“Families of the disappeared are back to the beginning of their struggle…the pain of not knowing the truth is a wound that keeps bleeding.” Sandya Ekneligoda, 2021 Can you imagine losing a loved one but not having a body to mourn? Over the decades thousands of...
Last week, The Herald and The Times quoted assistant chief constable Gary Ritchie saying that Police Scotland’s training of Sri Lankan police had been paused pending a review to be undertaken together with the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO)...
In June the Australian High Commissioner met Army Commander Shavendra Silva to hand over PPE supplies and accept a gift in return, posing for photos shared by the Sri Lankan Army. UN reports link Silva to mass atrocity crimes, including extrajudicial killings and...
Yesterday, 4th August, Ahnaf Jazeem’s Fundamental Rights case was taken up before the Supreme Court after several delays. The court ordered the prison authorities to give his lawyers confidential access to Ahnaf in remand prison to allow them to consult with their...
We, the undersigned organisations express deep concern for the ongoing detention of lawyer and minority and civic rights activist Hejaaz Hizbullah, who has been held under Sri Lanka’s notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for 15 months. In the absence of any...
Here we look at some of the key developments in human rights, justice, and accountability in Sri Lanka over the month of June. Bail for Shani Abeysekara Shani Abeysekara, the former director of the Criminal Investigation Department, who was arrested in late July 2020...
Edward Mortimer, who recently passed away at the age of 77, was integral to the creation of the Sri Lanka Campaign, playing a key role in the campaigning activity that took place in the aftermath of the civil war in 2009 and serving as the organisation’s first chair...
May 18 marks the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. On this day we remember the many civilians who were killed at Mullivaikkal in the final stages of the war. In the final months of the war, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed, the majority by deliberate...
On the first anniversary of the arrest of poet Ahnaf Jazeem, we call on the Sri Lankan authorities to end their problematic investigation and immediately release him. We also call for the immediate repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, a draconian law which...
On 14 April 2020, prominent human rights lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for alleged involvement in the tragic Easter Sunday bombings in 2019. Hejaaz has been denied unrestricted...
