Eight human rights organisations expressed their deep concern over a recent statement by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry which smeared former Human Rights Commissioner, Ambika Satkunanathan, which they called an "act of harassment and intimidation.”

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry rebuked Satkunanathan’s submission to the European Parliament, claiming it was “reminiscent of LTTE propaganda.”  

The residence of Colombo-based journalist, Chamuditha Samarawickrama, was attacked by masked gunmen travelling in a white van in the early hours of Monday.

This attack takes place just 14 days ahead of a UN Human Rights Council session and follows a series of controversial videos released by the journalist, the latest of which laid allegations against the extremist Buddhist monk Galabadaththe Gnanasara who heads Sri Lanka’s task force for ‘One Country, One Law’.

Following widespread criticism from over 80 civil society organisations and human rights experts of Sri Lanka’s proposed reforms to the Prevention of Terrorism Act, State Minister of Regional Cooperation, Tharaka Balasuriya claimed that the government would replace the measure with a new bill.

Speaking with the Sunday Morning, Balasuriya stated that no steps had been taken to introducing this bill as the government was focused on reforming the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

As Sri Lanka's economy continues to collapse, prices of staple foods have reached a record high, restricting vulnerable households to access food says the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, Sri Lanka's economy has been in dire straits as revenue from the tourism sector and exports have dwindled, causing the Sri Lankan rupee to depreciate. As a result, prices of imported food items and locally produced food items have increased, reaching record levels in January 2022. 

Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, the Tamil youth who self-immolated in protest outside the United Nations in Geneva over the inaction of the international community in the face of the genocide of Tamils, was remembered in London and in Jaffna yesterday. 

Selvakumar Nilanthan, a Tamil journalist and Batticaloa Press Club secretary, was interrogated for two hours by officers from Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) earlier this week. 

Two CID officers from Eravur police station visited Nilanthan's house twice ordering Nilanthan to go to Eravur police station for questioning over his alleged links to the Tamil diaspora. 

Some of the questions Nilanthan was asked were: 

Tamil journalist Punniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, who was killed by a Sri Lankan artillery barrage inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ in February 2009, was remembered today in the North-East. 

Human Rights Watch has published a statement calling on Sri Lanka to introduce a moratorium on the use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and for the “release of those unjustly jailed in its application”.

“Cosmetic interventions won’t suffice”, writes EU Advocate Claudio Francavilla.

The 26th anniversary of the Kumarapuram massacre, in which the Sri Lankan army killed twenty-six Tamil civilians and gang-raped a 15 year old girl, was remembered in Trincomalee earlier today. 

Tamil families of the disappeared marched through Vavuniya this morning, as they demonstrated against Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to the North-East accusing him of being responsible for the disappearance of their loved ones.