Volunteers begin cleanup at the destroyed Vakarai Maaveerar resting place ahead of 2025 Great Heroes Day

The former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Navi Pillay, will receive the 2025 Sydney Peace Prize for what organisers described as her “lifetime of advocating for fundamental human rights, peace with justice and the rights of women.” The South African jurist, who is of Tamil heritage, will accept the award at a ceremony in Sydney Town Hall on 6 November, where she will deliver the keynote Sydney Peace Prize lecture.

Sri Lanka is set to invite international tenders for exploration and development licences for oil and gas in the Mannar Basin. 

Preparations have begun in Mannar for the Maaveerar Day commemoration on November 27, led by families of fallen heroes and community volunteers

An event was held at Osmania College in Jaffna last month to mark 35 years since Muslims were expelled from the peninsula by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Popular British Tamil DJ, music producer and entrepreneur, Robert Rajeswaran aka DJ Rob R, has released a statement online, expressing his experiences of repeated racial abuse, ethnic hatred and threats to his life as a Tamil business owner in the southern region of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake admitted a “black state” existed on the island, revealing links between the criminal underworld and Sri Lanka’s security forces in an address last week.

Former Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has begun moving out of her official residence on Independence Avenue, Colombo, following the government’s decision to strip former heads of state of their long-held privileges.

Sri Lanka’s Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the assets of senior officers in the country’s police and armed forces, according to a report by the state-owned Silumina newspaper.

Christian clergy and bishops from across the North-East gathered in Jaffna on Thursday for a symbolic protest titled “Chemmani Solidarity Cry”, calling for justice for the victims of genocide.

A landmark report commissioned by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), with support from the Australian Government, finds that Sri Lankan militarisation in the North-East has worsened the climate vulnerability and weakened the adaptive capacity of Tamils across the region.

A protest calling for justice for the victims of the Chemmani mass graves and the repeal of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was held in Jaffna town on Saturday, organised by the Movement for Equal Rights.

An ongoing investigation into the Chemmani mass grave in Jaffna has confirmed that a shoe recovered from the site dates back to before 1995.