UNHRC

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has unveiled his national strategy or vision as a presidential candidate with an authoritarian zeal. This is clear from his Viyathmaga speech. He should be commended however for his fairly clear expression of views and objectives. His definition of objective of government was the following at the outset: “The objective of any government […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is going into another presidential election in a few weeks with unresolved human rights issues and undelivered promises in hand. The Executive Presidency continues unabolished despite repeated promises of the presidential candidates who came to power in the last 25 years. Though the 19th Amendment to the Constitution trimmed the powers […]

Image: Sri Lanka has failed to implement many of the recommendations from the WGEID. © Sunanda Deshapriya. 2019. We thank the Working Group for its follow-up report on Sri Lanka. This month marks the two years anniversary of the legislative establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). While we welcome the independent work carried out by […]

Image: UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French  delivered the statement. UN Human Rights Council 42 – UK delivers Core Group Statement on Sri Lanka UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French outlined that the UK remains steadfast in its commitment to help Sri Lanka deliver peace, reconciliation and prosperity for all communities. This […]

Image: Waiting for the justice for disappeared relatives © Sunanda Deshapriya. Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the report of its visit to Sri Lanka from 9 to 18 November 2015 (A/HRC/33/51/Add.2) 4. On 29 November 2018, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requested the Government of Sri […]

Meera Srinivasan. Jaffna district MP and Tamil National Alliance spokesman on the national unity government’s performance, the 13th Amendment, and India’s relations with Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka’s presidential poll in 2015, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), representing Tamils of the north and east, led its constituency in a crucial protest vote against then President […]

Image: A solider having a look at (temporary) the memorial wall for the disappeared at OMP on 31 August 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya Office on Missing Persons (OMP) says the Government has failed to heed the recommendations made by them on Military and Police officers involved in enforced disappearances. According to the Chairperson of the […]

Image: A relative of a disappeared writing on the memorial wall at OMP on 30 Aug 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya. UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka- Statement on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. “No-one has been forgotten” Today we stand up for the rights of the victims of enforced disappearances and their relatives. […]

By Shreen Abdul Saroor. The International Day of the Disappeared is on the 30th August and I was in Mannar when a group of mothers were preparing to show their collective resistance at Omanthai in North and Kalmunai in East. The discussion was around how safe it is to protest even though the emergency has […]

Image: Shavendra Silva, joined the army in 1984 and was its chief of staff from January ( REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte ) GENEVA (27 August 2019) – A group of UN experts expressed serious concern at the appointment of Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva as Sri Lanka’s army chief, and urged the Government to advance long overdue reforms of […]

(24 August 2019, London) The appointment of Shavendra Silva (Silva) as the new Commander of the Sri Lankan army is a deeply troubling development. For the Tamil community, this signals the end of the road for reconciliation efforts from the Sri Lankan Government. For the international community and all those interested in human rights and […]

The Delegation of the European Union (EU) issues the following statement in agreement with the Embassies of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the UK High Commission, the Embassies of Norway and Switzerland.  We fully share the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s serious concerns about the appointment of Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the […]

Lieutenant-General Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th Division during the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, and UN investigationshave implicated the division in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN High Commissioner for Human […]

07th August 2019 M. S. P. Ekneligoda No. 136/2, Suhada Mawatha, Hiripitiya, Pannipitiya. Mr. Dappula De Livera, PC Hon. Attorney General, Attorney General’s Department, Colombo 12. Request with regard to Prageeth Ekneligoda Case  Honourable Sir, Facts and evidence of the case mentioned above bearing case number B7417/10, which is being heard in the Homagama Magistrate’s Court, were filed by Homagama […]

Image: Candles are burned at the memorial for slain humanitarian workers from Action Contre La Faim in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, August 11, 2006.  © 2006 Reuters. (New York/HRW) – Sri Lankan authorities have failed to bring to justice those responsible for the execution-style killing of 17 aid workers 13 years ago, Human Right Watch said today. On August 4, […]

Image: Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association, delivers his End of Mission statement at the Media Briefing in Colombo. GENEVA / COLOMBO (26 July 2019) — The people of Sri Lanka must act together to secure democracy, human rights and the rule of law, says the UN […]

SPECIAL STATEMENT BY HON. TILAK MARAPANA, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT – 25.07.19 It has been brought to my notice that last Tuesday (23 July) and Wednesday (24 July) several Members of the Parliament have brought up the issue of the visit of the Special Rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and of association, […]

Let us not dissemble about the fact that the killing of five students of Tamil ethnicity in January 2006 was a cold blooded murder of innocents. The dead victims had been awaiting university entrance when they were mowed down. Bright, eager students, these were the best that Sri Lanka promised. No connection to ‘terrorist activities’ […]

By Skandha Gunasekara. Investigations have uncovered links between controversial military intelligence officer Major Prabhath Bulathwatte and a spate of attacks on journalists prior to 2015, sources at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told The Sunday Morning. CID sources said that all new information uncovered through investigations has now been submitted to courts. CID sources added […]

Investigators of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) probing the Navy abductions case say former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda has admitted to having knowledge of five youth being abducted from Dehiwala and that they were held at the Eastern Naval Command. In the B-report presented to courts, the CID also said Karannagoda had failed to […]

Image courtesy of Tamil Diplomat. by Meera Srinivasan. Five students were shot dead in 2006 at Trincomalee. A magistrate court in Sri Lanka has acquitted Special Task Force (STF) and police personnel accused of killing five students in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, in 2006. According to the State-run Daily News, the Trincomalee Chief Magistrate on Wednesday released […]

In her opening speech at the HRC 41 Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said that Sri Lanka should be given a priority to bringing political, religious and other community leaders together to address root causes of all forms of violence and discrimination. “In Sri Lanka, I am concerned that the terrorist attacks two months ago have fuelled increasing […]

Background: The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks have drastically changed Sri Lanka’s social and political fabric. Over the existing ethnic polarization, Sri Lanka now faces polarization on the grounds of religion. On 21st April 2019, 08 suicide bombers led explosions in Sri Lanka killing 252 people and injuring hundreds. Two Catholic churches, one Zion church, and […]

Image: Sampanthan meeting Michele Coninsx . Press Release/10.06.19. Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate(CTED) Ms Michele Coninsx met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance Mr Sampanthan in Colombo Yesterday (8th June 2019). Highlighting the importance of the implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Council […]

(JUNE 7, 2019 RISHADENGLSH) In a new turn to Sri Lanka’s ongoing political imbroglio, local Muslim leaders who resigned from their Cabinet portfolios are now preparing to agitate across a wide array of local and international stakeholders. They will shortly be meeting the United Nations (UN) Resident Representative in Sri Lanka and also the powerful Organisation […]

Image: The Amadiyya community centre in Pasyala hosts refugees and asylum seekers forced to leave their homes since the April 21 attacks in Sri Lanka. Credit: UNHCR/Caroline Gluck. By Caroline Gluck NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka, May 31 2019 (IPS) – Thirteen-year-old Bariea, a Pakistani asylum seeker in Sri Lanka, is taking shelter at a mosque in the city of […]

Image: Displaced Pakistani refugees in Sri Lanka. Statement by the Jaffna People’s Forum for Co-existence. As residents of Jaffna and people belonging to different faiths, we are deeply saddened and ashamed that a refugee family was forced to leave Jaffna due to concerns raised about possible threats to their safety by the police. The incident […]

The reinstatement of an army intelligence official implicated in attacks on journalists has given rise to serious concerns for the safety of media personnel and witnesses who testified against the officer and his platoon. Army Intelligence Major Prabath Bulathwatte has been back in the spotlight after Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake stunned civil society in a […]

At the last stages of the war thousands of civilians who lived in the Vanni Region of Northern Sri-Lanka were killed, injured and disappeared. Surrenders of war and persons among detainees were gone disappeared. When war intensified in late 2008 people of Vanni region started to move towards Mullaitivu district from other parts of Vanni. […]

(New York) – Ten years since the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, the government has failed to provide justice for the conflict’s many victims, Human Rights Watch said today. The conflict ended on May 18, 2009, with the total defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Sri Lankan government pledged to provide […]