UNHRC

In his message to the high-level meeting to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations on 21 September 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that he is certain that UN will place due emphasis on the sovereign equality of States, respect for territorial integrity and non-interference in their domestic affairs. Full text of the statement: […]

In its response to the communications sent by  five UN Special Rapporteurs in relation to alleged harassment and violation of right to privacy  of  journalist Dharisha Bastians by Sri Lanla law enforcement agencies the government of Sri Lanka  has stated that the “investigations pertaining to Ms Bastians have been done in terms of law and […]

Screenshot:   Michelle Bachelet making her statement this morning at HRC 45. In her opening statement at the 45th session of the Human Rights Council,  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that ” In Sri Lanka, I am troubled that the new Government is swiftly reneging on its commitments to the Human Rights Council since it […]

In a letter to the government of Sri Lanka, signed by five UN Special Rapporteurs has called for “detailed information about the legal basis for the search and the confiscation of the computer of Ms Dharisha Bastians, as well as how such measures comply with international human rights norms and standards. If any investigation were […]

“Despite having been presented with important opportunities for genuine change and reform starting in early 2015, the Sri Lankan authorities have failed to adopt and implement a comprehensive transitional justice policy with the four constitutive elements of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence,” says Pablo De Greiff, report of the Special Rapporteur on the […]

The undersigned civil society organisations congratulate and welcome Irene Khan to her new role as Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We take this opportunity to express our strong support for the vital work of the mandate. We stand ready to support the new mandate […]

“Considering growing concerns over shrinking space for dissent domestically, the Council remains effectively the only forum where Sri Lankan civil society has the possibility to engage openly in dialogue with the Government and other States on human rights concerns in Sri Lanka and the Human Rights Council needs to take a more robust approach on […]

The Statement made by Sri Lanka at the interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Assembly and of Association. Mr. Vice President, Sri Lanka thanks Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association for the report on his visit to Sri Lanka […]

I visited Sri Lanka from 18 to 26 July 2019 at the invitation of the Government. My visit took place at a crucial moment when the country was heading towards Presidential elections. At the time, I hoped that my visit would be an opportunity to strengthen democratic gains made by the country, ensuring that these […]

Mandates of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; ; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence REFERENCE: AL LKA 1/2020 11 May 2020 Excellency, We have […]

BACKGROUND Sri Lanka is slowly emerging from the lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and heading towards the General Elections that is scheduled to be held on the 2nd August. At this moment, three factors dominate Sri Lanka’s social and political landscape. The first is the militarization of government and governance. The second is […]

Image: a screenshot from the video of the High Commissioner’s opening remarks at HRC 44. Making  her opening remarks at the ongoing 44th session of the UNHRC rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet said that “I am dismayed by reports indicating that in many countries, members of minority communities and migrants face increasing stigmatisation – including, in […]

Image: Sri Lanka flag at UNHRC., Geneva. Making a statement at the 44th session of UNHRC  UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French, delivered this statement on behalf of Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, the Core Group on Sri Lanka and expressed their profound disappointment over Sri Lanka’s withdrawal from the […]

People’s Rights Group (PRG) Calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to Investigate and Prosecute Mr.Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan a.k.a Karuna Amman for war crimes and other Human Rights Abuses People’s Rights Group (PRG), a rights based advocacy and lobbying group, focusing on human rights violations in Sri Lanka, calls on the Government of Sri Lanka(GoSL) to seriously […]

Image: On the memorial wall,  International day for the disappeared 2019, Colombo, Sri Lanka. In a televised statement issued on 28 June 2020 Prime Minister Rajapaksa called for a strong mandate to defeat domestic and foreign conspirators and to overturn the Office for Missing Persons and national laws related to international Convention Against Enforced Disappearances. […]

They are not only crimes punishable under Penal Code of this country but also universal crimes against humanity. Murders of monks and surrendered policemen are not collateral damages but outright murders. It is incumbent and imperative duty of the law enforcement agencies to investigate and take action. Crimes of this nature do not get prescribed. […]

The Court of Appeal today issued an interim injunction order preventing the Permanent High Court Trial- at- Bar from hearing the case against Former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and 13 others. The Court ordered that the case will not be taken up until the writ petition filed by Karannagoda, challenging indictments served against him, […]

A. Conclusions 90. While Sri Lanka has made valuable democratic strides in the last five years, a prevailing apprehension exists among civil society, who fear there could be rollbacks on these gains in the future. Sri Lankans fear the dismantling or undermining of fragile yet important institutions that safeguard their democratic rights, and a shift […]

The voyage from Serendib to Sri Lanka through Ceylon continues to be an uninterrupted tale of opportunities lost, scorned and spurned. The brutal end to the quarter-century war with the Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009 brought an unprecedented opportunity for the government to heal the Sinhala–Tamil ethnic divide. But now a new front is opening, one against Sri Lanka’s […]

“From now until the elections, we will not know when, and where, and how the fireball will fall on us, and what the nature of that fireball will be.” Arundathi Roy (Election Season in a Dangerous Democracy – The New York Review of Books – 3.9.2018) The Eastern province is the most ethno-religiously pluralist slice of […]

Image: Families of Sri Lanka’s missing thousands fear the government is aiming to curb investigations into unsolved civil war disappearances. (COLOMBO/thenewhumanitarian) Rights groups are warning of a crackdown on dissent and rising authoritarianism in Sri Lanka, raising fears for the future of long-stalled civil war reconciliation efforts. Since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office after November elections, […]

Sri Lanka Brief Up Date/ 03 June 2020 Rights of the migrant workers in the Middle East during the pandemic 1. The estimated number of overseas Sri Lankan workers is 1.5 million and 1.2 million of these are in the Middle East. The majority of the 1.2 million Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East […]

Image courtesy of “Time” GENEVA (3 June 2020) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the clampdown on freedom of expression in parts of the Asia-Pacific during the COVID-19 crisis, saying any actions taken to stop the spread of false information must be proportionate. Many countries in the region already […]

Executive Summary. This report [by INFORM, Colombo,Sri Lanka] records 95 incidents that had been reported during the 90 days period. The average number of incidents per day reported prior to the covid-19 curfew is slightly higher than the number of incidents reported during the curfew. There were a high number of incidents related to legal, […]

Four Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations have recommended Sri Lanka government to give attention to the existing cultural and religious sensitivity or traditions in the country in the MoH Guideline on burial of the Covid-19 dead. “Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) protects everyone’s right to freedom of […]

File photo: Number of prisoners were released under Presidential pardon for the National Independence Day, 2020. Making an appeal on behalf of persons detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act the Committee for Protecting the Rights of the  Prisoners, has requested the Attorney General to include them also in the in schemes for bail and […]

COVID-19 pandemic – Informal briefing to the Human Rights Council. Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 9 April 2020 Indeed this is an important meeting, at a time that none of us may ever forget. The COVID-19 pandemic is generating suffering and damage in every region. It poses a far-reaching threat to […]

H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa President of the Republic of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 Your Excellency, Granting of a Presidential Pardon to Former Army Corporal Sunil Ratnayake The Human Rights Commissions of Sri Lanka expresses it deep concern on the reported grant of a Presidential Pardon to Corporal Sunil Ratnayake who was convicted of eight […]

Condemning the pardoning former army Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake by president Rajapaksa, the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research says that   “the pardon of Ratnayake in the context of  highly militarised environment combined with the unconditional respect and admiration that the military enjoys from the majority Sinhala Buddhist community in Sri Lanka is simply President Rajapaksa consolidating […]

The grant of presidential pardon, on Thursday, to a Sri Lankan soldier on death row for murdering eight Tamil villagers has sparked justified outrage among those who have been demanding justice from the state for past crimes. Far from helping the cause of accountability for war-time atrocities, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has gone the other way […]