curfew was briefly taken to a Court of Law this week during a bail application on behalf […]

(Image courtesy of www.dw.com) It is no coincidence that the increasingly not-so-insidious growth of Sri Lanka’s anti-democracy virus, first reflected on in these column spaces last month, has kept apace with the exponential rise of coronavirus infected individuals in the last ten days. As transparency diminishes, so does accountability. This is so in relation to […]

A group of 158 lawyers in a letter to Sri Lanka Bar Association has requested to intervene to ensure basic rights of detained Attorney at Law Hijaaz Hizbullah. The  letter follows: Dear Sirs, UNLAWFUL DETENTION AND LACK OF ACCESS TO LAWYERS FOR MR HEJAAZ HIZBULLAH, AAL We write with deep concern as Attorneys at Law […]

Image: Police officers on patrol during the coronavirus lockdown in Mumbai, India, last week.(Credit…Divyakant Solanki/EPA, via Shutterstock) The coronavirus outbreak has allowed authoritarianism and anti-Muslim sentiment to flourish. NEW DELHI — For decades, India embraced many of the ideals that are the hallmarks of a liberal democracy. But since the election of Prime Minister Narendra […]

Sri Lankan police officers patrol a Muslim neighborhood after the Easter Sunday bombings, Colombo, April 26, 2019.(Image courtesy of HRW/© 2019 AP Photo) (New York) – Sri Lankan authorities should uphold due process rights and ensure that recently detained Muslim figures have proper access to lawyers, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrests, soon after the government […]

Testing has become the main challenge for Sri Lanka. The government has consciously erected several roadblocks to minimise testing and obfuscate the spread of Covid-19 in Sri Lanka. Despite significant domestic testing capacity, a quota of no more than 212 patients a day are being tested for Covid-19, as at 11th April 2019. With the […]

According to the Habeas Corpus Applications  filed on behalf of lawyer Hejaz Hisbullah the CID personal has come to his house in the guise of officials of the Ministry of Health. The application says that Hejaz Hisbullah had received a call at around 4.00 pm purportedly from a person identifying himself as from the Ministry […]

Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya, Chairman, Election Commission. Mr. Chairman, On holding the general election. Once again, there is talk of holding the general election in Sri Lanka at the time the COVID-19 has become a pandemic. The media has reported that the Elections Commission will meet on the 20th to discuss this matter. The health sector […]

  Image: An indefinite, nationwide curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka, where over 200 people have tested positive for coronavirus (AFP Photo/Ishara S. KODIKARA). (AFP•April 12, 2020) Sri Lanka made cremations compulsory for coronavirus victims on Sunday, ignoring protests from the country’s minority Muslims who say it goes against Islamic tradition. Of the seven […]