civil rights

With Gotabaya Rajapaska claiming victory in the presidential elections, how does one understand the Northern vote? The Northern electoral districts of Jaffna and Vanni with just around 5% of the population of the country are marginal in determining electoral outcome except in very close electoral races. Nevertheless, for a country that has gone through a […]

Ten years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war,all ethnic communities living in the border areas of the conflict zone appreciate having a level of security. However, they do not consider the country to be at peace;ethnic/religious divides remain damagingly strong and people feel utter despair over continuing economic difficulties and political failures. National […]

Images of the Hindu Deity Krishna mistaken for Buddha images. By Arjuna Ranawana. Women’s activists are angry and exasperated by police detaining women wearing sarees or dresses with the images of Hindu Deities on them. Activists say there has been a rash of such incidents recently. Some of the images, particularly of the Hindu deity […]

CID Director SSP Shani Abeysekera. Picture by Gayan Pushpika, DN. Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekera, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department told the Parliament Select Committee on the Easter bombings yesterday that extensive investigations into the activities of Zahran Hashim by the CID had led them to Lactowatte, where the haul of explosives found […]

Image: Tamils being attacked in 1958 ethnic violence in Sri Lanka. Since then ethnic violence has been permanent feature in post independent Sri Lanka. The terrorist attacks that took place on the 21st Sunday 2019 caused grave loss and damage to many Sri Lankans. The multiple explosions island wide, including those that followed over the next […]

The police are doing little to prevent mob attacks. (Jun 6th 2019| COLOMBO/Economists.)  The charges sound silly but the consequences are not. One Muslim lady’s crime was to wear a shirt printed with a ship’s helm. Her accusers said it looked like the wheel of dharma, so she must be mocking Buddhism, the religion of the […]

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 […]

Image: After Easter Sunday attacks,  Negambo church. (c) Reuters. The carnage on Easter Sunday against three Christian churches, three leading hotels and two other locations have killed more than 300 and injured over 500.  The scale and coordinated nature of the bomb attacks have been shocking.  This brings an end to the ten year period […]

(Tamil Guardian) The judge at Westminster Magistrates Court today concluded the Sri Lankan Brigadier, accused of making a death threat to Tamil protesters in London last year, was not covered by diplomatic immunity whilst making the gesture. Stating the Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s threats were not part of his job description as Sri Lanka’s then defence attache, […]

Image: A civil society initiative, Rise Up has mobilized citizens against the #CoupLK. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena was hailed as Sri Lanka’s Mandela by his supporters in January 2015. He is now being called Sri Lanka’s Mugabe after his recent actions plunged the country into a chaotic constitutional crisis of unprecedented gravity. On Friday […]

The proto-fascist rouge-regime is floundering trying to consolidate itself. Kumar David. Much ink has flowed discussing recent events and much moral judgement offered; another such piece is redundant. My focus today is on the next stage. By way of preface I first put down a few facts on paper. Love him or hate him, Ranil […]

Image: © s.deshapriya. 20 Nov, 2018. Sri Lanka’s government has transferred police inspector Nishantha Silva, who was investigating several major investigations into attacks on journalists during former president Mahinda Rajapaksha’s tenure out of the Criminal Investigation Department with immediate effect raising concerns about the future of his investigations. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins […]

Image: Journalists orgnisations hold a vigil for journalists killed in Sri Lanka ( File Photo) Criminal Investigations Department OIC – Gang Robberies Nishantha Silva has been transferred out of the Department with immediate effect, raising serious concerns about the high profile abduction cases the official was handling. Silva was the chief investigator on several major […]

Image: Protester holding a placard against the dissolution of the parliament by Sirisena. Sri Lanka was for long a bastion of Western culture in social and political behavior. But these markers, which distinguished it from its neighbors in South Asia for decades after independence from British rule, are fast disappearing in the political sphere. Politics […]

Image: Sri Lanka parliament 15th Nov 2018.  COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka appeared to have ground to a political halt on Thursday with the Speaker of parliament saying there was no functioning prime minister or cabinet after Wednesday’s no-confidence vote. His comments came after weeks of political turmoil in the island, off the southeast coast […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s parliament speaker Karu Jayasuriya said 122 lawmakers in the 225-seat assembly had signed a letter saying they opposed the appointment of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. A statement said the letter would be sent by Jayasuriya to President Maithripala Sirisena who on October 26 appointed Rajapakse as prime minister […]

As the core of Sri Lanka’s Democratic Socialist Republic implodes in multiple critical ways today, it cannot be said that we were not forewarned. For not only President Maithripala Sirisena but also each and every one of us must abide by a fundamental truth underlying the legal order. The Constitution cannot be selectively applied because […]

“A certain cat had made the acquaintance of a mouse and has said so much to her about the great love and friendship she felt for her, that at length the mouse agreed that they should live and keep house together.” – Brothers Grimm (Cat and Mouse in Partnership) Some words are more evocative than others. […]

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 […]

(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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

(Press Release / 28.08.2018.) The Meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the Development of the North and East took place yesterday (27.08.2018) at the Presidential Secretariat. The meeting was presided over by His Excellency the President. Several ministers and government members of Parliament and Government Officials participated at the meeting. All the Tamil National Alliance […]

Image: Dharmasiri Bandaranayake. ( Nation.lk) Reaffirm the power of culture over the culture of power – Edward Said. It is a great honour to be invited to participate and speak at the Asian Human Rights Charter Workshop here at Gwangju, South Korea. A heartfelt thank you to Mr. Basil Fernando & Mr. Bijo Francis of […]

Image (c)s.deshapriya: A fisherman looking at sea anxiously in the eastern city of Batticoloa.  It difficult to ignore the question of justice in the area of control and distribution of resources in the new face of capitalism  argues Sunil Bastian. Observing what is going on in Sri Lanka these days from a distance, my mind […]

Image: Iranian elections traditionally have a high turnout. copyrightAFP. By Siavash Ardalan, BBC Persian.  Iran is due to hold a presidential election on 19 May, in which the incumbent Hassan Rouhani will fight for a second term. The polls are seen as critical to the future direction of the Islamic Republic. Here are some issues to know. It […]

Image: 15  women activists participated at the recently concluded CEDAW- Sri Lanka session. In its concluding observations  of the recently concluded consideration of the 8th Sri Lanka report,  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW)  has  expressed its concerns on many unresolved issues including difficulties faced by the war affected […]

(Remaining challenges on issues such as freedom of expression and media, strengthening of civil society needs to be addressed) – Joint Press Release following the first meeting of the working group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights under the European Union-Sri Lanka Joint Commission, held on 21 January 2016. The Working Group on […]