We’ve recently received worrying reports about the plight of several hundred (and possibly as many as a thousand) Sri Lankan garment workers in Jordan – many of whom have not been paid for over a month now, after factories began shutting down due to the Covid-19...
Just over a month ago, online activist Ramzy Razeek emailed Sri Lanka’s chief of police to complain about a flurry of death threats that he had been receiving on Facebook. But instead of investigating the threats against Ramzy, later that day the authorities showed up...
Two weeks ago, a senior Muslim lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested by members of the Sri Lankan intelligence agencies. Two weeks on, he has not been informed of any charges, has not been granted access to lawyers, and has not been able to challenge his...
Over the past few months, governments around the world have been responding to an unprecedented health crisis with unprecedented measures. In even the most open and free societies, tight restrictions on movement, extensive social surveillance, and sweeping police...
The past few weeks have seen many inches of column space taken up by Sri Lanka’s decision to withdraw from UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, a move which saw the government tear up its earlier promise to deal with legacy of the country’s bloody civil war...
Last week, Sri Lanka’s new government formally withdrew its support for UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution 30/1 – thereby pulling the plug on its long-standing pledge to establish a domestic accountability mechanism capable of investigating atrocity crimes...
Yesterday, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Relations Dinesh Gunawardena, took to the stage at the opening of the 43rd Human Rights Council (HRC) session to announce that his government was formally “withdrawing” support for Resolution 40/1 – a process initiated by the...
Today we publish a new report, ‘Abandoned Promises?’, looking at the current state of play for human rights in Sri Lanka, and evaluating the progress that the government has made towards addressing the legacy of the island’s brutal civil war, during which tens of...
The government of Sri Lanka is currently attempting to appoint a former death squad member, C. A. Chandraprema, as its ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council. As highlighted in a new dossier compiled by ITJP and JDS Lanka, Chandraprema was a key member of an armed...
The Sri Lankan government must urgently clarify whether a senior army official convicted for the murder of eight Tamil civilians, including a five-year-old child, has been pardoned and released from prison. They must also explain why the families of the victims are...
