Human Rights

Too often, the argument is made that one should not speak out for fear of consequences. But this is a weak defence. Instead, the truth is rather that one does not speak out because it is inconvenient to do so, either professionally or personally. (Keynote address delivered at the annual general meeting (agm) of the […]

By Swaminathan Natarajan /BBC Tamil Mosques in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Kattankudi have made public announcements exonerating two teenage girls accused of watching pornography. The loudspeaker announcements were made following a court order.A group of men allegedly beat up the 17-year-olds last week after they came out of an internet cafe in Kattankudi, […]

By S.S.SelvanayagamTen workers of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ) filed a fundamental rights violation petition yesterday before the Supreme Court against the impugned police assault on the peaceful demonstrators within the FTZ on May 30.In their petition filed through their instructing Attorney-at-Law Gowry Shangary Thavarasha, they cited the Police OICs of Katunayake and Seeduwa […]

by Namini Wijedasa WITH all the negative publicity Sri Lanka is generating internationally, even a few tentative steps towards enhancing democracy could go a long way. And yet the government seems hell-bent on taking the opposite direction. On June 21, the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) used its parliamentary majority to defeat a draft […]

The case has fuelled concern about a rise in radical Islam in that area.By Swaminathan Natarajan BBC TamilSri Lankan police are investigating an assault on two girls apparently accused of watching pornography in the east of the country last week.A group of men allegedly beat up the 17-year-olds after they came out of an internet […]

The 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the United States stated that Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking the country but is making significant efforts to do so.The report said Sri Lanka is primarily a source and to a much lesser extent, a destination […]

HR groups concerned:24 June 2011/By Susitha R. FernandoSeveral human rights and women’s organizations yesterday expressed shock and concern on a dangerous trend since of late to impose lenient jail terms and suspended sentences for persons convicted in cases of sexual abuse, rape and child molestation. A study carried out by Lawyers for Human Rights and […]

Ms. Q. Mahendra Devi (42) is a widow and the mother of three children. She resides at No: 100/36, Dharmaraja Road, Kandy and works as a cleaning labour working for a private company. After the death of her husband she built a house in above mentioned address. June 24, 2011ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION-URGENT APPEAL PROGRAMME […]

photos – http://vikalpa.org  SB is ideally fit to be in charge of Pig sty not as Higher education Minister Dr. Prabhath Jayasinghe speaking at today’s University academic staff public meeting in Colombo said, if Sri Lanka is to be made Asia’s central educational Headquarter , the present higher education Minister , S B Dissanayake is […]

Lankan students have to undergo rigorous workout to get into varsitiesby Chandani KirindeSalvage a heavy vehicle stuck in mud, complete a 5-km march in 45 minutes and do push ups and run obstacle courses. This is not part of the curriculum for those training to join the Sri Lankan military or the police, but a […]

“All allegations of war crimes and human right violations require investigation, perpetrators must be punished as well as a reparation scheme be put in place. 2 years have passed without addressing issues of disappearances, extra-judicial killings, murder of journalists and political assassinations. 5 years we have waited for the Charter of Human Rights and for […]

15 June 2011 / By Lakna Paranamanna‘We are Sri Lankans (WESL)’ an organization agitating for the release of Tamil political prisoners said yesterday Tamils held in prisons and detention camps countrywide were allegedly being abused and neglected by prison authorities.WESL Executive Committee member and former Inter University Students Federation Convener Udul Premaratne told a media […]

15 June 2011/ by Lakna Paranamanna‘We are Sri Lankans (WESL)’ an organization agitating for the release of Tamil political prisoners said yesterday Tamils held in prisons and detention camps countrywide were allegedly being abused and neglected by prison authorities.WESL Executive Committee member and former Inter University Students Federation Convener Udul Premaratne told a media briefing […]

The government presented a bill to the parliament on 2011.05.08 allegedly to grand pension benefits to employees in the private sector. It is clear that by this retirement benefit bill, the government is aiming to gradually prune the   EPF, ETF and Gratuity Benefits and to get control of these funds to gain economic benefits out […]

13 June 2011/ by Nirmalan DhasIn General, The imposition of this leadership training program or any training program on the human community – with the exception of programs that train people to resist programming – is likely to interfere with the free evolutionary development of human being and therefore deserves to be resisted.The education system […]

June 9, 2011/ by Dasun EdirisingheThe Inter Company Employees’ Union (ICEU) has written to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), in Athens, about the police attack on a workers’ protest, which killed one employee and injured more than 300 at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Katunayake.General Secretary of the ICEU Janaka Adikari said […]

7 June 2011,By Dr.Paikiasothy SaravanamuttuThe tension and hiatus over the pension bill and the killing of the Free trade Zone worker Roshen Chanaka is subsiding following his burial on Saturday, the withdrawal of the pension bill and the promise by the regime to consult with stakeholder representatives before another version of it is mooted. That […]

June 07, 2011Sri Lanka’s main opposition which contributed to the systematic breakdown of rule of law and limiting the freedoms of the people, has spoken out against the growing lawlessness and attacks on unarmed sections of the population.Deputy leader of the main opposition United National Party Karu Jayasuriya said goons connected to the state ruling […]

07 June 2011It was revealed yesterday (6) that the Vice Chancellor of J’pura University had directed a new entrant to make a false complain to Police that he was subject to harassment by the seniors.This was revealed at a media briefing held yesterday (6) at CSR Hall in Maradana conducted by the Students’ Union of […]

The overriding experience of Tamils has been a discriminatory system and injustice. Those responsible for what may be called war crimes and the worst types of human rights abuses have never been punished. The few cases of massacres, disappearances, torture, rape, custodial killings, mass graves that have been investigated and brought to light have not […]

Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act extendedBy Chandani KirindeThe Government has extended the operation of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions) Act which provides for the extension of the period of detention of persons arrested without a warrant and enables the Attorney General (AG) to directly file indictment in the High Court in certain cases […]

By Kishali Pinto JayawardeneThis week, a friend speaking to me on the phone, paused when I remarked that it took ordinary workers to teach this administration, its most telling lesson since it was returned to power post war, while the intelligentsia cowered under their beds, (metaporically speaking), except for some rare exceptions. I was then […]

Those who gave illegal orders still at large 04.June.2011, Lanka e news is in receipt of clear palpable evidence that on the 30th , the day the Katunayake free trade zone protests were staged , the police not only targeted the protestors on the streets but also the workers within the factories when they went […]

04.June.2011We are compelled to reveal with deep regret that the final funeral proceedings of young Roshen Chanaka who was ruthlessly murdered by the police faced obstruction from Rajapakse regime’s army owing to their forcible disgraceful intrusion into it.About a group of about a thousand army officers headed by a Brigadier had carried out this operation. […]

A Statement issued by the Lawyers for Democracy Lawyers for Democracy (LfD) is shocked at the violence meted out to protesters at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and calls for an immediate halt to such violent practices and an independent investigation as to what transpired.The use of force was against workers who challenged the […]

04 June 2011/By Lakna ParanamannaHundreds of student monks marched to Temple Trees yesterday to protest the government’s suppression of people’s fundamental and democratic rights.The protest march which began at the Vihara Maha Devi Park continued right up to  Temple Trees without being stopped by security personnel unlike on previous instances.The barriers placed at the Kollupitiya […]

02 June 2011Attorney for the three Tamil plaintiffs who filed civil action against Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse for monetary damages under US’s Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in the District Court of District of Columbia, informed the Court Tuesday that defendant, Mahinda Rajapakse, has avoided service of process by not accepting mail sent by […]

Police, workers trade accusations – Katunayake EPZ closed todayMay 30, 2011By Lal Gunasekera and Norman PalihawadanaOver a dozen police personnel, including DIG Ravi Wijegoonewardene and many garment workers were injured in clashes between the police and the Katunayake Export Processing Zone (EPZ) workers  yesterday. The police alleged that they had no option but to use […]

28 May 2011 /by Tisaranee Gunasekara “When an opponent says, ‘I will not come over to your side’, I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already’” Hitler (Speech in November 1933)According to the Education Secretary, principals will have to undergo ‘Leadership training’ at the Rantambe camp: “If the Principal is weak that will be […]

By Nihal Geekiyanage/ 28 May 2011About 25,000 workers from Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ)—mostly young female garment workers—walked out and demonstrated against the Rajapakse government’s pension bill on Tuesday. They defied their trade unions, which had called off the walkout, to stage the biggest ever protest held in the cheap labour zone since its inception […]