Human Rights

In what must surely count as one of the most hilarious, unintentionally ironic and terrifying proclamations ever uttered by a modern head of state, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has established a task force to “create a virtuous, disciplined and lawful society” in the country. Terrifying: the body, led by Defense Secretary Kamal Gunaratne, consists almost exclusively […]

A Tamil father who has spent more than a decade searching for his forcibly disappeared son passed away in Vavuniya today, without ever knowing the fate of his child. Sinnachami Nallathambi was aged 71-years-old and just days ago had taken part in a protest marking 1,200 days of continuous demonstrations by Tamil families of the […]

Sri Lanka Brief Up Date/ 03 June 2020 Rights of the migrant workers in the Middle East during the pandemic 1. The estimated number of overseas Sri Lankan workers is 1.5 million and 1.2 million of these are in the Middle East. The majority of the 1.2 million Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East […]

Image courtesy of “Time” GENEVA (3 June 2020) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the clampdown on freedom of expression in parts of the Asia-Pacific during the COVID-19 crisis, saying any actions taken to stop the spread of false information must be proportionate. Many countries in the region already […]

The activism in America against systemic racism and injustice is a powerful lesson to us all. Whichever country we live in, be it America, Sri Lanka or another, it is not the State that should determine our sensibilities and sensitivities. That’s your choice and mine. The State should not determine our wisdom, compassion, empathy and […]

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 […]

Image: Sri Lankan migrant workers have been sending billions to Sri Lanka to boost its foreign exchange resources. But now with the coronavirus pandemic, most of them want to come home. Till they are brought back, some of them are seen here sleeping on mattresses on the floor of a detention centre in Kuwait. Sri […]

File photo of Sri Lankan migrant workers arriving home. This week, the Sri Lankan government stopped planned air flights to bring Sri Lankan migrant workers back home from the Middle East. The decision was made after it was discovered that many were infected with the coronavirus. On May 26, President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s media division announced […]

Executive Summary. This report [by INFORM, Colombo,Sri Lanka] records 95 incidents that had been reported during the 90 days period. The average number of incidents per day reported prior to the covid-19 curfew is slightly higher than the number of incidents reported during the curfew. There were a high number of incidents related to legal, […]

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 courtesy of independent.co.uk. Menstruation is stigmatized all over the world. Menstruation is a normal and healthy part of life for most women. Roughly half of the female population — around 26 percent of the global population[i] — are of reproductive age. Most women menstruate each month for about two to seven days. Yet, as normal […]

There has been a very useful discussion in the public domain about the relationship between the three organs of government, especially in the present context where one organ, namely Parliament, is not functional. While Parliament has been described by some as being ‘dead’ due to it being dissolved, others point out that under the Constitution […]

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 […]

Image: Slippers left after the stampede on 21 May at Maligawatta, Colombo that killed 3 poor women who gathered to collect a few hundreds of rupees. Leader of the United National Party, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in a statement to the media, called upon the government to refrain from allowing the upcoming debt servicing to impact 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 Al Jazeera. A group of 20 Muslim associations have written to Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchchi expressing serious concern on the continuation of the mandatory cremation of bodies of persons who succumb to COVID-19 and called on the Minister to rescind the Gazette notification issued on 31 March which made the practice mandatory. […]

Dayan Jayethilleke. The footage on TV news was straight out of my favourite Netflix series. A long convoy of glossy black four-wheel drives coming down a dusty road with a heat haze shimmering in the background. Elite guards in red berets and body-armour, sunshades and carrying Heckler-and-Koch MP6s dismount, escorting the Bosses, also in shades, […]

Washington, D.C. – The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued an opinion finding the Government of Sri Lanka to be in contravention of its international human rights obligations for the four month pre-trial detention of author Shakthika Sathkumara. Responding to a petition filed by Freedom Now, the UN concluded that Sathkumara was detained for […]

Image: A Sri Lankan firefighter sprays disinfectants near a mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 10, 2020.  © 2020 AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena By Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director. HRW. Eleven years since the end of Sri Lanka’s long and brutal civil war, the government has disavowed promised steps toward truth, justice, and accountability for war crimes. Instead, recent years have […]

Image: Memorial stones for the Tamil victims of the war and dead LTTE career. July 2017, Mullivaikal.© sunanda deshapriya සුනන්ද දේශප්‍රිය Today we commemorate all those lives that we lost during the war, especially the tens of thousands of Tamil lives that were taken by horrific atrocities perpetrated during the final phase of the war […]

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 […]

Image: ‘Our clinics for respiratory disease meant we could look out for community transmission’: KK Shailaja, health minister. by Laura Spinney./The Guardian. On 20 January, KK Shailaja phoned one of her medically trained deputies. She had read online about a dangerous new virus spreading in China. “Will it come to us?” she asked. “Definitely, Madam,” […]

Yamini Perera. “Life doesn’t battle you because you’re weak, it battles you because you’re strong. Growth takes place when you are challenged, not when you are comfortable” – Vex King We all experience difficult situations and unexpected hardships at some point in our lives. In fact, it is an indispensable part of life. Our chosen […]

(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 […]

Ramzy Razik was arrested on April 9, 2020 at his home off Katugasota in Kandy by the CID. The next day, he was produced before the Colombo Magistrate where the CID claimed that he had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Cyber Crimes legislation. After a month, he remains remanded. […]

My article, ‘Necessity: Doctrine That Destroyed Pakistani Democracy’ published in The Island on 08 May has evoked interest in the subject and I have been asked for my views on its implications for Sri Lanka, including on whether it can be invoked in the present circumstances. For the benefit of readers who have not read […]

Issuing a statement the  General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has reaffirmed its firm position rejecting all policies and practices targeting the rights of Muslims anywhere. And it has called on the authorities in Sri Lanka to ensure the safety, security and rights of the Muslim community, as well as commitment to […]