Just before and during the ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Sri Lankan authorities made several announcements to signify their commitment to pledges made in an October 2015 resolution on justice and accountability for abuses during Sri Lanka’s civil war. The Government …
Yasantha Rajakarunanayake is surprised Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, remembers him three decades after they lost touch. The Sri Lankan scientist, now based in the US, was Bezos’ classmate at Princeton University in the 1980s. Speaking at The Economic Club of Washington, …
Delivering a statement at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council, on behalf of the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Germany, Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, the United Kingdom urged Sri Lanka to prioritise and drive forward implementation of the UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 and …
Ruki Fernando is a human rights activist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This interview has been edited lightly. Three years on, what’s your broad take on the coalition government’s performance? Where does the reform agenda currently stand? Some reforms have happened since 2015 to varying degrees, …
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been in and out of power since the 1990s. In 2015, he teamed up with Maithripala Sirisena and Chandrika Kumaratunge to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa from power. Since then however, Wickramasinghe and the President have had a rocky relationship, …
The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) called on the UN Human Rights Council to ensure Sri Lanka was referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to refer Sri Lanka to the UN General Assembly and to the UN Security Council in order “to be referred to the …
The 131st session of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) descended into chaos, yesterday, as Councillors expressed their displeasure at the number of provincial ministers in the Council. A number of Councillors asked NPC Chief Minister, CV Wigneswaran what he was going to do about the …
A few weeks ago, Vigneswaran Nagamuththu was reunited with his wife and two sons for the first time since he fled Sri Lanka in 2009. It was a happy ending of sorts; after nine years when he feared he might never see them again, they …
Abdelwahab Hani Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations Committee against Torture The United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) has in a letter dated 20 August 2018, sent to Sri Lanka’s ambassador in Geneva. referred to the fifth periodic report of Sri Lanka (CAT/C/LKAl5) submitted at …
Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority may be satisfied with a further expansion of power to provincial councils instead of their demand for a federal solution, to ensure political autonomy in the northern and eastern regions, a senior Tamil lawmaker has said. The idea was expressed by …
