In her oral update during the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet warned that Sri Lanka’s current “social, economic and governance challenges” were indicative of the “corrosive impact that militarisation and the lack of accountability continue to have on fundamental rights, civic space, democratic institutions, social cohesion and sustainable development."
Tamil News
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Leader of the Liberal Democratic party, Ed Davy, has called on the British Foreign Office to impose sanctions on Sri Lankan army commander, and alleged war criminal, Shavendra Silva.
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“The decision to reopen liquor shops has been taken without the consultation of the Health Ministry,” said Deputy Director General of Health Services Dr Hemantha Herath addressing the media, earlier today.
He told journalists, “there is neither a logic nor a basis to the decision under the prevailing circumstances of the pandemic” adding, “a decision of this nature could...
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As the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council continues in Geneva, Tamil Families of the Disappeared in Mannar have called on the international community to deliver justice for their forcibly disappeared loved ones.
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Udaya Gammanpila (Centre)
Sri Lanka's Minister of Energy, Udaya Gammanpila has claimed that exploring and discovering oil and gas resources in the Mannar basin is the only way for the country to pay of its crippling...
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Secretary of the Vavuniya District Disappeared Association, C. Zenitra, said there should be no political motives when it comes to the Tamil fight for justice for the victims of enforced disappearances. -
The Sri Lankan military spearheaded the vaccination drive in Mannar, in what was another manifestation of the militarisation of civil society in the island.
The programme to administer the second dose of Pfizer vaccine in the district commenced on Friday, with centres located in Mannar Hindu...
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Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has arrived in New York to attend the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) Session, marking what will be his first address to the UNGA.
He arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport yesterday where he was greeted by Mohan Peiris, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations.
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Speaking at the G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna Italy, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, G.L. Peiris, attacked ethnic and religious political parties in Sri Lanka claiming that “it does a great deal of damage”.
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Last month, British Tamils participated in various sports events organised by the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC). The sports competitions commenced following tribute to the fallen freedom fighters and the hoisting of the Tamil National Flag.
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Freedom Now, a rights organisation dedicated to the fight against arbitrary detention and associated human rights abuses, has filed a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concerning Muslim poet, Ahnaf Jazeem. He has been under arrest for over 480 days under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) without charges...
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In advance of a visit by a delegation from the European Union (EU) to review the GSP+ facility, Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary, Jayanath Colombage, claimed that country had “nothing to hide”.
“Our policy is come and see. We have nothing to hide. Don’t be judgmental and take decisions by sitting at a desk in Europe,” Colombage told reporters at a...
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Former Member of the Northern Provincial Council T. Ravikaran and Member of Parliament S. Kajendran have thwarted an attempt to appropriate the lands belonging to the Tamils in Kokkuthoduvai, Mullaitivu.
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Speaking to the press on the detention of Eelam Tamil refugees in the Trichy Central Jail “Special Camp,” parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan called on the Tamil Nadu government to release the detainees immediately.
“Their protest for their release has crossed 32 days,” Adaikalanathan said, “and they have gone to the extent of...
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Responding to a request from former Scottish Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, for the correspondence between Police Scotland and the British High Commission, detailing the decision to pause the training programme for Sri Lankan police; Amanda Milling , Co-Chair of the Conservative Party, maintained that the FCO has “no plans to...
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Speaking at a virtual meeting focused on the ongoing UN Human Rights Council session, Sri Lankan foreign secretary, Jayanath Colombage denied the need for external mechanisms claiming that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had praised the country for the steps it had taken.
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On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission (HRCSL) visited Anuradhapura prison as part of their investigation into State Minister, Lohan Ratwatte, after he had stormed the prison and forced Tamil prisoners to kneel before him at gun point.
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People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) has welcomed the opening remarks of UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet at the opening of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Councils and urged the international community to heed her recommendations to pursue accountability for Sri Lankan war crimes and rebuild the confidence of Tamil victim...
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The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) paid tribute to Lt Col Thileepan in Nallur today, to remember the hunger strike he undertook in protest against the failure of the Indian government to honour the pledges made to the Tamil people.
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Tamil journalist and treasurer of the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalists Association Union, Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran, was interrogated yesterday by Sri Lanka's Special Crime Prevention Unit of the Batticaloa Senior Superintendent of Police's office yesterday.
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A British-Tamil family of a four-year-old leukaemia patient from East London has called for more people from South Asian backgrounds, to sign up to the bone marrow register, with a stem cell donor needed within the next few days.
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Today marks 34 years since Lt Col. Thileepan began his hunger strike at Nallur Kandaswamy Temple in protest against the failure of the Indian government to honour the pledges made to the Tamil people.
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Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Italy as a keynote speaker for the G20 Interfaith Forum 2021 has sparked protests with Tamil community groups condemning the invitation and placing posters to protest his visit, whilst Sinhala groups also gathered to demonstrate.
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Writing to the UN High Commissioner, the Secretary General of Eezha Tameizhar Suadchi Kazhakam, Ananthy Sasitharan, and former member of the northern provincial council, M.K. Shivajilingam, urged the UN to take urgent steps to uphold the right self-determination for Tamils and to prevent the recurrence of patterns of violence.
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Another Tamil father has died following a 12 year search for his forcibly disappeared son.
Sevamalai Rasathurai, from Mathiyamdu Puliyankulam had been searching for his son Rasathurai Viji who was forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan army at the end of the armed conflict.
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Writing to Police Scotland and Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Sarah Boyack, Member of Scottish Parliament for Lothian Region, raised concerns over Police Scotland’s training of Sri Lanka’s police force.
She urged Police Scotland to inform the public of the metric they use to judge whether their intervention in Sri Lanka is successful. She further...
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The Sri Lankan army handed over medical equipment to assist COVID-19 treatment at Mullaitivu District Hospital, District General Hospital Kilinochchi and the Jaffna Teaching Hospital throughout September.
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In her oral update during the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet warned that Sri Lanka’s current “social, economic and governance challenges” were indicative of the “corrosive impact that militarisation and the lack of accountability continue to have on fundamental rights,...
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Photo of Ambassador Teplitz meeting with families of the disappeared
Speaking to reporters, outgoing United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina B Teplitz stressed that the US will remain “full engaged” with Sri Lanka on the issue of reconciliation.
World News
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Indian authorities cracked down on public movement and imposed a near-total communications blackout in Kashmir following the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a prominent leader of Kashmir's movement for the right to self-determination.
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Following a series of military victories in which the Taliban seized one provincial capital after another in little over a week, the Islamist group entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul earlier today forcing the country’s Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani to flee.
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Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, Kaisar Andrabi and Zubair Amin warn against India’s attempts to manipulate the demographics and electoral strength of Kashmir, the only Muslim majority region in India.
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British security sources are reported to be concerned that Pakistan is preparing to target exiled dissents living in the UK.
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A German court has set a trial date for a 100-year-old man who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin during the second world war.
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Dominic Raab - British Foreign Secretary
A British citizen has claimed he was tortured in Somalia and questioned by US intelligence officers, raising concerns about the continuation of controversial practices of the post-9/11 “war on terror” are still being used, the Guardian...
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During an Axios interview, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, fell silent on the Uyghur genocide, claiming that any issues Pakistan had with China would “always be behind closed doors”.
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Marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping warned foreign powers that China “will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us”.
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Solar lamps marking each of the discovered unmarked grave - Photo credit: (Mickey Djruic/CBC)
751 unmarked graves were discovered at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan, just weeks after the remains of 215 children were found in British Columbia.
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Alieu Kosiah, became the first Liberian to be convicted for war crimes committed during the country’s civil war, in a court hearing in Switzerland earlier this month.
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Concluding the first-day summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called for a unified response to the challenges posed by China.
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Photograph: UN News
An appeal by Ratko Mladic, the commander of Bosnian Serb forces in the country’s 1992-95 war, against the 2017 verdict that convicted him of genocide has been turned down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
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Switzerland will be holding a referendum on a controversial terrorism bill, which has been widely panned by international human rights organisations, on 13 June.
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Photo credit (Twitter: @TVRVNTO)
A mass grave was found at a residential school in British Colombia, Canada, containing the remains of 215 indigenous children on Friday.
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French President, Emmanuel Macron, asked for Rwandan’s forgiveness its silence over the Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu dissidents were killed, however, Macron fell short of apologising for the role France played.
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Myanmar’s ousted democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi made her first public appearance since the military deposed her government and seized power on 1 February 2021, at a court hearing on Monday.
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Palestinian casualties have sharply increased as Israel stepped up its bombardment of Gaza early on Friday as tanks and artillery massed at the border and joined aerial attacks.
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The Irob minority group in Ethiopia are facing an existential crisis in addition to the mass atrocities inflicted by ongoing conflict in the Tigray state.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military forces in response to “traitorous” attacks on military camps that has since escalated to thousands of civilian casualties, hundreds of thousands of people who have been internally displaced within Tigray, and 63,000 refugees who have fled to Sudan since fighting broke out on...
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The Taliban has announced a three-day ceasefire to mark Eid al-Fitr following the bombing of a girls’ school in Dasht-e-Barchi, in which over 50 people, mostly young girls, were killed and over 100 were injured.
Afghanistan’s President, Ashraf Ghani, accused the Taliban of conducting the attack and declared Tuesday a day of national...
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that Israel’s policies constitute apartheid; with the intention to “maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians and grave abuses committed against Palestinians living in the occupied...
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Over 100 Palestinians and 20 Israeli police were injured in a far-right Israeli protest in occupied East Jerusalem.
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A group of UK charities and Human Rights Watch joined Palestine in condemning British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel, in which he expressed the UK’s opposition to the ICC decision to investigate alleged war crimes in Palestine since June 2014.
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Joe Biden is the first US President to formally recognise the systematic killing of over a million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, as genocide.
In a statement marking Armenian Remembrance Day, Biden wrote:
"We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and...
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The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on eight Iranian militia officers and police chiefs over a deadly crackdown of protests in November 2019 by the Islamic Republic.
Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was amongst those who were sanctioned.
“Hossein Salami took part in the sessions that resulted in the orders to use lethal force to suppress the November 2019 protests. Hossein Salami therefore bears responsibility for serious human rights...
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Photo of US troop in Afghanistan
Following the announcement of US President, Joe Biden, that America would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by 11th September, Britain has similarly stated that it will withdraw nearly all of its approximately 750 soldiers.
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The British House of Lords has voted down the government’s proposed overseas operation bill which would establish “a presumption against prosecution” for service personnel accused of committing crimes overseas, except for sexual offences, if more than five years had passed since the alleged...
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A Turkish court has jailed for life 22 former soldiers for their involvement in a coup attempt that sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A mass trial which concluded on Wednesday investigated nearly 500 soldiers and identified the ex-military personnel as guilty.
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Addressing the media today, Former Myanmar ambassador, Kyaw Zwar Minn, said that staff were forced to leave Myanmar’s embassy and he was dismissed as the country’s representative by Myanmar’s military attaché.
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Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has announced further sanctions on Myanmar, targeting the military-linked conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) following the military coup on the 1 February.
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The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions and renowned human rights law professor Christof Heyns passed away this weekend.
