Sri Lanka: Justice Key to End Anti-Muslim Violence - HRW

''Sri Lankan authorities need to do more than arrest those carrying out the anti-Muslim violence. They need to investigate and identify any instigators. That means taking a hard look at the role and relationship between extremist Buddhist groups like the BBS and the Sri Lankan security forces. ''- Brad Adams, Asia director

Sri Lanka: Mourning Tireless Rights Advocate Abeysekera - HRW

Human Rights Watch on Loss of Leading Voice for Rights in Sri Lanka’s Deadly Conflict

• Sunila Abeysekera;© 2006 Tim Hetherington for Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Human Rights Watch mourns the death of Sunila Abeysekera, a prominent and highly respected Sri Lankan activist who spent more than two decades documenting human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Abeysekera passed away in Colombo on September 9, 2013, following a long illness.

Sri Lanka: Stop Harassing Victims; Activists Security Forces ‘Visit’ People Who Met UN Rights Chief

“It’s outrageous for a government that is hosting the UN human rights chief to have their security forces harass the people who met with her. The Sri Lankan government should announce that ‘visits’ or other forms of harassment of those who spoke to the high commissioner will be punished. And the government should make sure they punish officials who’ve already done so.”

- Brad Adams, Asia director

Sri Lanka: No Justice in Aid Worker Massacre - HRW

member of the French aid group Action Contre La Faim
places a wreath in front of the photographs of his 17
slain colleagues at their memorial in Batticaloa,
Sri Lanka on August 11, 2006. © 2006 Reuters

•  The Rajapaksa government is good at throwing bones to the international community, but not at taking serious measures to find and punish those responsible for serious abuses. If the families of 17 aid workers can’t get justice for their loss, it’s hard to be hopeful for anyone else.

-James Ross, legal and policy director

(New York) – The Sri Lankan government has made no real progress in holding accountable those responsible for the execution style slaying of 17 aid workers seven years ago despite renewed international calls for action.

Sri Lanka: Reveal Fate of ‘Disappeared’ Cartoonist - HRW

The placard reads "500 days since Prageeth's
disappearance." © 2011 Reuters

Solving the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda and that of thousands of other Sri Lankans over past decades should be a top priority of the Sri Lankan government and its investigative agencies. After years of no progress in Ekneligoda’s case, any clues about his fate should prompt an intensive investigation, not shrugs by senior government officials.

- Brad Adams, Asia director

Sri Lanka: Commonwealth Should Relocate November Meeting - HRW

Accountability Failures, Ongoing Abuses Make for an Unworthy Host
''The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka. The CMAG meeting should send a message to the Sri Lankan government that the scale and severity of its abuses violate the Commonwealth’s core values and will not be rewarded.'' - Brad Adams, Asia director

Sri Lanka: Probe into LTTE Crimes Should Start with Karuna; Deputy Minister Among Senior Leaders Linked to Wartime Atrocities

Karuna Amman on the left with LTTE Fighters

''Karuna’s call for war crimes investigations should not allow him to airbrush out his own role in atrocities. His LTTE forces were implicated in some of Sri Lanka’s most horrific abuses, so the government’s long-stalled war crimes investigations might as well begin with him.'' - Brad Adams, Asia director

Minister Samarasinghe forgot to mention that the Army Court of Inquiry exonerated the army of any liability for civilian casualties - HRW

Julie de Rivero: Govt action plan  ignires 50 percent of the recommendations made by the LLRC.

During the UPR process in November 2012, Sri Lanka rejected 100 recommendations – nearly half of those proposed by United Nations member states, including many related to accountability and justice issues.  Among the rejected recommendations was one to implement the government’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations. Instead the government committed only to implement its National Action Plan on the LLRC – which ignores nearly 50 percent of the recommendations made by the LLRC.

Sri Lanka security forces rape, torture Tamil detainees: HRW

Ambassador, Prasad Kariyawasam: We cannot fight with the most powerful country in the world and their NGOs

 

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka's security forces have used rape to torture and extract confessions from suspected Tamil separatists almost four years after the country's civil war ended, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka: Move Commonwealth Summit; Colombo Venue Undeserved without Progress on Rights, Accountability - HRW

“The Sri Lankan government’s blatant disregard for the Commonwealth’s principles of human rights and democratic reform makes it a poor host for this important event. Unless the government urgently addresses abuses and ends impunity, the international recognition it will gain by hosting the Commonwealth summit while repressing its key values will be an embarrassment to the Commonwealth and its member countries.”
Brad Adams, Asia director

Sri Lanka faild to make any progress on Human TRights and accountability - HRW

(Section on Sri Lanka in HRE 2013 world Report)

The Sri Lankan government in 2012 continued its assault on democratic space and failed to take any meaningful steps towards providing accountability for war crimes committed by either side during the internal armed conflict that ended in 2009.

The government targeted civil society through threats, surveillance, and clampdowns on activities and free speech. Statements by government officials and government-controlled media named and threatened human rights defenders who called for accountability for wartime abuses or criticized other government policies. Local activists expressed deep concern about the security of their staffand the people they assist.

Sri Lanka has failed to curb assaults on civil society, be accountable for war crimes: HRW

By ANI
The Sri Lankan government continued its assault on civil society and failed to take meaningful steps towards accountability for war crimes during the country's armed conflict that ended in 2009, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013 released today.
In its 665-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including an analysis of the aftermath of the Arab Spring.