Thomson Reuters Foundation responded to The Planters’ Association of Ceylon statement published on Friday 5 April that claimed that Thomson Reuters Foundation’s expose on labour abuses on tea estates were false. Following is the response from Kieran Guilbart, the Thomson Reuters Foundation commissioning editor, along …
German authorities have indicted a Sri Lankan man suspected of involvement in killing 15 captured government soldiers while fighting for the Tamil Tigers rebel group. Federal prosecutors said Friday that 37-year-old Sivatheeban B. is accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, war crimes, two …
Plantations in Sri Lanka that supply tea stamped slavery-free to top global companies are under investigation by ethical label groups after an expose found illegal wage deductions that have left some workers ill and unable to afford healthcare. An investigation by the Thomson Reuters Foundation …
The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) Member of Parliament M.A. Sumanthiran’s constitutional justification for seeking foreign judges to serve in the proposed Judicial Mechanism to try alleged war crime cases, has put the government in a spot, and his Tamil rivals in the shade. In a …
The political crisis that gripped Sri Lanka for nearly two months towards the tail end of 2018 had different costs for different political actors, depending on who they were and what they did during that time. But if there was a chief casualty of the …
Being a woman, mother, sister, aunt – name it, it’s something women wake up to daily and they love it. None of them question about being enumerated for these roles. We marvel and revel in the roles. But make no mistake. Women want to work, …
Responding to the publication of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’, Amnesty International’s South Asia Researcher, Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, said: “The report importantly stresses the need to press ahead with …
Rights activists and journalists have condemned the Sri Lankan government’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and planned Counter Terrorism Act (CTA). They claim that all terror laws are generally used against journalists, rights activists, union leaders and opposition politicians as tools of oppression. Under the …
When over 100,000 estate workers went on strike last December to demand a 1,000-rupee ($US5.50) daily basic wage, the Planters Association of Ceylon, the representative body of the Sri Lankan plantation companies dismissed the demand, declaring it unaffordable. The plantation companies made this claim amidst …
