Minority Rights

The people have spoken. President-elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been given a mandate by the people to govern the country for the next five years. The Elections Commission, public employees, Police and the voters deserve credit for the conduct of a free and fair Presidential Election where a record number turned out to exercise their franchise. […]

Joint Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Karen Smith, United Nations Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, on attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka . (New York, 13 May 2019) Recalling their recent statements against violent extremism and hate speech, the United Nations Special Adviser on […]

Image: Sandya Eknaligoda, holding a placard which says ” protect Lakshan Dias’s right to speak!” at a recently held protest against Justice Minister’s remarks. Credit: @vikalpavoices . Speaking to Ceylon Today Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapaksa has indicated that he is going to take action against human and minority rights defender attorney at Law Lakshan Dias. His recent […]

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye at the side event (c)s.deshapriya. Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues speaking at a side event on 17th March 2017  reiterated that the story of Sri Lanka is not just the story of Sinhalese or Tamils, but of all the religious and ethnic groups including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Telugus, […]

( Jaffna invalid person  carries load of firewood on his bicycle; Image Jogarajan facebook) Issuing a statement welcoming the end-of-mission statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority rights, Rita Izsak-Ndiaye Global Tamil Forum  appeals to the Government of Sri Lanka to embark upon focused and targeted initiatives towards accountability, political resolution and reconciliation, […]

(Statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, on the conclusion of her official visit to Sri Lanka, 10-20 October 2016) 20 October 2016. In my capacity as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues, I conducted an official visit to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, from 10 […]

(Rita Izsák Ndiaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues speaking in Colombo; image courtesy of Daily Mirror) By P K Balachandran. COLOMBO: The US Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Rita Izsak-Ndiaye, has suggested to the Sri Lankan government to set up a fully-empowered Minority Rights Commission under the constitution which is now being drafted. Speaking […]

( Anti Muslim hate speech still exists in Sri Lanka) Introduction. 1. Notes that Sri Lanka acceded to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1982, and it submitted the last periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2000. Regrets with concern the […]

(Discrimination against ethnic and ethno-religious minorities is one of the major themes of CERD) List of themes in relation to the combined tenth to seventeenth periodic reports of Sri Lanka. Consideration of reports, comments and information submitted by States parties under article 9 of the Convention List of themes in relation to the combined tenth […]

Sri Lanka is once again talking of electoral reform. After experimenting with two types of electoral systems – first-past-the-post (FPP) and proportional representation (PR), there is now talk of some kind of a mixed model. Just as at the time of the search for ‘devolution models’, the discussion seems to be ahistorical, without an analysis […]

Now it’s 260 members: 165 FPP, 66 PR, 29 National List – Independent delimitation commission to work out new polling divisions. The 20th Constitutional Amendment presented by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) proposes a mixed electoral system that returns 231 members directly elected to Parliament. This is in addition to 29 members who will […]