Image: President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Asgiriya Chapter temple in Kandy, to open a new Pirivena building on the premises in 2009 (File photo) It is generally assumed we have passed the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the industrial age and the space age. After a breathtaking dive in to the digital age, […]
ICCPR
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Sri Lanka top cop on the mat over sterilization scare
( ECONOMYNEXT )The senior-most police officer in the North-Western province is under investigation for attempting to cause racial hatred by planting reports of mass sterilization taking place at the Kurunegala teaching hospital, a police official said. Deputy Inspector-General Kithsiri Jayalath is facing an internal inquiry into his conduct over what has become a deeply […]
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Sri Lanka: FMM condemns the attempts to suppress journalists and media using the ICCPR Act
2019 June 16/ Media Release. The Free Media Movement strongly condemns the attempts to pursue legal action under the provisions of the INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS (ICCPR) ACT No 56. of 2007 and urges all responsible stakeholders to draw their attention to avoid using the law unfairly. Kusal Perera, has been engaged in journalism for a […]
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SriLanka: The Palm Sunday attack and a government’s duty – Kishali Pinto Jayawardena
The attack by stone-wielding and fire-cracker throwing ruffians, reportedly led by a provincial politician of the newly minted Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP), holding the President of the Methodist Church of Sri Lanka and twelve terrified worshippers hostage in a prayer centre in Anuradhapura on Palm Sunday is no isolated, mundane incident, as much […]
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Sri Lanka: Arrest of novelist Shasthika under ICCPR is abuse an abuse of the act.
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 […]
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Sri Lanka: An award winning writer charged under ICCPR for publishing a story of sex abuse
Shakthika Sathkumara, a award winning writer, has been arrested by the police and charged under ICCPR for insulting Buddhism and remanded for 19 days on 1st of April 2019. Shakthika Sathkumara has won several awards for his short stories and has published 5 books. The short stroy in question is called “arda” (Half) was published on […]
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Sri Lanka: That the Constitution allows enforced disappearances is a big lie (Loku boruwak!)
By Basil Fernando This article is a response to an article titled “International Convention on Enforced Disappearances violates the Constitution” published in a reputed newspaper The Island of 22nd October 2017, written by Neville Ladduwahetty. The crux of the argument in that article is that the definition of enforced disappearances as contained in the International Convention on […]
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Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code contravenes Sri Lanka’s HR obligations – BASL
(The proposed amendment restricts detainees rights) In a letter to the President Maithiripala Sirisena the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has opposed the proposed amend to the Criminal Procedure Code. The BASL say that “the amendment contravenes Sri Lanka’s obligations in terms of international human rights law especially the provisions of the International Covenant […]
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Island of Hope — Sri Lanka’s Last Chance for Equality
by Aritha Wickramasinghe. I was born in 1984 at St Michael’s Nursing Home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Then a small, but bustling metropolis, Colombo had already experienced its first taste of societal division. In 1983, race riots largely targeting the Tamil minority population engulfed this once picture perfect paradise in flames — flames which would […]
