rule of law

by Tisaranee Gunasekara “Though everyone bowed down before you,Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,Striking gold medals in your honour,Glad to have survived another day,Do not feel safe…” Czeslaw Milosz (You who Wronged) Another emergency debate brought forth another apocryphal tale, to justify the unjustifiable. During the previous Emergency debate, the Prime Minister perorated portentously […]

The 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the US State Department includes serious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.  It states despite Lanka being a constitutional, multiparty republic President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his family; two of the president’s brothers hold key executive branch posts as defense secretary and minister of economic […]

A motion presented by the JVP Member Wimal Piyatissa demanding the government to reveal names and places of detention of those persons detained on charges of taking part in LTTE activities during the war period and several other issues confronted by the people in the North was passed in the Eastern Provincial Councils on Wednesday. […]

Traditional seine-net beaches (Karaivalai-paadu) of Eezham Tamils in the coastal tracts of Mullaiththeevu district are grabbed and distributed among Sinhala fishermen from the south by a team of SL fisheries officials from the south. The excuse is that the local Tamil fishermen in the LTTE controlled areas did not register their seine-net stretches with the […]

2010 Human Rights Report: Sri LankaBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices April 8, 2011 Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a population estimated at 21 million. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was reelected to a second six-year term in January, and the parliament, which was elected in […]

    ‘If there was no evidence why did the AG file the charges?’The former Chief Justice (CJ) of Sri Lanka has questioned the legality of Attorney General’s (AG) withdrawal of murder and rape charges filed against government politicians. Sarath Nanda Silva, the former CJ who held the position for over ten years said that the […]

Dr. P. Saravanamutthu Over the last so many weeks and still continuing, there have been a number of critical reports on the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)- the election monitoring body of which CPA serves as the Secretariat, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (MEV), in particular – the National Peace Council (NPC), and Transparency […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekera Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dulles Alahapperuma said it was regrettable and a matter of shame that the development of the construction industry has been stunted due to corruption and quality failure while other countries have shown tremendous progress in this sector. Addressing a ceremony held after laying the […]

Devolution promised for N&E, disenfranchising South – Tissa Attanayakeby Zacki Jabbar The UNP is to institute legal action against a government move to convert five local bodies in Colombo into a Corporation.General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake told a news conference in Colombo yesterday, that they will move Court to ensure that the Mahinda […]

April 5th has significance to Sri Lanka due to the JVP uprising of 1971. The word uprising has been used for this event by way of an exaggeration. The exaggeration came mainly from the then-government and its propaganda machinery, supported also by UNP, who were the main opposition party, in unleashing unrestrained repression to suppress […]

Urgent Amnesty International Action/ Student fears for safety after deaths threatsA Sri Lankan student who complained that his law school’s final exams were being managed unfairly was abducted, interrogated and threatened with death before being released. On the morning of 4 March law student D.M. Thushara Jayaratne was waiting at a bus stop in the […]

 The London based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern over the lack of proper investigation into the abduction of a whistle blower.DM Thushara Jayaratne, a final year Law College student was abducted, interrogated and threatened with death on 04 March, according the rights watchdog. The Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka (SLHRC) has […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekera Changes in legislations are on the cards whereby the Elections Commission would be vested with the authority to fix dates for elections and make re-poll compulsory in the event of an annulment, sources said. These are the major proposals among others made to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms, (Committee) […]

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “….doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.”— Kurt Vonnegut (The Sirens Of Titan) The campaign to replace popular sovereignty with Rajapaksa sovereignty swung into top-gear last week. The regime announced that the Colombo Municipal Council and four other local […]

The appointment of a convicted criminal to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government has raised eye brows among senior bankers in the country. Lakshman Hulugalle, the Director General, Media Centre for National Security has been appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government. In 1989 Hulugalle was given a two year […]

“If you remember, when you came into power you said, about opening up the economy, that you saw no harm in letting the robber barons come. Now you are trying to make barons out of robbers.” Two days ago, Sam Wijesinha, former Secretary-General of Parliament, had reportedly given a talk at the Open University of […]

These days there is considerable discussion about investigations into some NGOs in Sri Lanka. The president himself is talking in public about this issue and already implying that there is some kind of wrong doing on the part of some NGOs. This has also been followed by several media channels. Therefore some simple reflections on […]

By Manopriya Gunasekara Questioning the Attorney General’s withdrawal of murder charges and acquitting the accused in the Nampamunuwa murder case – former MP Chandana Kathriarachchi and three others – lawyer J.C. Weliamuna, watching the interests of the deceased said that the action was illegal. Former MP Kathriarachchi and three others were charged for murdering a […]