The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday warned that the Sri Lankan government's inaction on critical areas was putting the country's economic outlook at risk, reported Reuters. "Despite positive growth momentum, the Sri Lankan economy is facing challenges due to the difficult external environment and a period of significant political transition," the IMF executive board was quoted by the news site as saying. "While the government seeks to undertake sizable fiscal consolidation and tackle high priority structural reforms, growth momentum can be sustained with a solid commitment to...
Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the Indonesian government to allow over 40 Tamils fleeing from Sri Lanka to disembark and meet with UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) officials. “These people have endured a long and difficult journey already. Now that they have reached land in Aceh, they should be allowed to disembark and meet UNHCR officials,” Amnesty International’s director of campaigns for South East Asia and the Pacific, Josef Benedict said in a statement . Noting the ongoing discrimination against Tamils, Amnesty said in a statement: "Despite many recent improvements, there are still concerns about discriminatory practices against Tamils by law enforcement officials." "The UN Human Rights Council noted in April that Sri Lanka saw a spate of arrests of Tamils under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Arrests carried out under the PTA have, in a number of cases, failed to meet the minimum standards of due process laid out in directives by Sri Lanka’s National Human Rights Commission. Tamil Sri Lankans remain deeply concerned about what they say is a persistent culture of surveillance in the north and east of the country."
The Sri Lankan government is planning to replace the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act with three new acts. The National Security Act, the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act and the Intelligence Act will replace the PTA and are aimed at preventing the re-emergence of terrorism, consolidate inter communal harmony, the rule of law and national security, Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi told the Daily Mirror. “All these new legislative measures are still in the formative stage and being drafted,” Mr Hettiarachchi said. Earlier this week Human Rights Watch urged the government...
As the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council began this week in Geneva, with an oral progress update by the UN High Commissioner for human rights anticipated the Sri Lankan government announced that the Paranagama Commission would be disbanded on July 15th. The Commission will submit its work to the new Office on Missing Persons, its chair, Maxwell Paranagama told Colombo Gazette . “We have so far investigated into 6,500 inquiries of missing persons who were affected by war during the period of June 10, 1990 and May 19, 2009,” the retired judge, Paranagama told the Sunday Leader .
Pasumai Thaayagam expressed deep concern at the Sri Lankan government’s reneging on its commitment to including foreign judges in any judicial process, and refusal to remove the military from the North-East of the island. In a statement made at the opening debate of the 32nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Pasumai Thaayagam expressing ‘deep concern’ at the ‘mixed messaging the government is sending’, stated, “President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe have repeatedly stated that the judicial mechanism will not include foreign actors, a key component to the credibility of the mechanism from the perspective of victims. This week, Sri Lanka's military commander in Jaffna, Mahesh Senanayake, stated that the military planned to stay in the North-East, despite the fact that the Resolution calls for meaningful security reform.” The organisation went on to note the lack of trust in victims confidence that the new Sri Lankan government was willing to deliver on its commitment, “due to the government’s failure to address critical on-going human rights issues including militarisation, reports of on-going torture, continued illegal land acquisition, and the detention of political prisoners.”
Sri Lanka has made little progress in fulfilling its human rights commitments, observed a panel at a British parliamentary event hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) joint with the All Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG). The event on June 7th opened with the screening of the documentary ‘Silenced Survivors’, a film featuring harrowing testimonies of Tamil torture survivors, recounting their experiences at the hands of Sri Lankan military and authorities and raising their fears of ever returning. The film was produced by investigative journalist Emanuel Stokes.
The Sri Lankan military is still occupying most seized lands despite the government handing over some lands back to its owners, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R Sampanthan was quoted by Ceylon Today as telling parliament. Highlighting lands occupied by the military in Valikaamam and Paravipachchan but that are not in active use, Mr Sampanthan asked, "why can't the army give these back to their original civilian owners?" Pointing to the longstanding discrimination against Tamils, Mr Sampanthan said there has been no change in the discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka. "...
A senior Sinhala Buddhist monk told Sri Lankan government minister Mahinda Samrasinghe that army camps must remain in the North in order to preserve national security, reports The Island . The Mahanayake of Asgiriya, Warakagoda Sri Gunnaratana told Minister Samarasinghe that army camps in the North must not be removed, despite repeated calls for the military to be withdrawn from Tamil areas of the island. Mr Samarasinghe, who represented the previous Sri Lankan government in Geneva as the president’s special envoy on human rights agreed with the monk, telling him that “the army security in the north is essential". “Peace had been restored in the north again,” said Mr Samamrasinghe, stating that the “international community was extending its unstinted support to the country”.
Opening the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, recalled the joint resolution passed on Sri Lanka, and affirmed he would be presenting an oral update later in the session. "In Sri Lanka, the government’s efforts to implement its commitments in Resolution 30/1 will require a comprehensive strategy on transitional justice that enables it to pursue different processes in a coordinated, integrated and appropriately sequenced manner," he told the Council. "This will require the inclusive and meaningful engagement...
The Sri Lankan government must announce a moratorium on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act until it is fully repealed said Human Rights Watch in a statement released on Monday. Noting that Since April 2016 at least 11 people had been arbitrarily detained under the PTA instead of using appropriate provisions under the criminal code, Human Rights Watch director Brad Adams, said, “Until it is repealed, the government should announce a moratorium on the use of the PTA and instead rely on criminal code, which does not allow indefinite detention without charge or trial.” Mr Adams concluded, “So long as the PTA is in place and being used, the Sri Lankan government will have a hard time convincing the Human Rights Council that it is keeping its commitments. Revoking the PTA is absolutely crucial for ensuring respect for the basic rights of criminal suspects and the rule of law in Sri Lanka.”