Recomendations to GoSL form the François Crépeau, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

 François Crépeau

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants has called for sweeping reforms in Sri Lanka to protect the rights and safety of the island's migrant worker population, including the introduction of a legal framework on par with international instruments, ratification of specific ILO Conventions and the decriminalization of irregular migration.
 Following his week-long visit to Sri Lanka in May, François Crépeau, the Special Rapporteur, has made a range of recommendations in his mission report, highlighting serious anomalies affecting the rights and welfare of the migrant population.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa plan to relocate between 280,000 to over 500,000 people form Colombo in next few years

Slave Island residents after the demolition of their homes,
February 2014 ( Cover photograph by Megara Tegal)

''Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, now presiding over urban development in Sri Lanka, has repeatedly stressed that his goal is to transform Colombo into a slum-free, “world-class”, “garden city”; a "preferred destination for international business and tourism."  This is what the UDA’s Urban Regeneration Project (URP) seeks to realise. While full details of the URP have never been officially made public, it is fast becoming clear that it entails the forced relocation of thousands of poor and lower-middle income families across the city. Official estimates of the number of families to be relocated over next few years vary from “nearly 70,000” to 135,000. Assuming an average urban household size of 4.2 , this implies the relocation of anywhere between 280,000 to over 500,000 people, the scale and complexity of which presents wide ranging social and economic risks''

Forced evictions in Colombo: The ugly price of beautification by Centre for Policy Alternatives

“Get out you dogs! If you don’t come out we’ll kill you!” – Sri Lanka Police threaten peacfull protestors

fasting villages sorrounded by the police

The villagers who carried out an agitation demanding solutions for the issues created due to the pollution of the drinking water by a rubber factory at Thunnane in Hanwella were assaulted by the police and 48 including women, children and devotees who were observing percepts at a nearby temple were arrested. Senior police officers scolded the arrested in obscene language displaying their hatred towards the masses say sources.
A senior police officer threatened villagers saying “Get out you dogs! If you don’t come out we’ll kill you!” Yesterday a senior police officer had told villagers to give up the protest ‘fast’ if they loved their lives.

Sri Lanka: FTZ woking women calls for proper complaint mechanism in their work places

FTZ workers march for rights ( photo ftzunion lanka)

''We firmly believe the absence of complaints on sexual insults, coercions, humiliations, harassments and even molestations at workplaces is mainly due to lack of a complaint mechanism, the victim whether women or children could have trust on and thus allows for further cultivation of same leading to even management violence in insisting production targets are met without compromise that demands we resolve the immediate constitution of complaints committees in every factory and workplace, headed by recognised and educated women and with adequate legal powers to decide on disciplinary punishments and further legal investigations where necessary.'' 

SRI LANKA: The life of a human rights defender is under threat

Sunil Samaradeera speaking to press on his abduction

Sunil Samaradeera of No: 34/2, Baseline Mawatha, Borella, a human rights activist based in Wanathamulla, in Colombo District was abducted in broad daylight by persons believed to be connected to the Secretary of Defense. On 13 of February Sunil had met with the Secretary, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, regarding issues concerning a housing scheme which threatens to put several households out of their land and according to reports there had been a heated exchange of words. Sunil’s abduction happened shortly after that. Sunil’s neighbours and colleagues staged a protest by blocking a road and as a result two days later he was released. However, he is concerned for his personal security and the authorities have made no effort to investigate the abduction and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Cost of living more worrying than Geneva issues, BT poll

Sri Lankans are more concerned about cost of living and making ends meet than any international issues, was one comment received when the Business Times (BT) sought the views of people on the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka at this month UN Human ights Council meeting in Geneva
Below is cross section of the comments received in the email poll.
On whether the resolution  would create chaos:
- No one is concerned about the resolution. Why should they be? 60 per cent of our population is worried about how to pay for the next meal or feed their children.
- There will certainly be an immediate reaction from the Government and more particularly the extreme elements.

Sri Lanka’s northern house-funding gap: only 32 % has permanent house survey shows

Photo: Contributor/IRIN
Thousands remain without housing

(IRIN) - More than US$300 million is needed for the construction of over 60,000 new homes in Sri Lanka’s conflict-affected north, say aid officials. “There is very little, almost nothing that is coming by way of new funding for housing construction,” Jagath Abeysinghe, president of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRC) which is overseeing the construction of 20,000 new homes in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, told IRIN, attributing the shortfall to donor fatigue. “We should have sought funding for housing more aggressively almost immediately after the war ended. Since then other emergencies have dominated the limited global funding pool,” Abeysinghe said, calling for a government-led public appeal with the participation of the non-governmental and private sectors.

Sri Lanka: Few jobs for university grads in the north

Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN
He might get into university,
but getting a job is another matter

COLOMBO, 9 January 2014 (IRIN) - University graduates in northern Sri Lanka, which is recovering from decades of civil war, are looking at a sparse employment landscape with few opportunities on offer, say officials.

“Those from the north face a much more difficult time than those from elsewhere in the country. New jobs are very difficult to find,” Rupavathi Keetheswaran, the government agent for the northern Kilinochchi District, the top public official in the area, told IRIN.

Sri Lanka: 5 years after the War no Water nor Electricity in Northern and Eastern villages

Gotamini Hathurusinghe
 It can be safely said that 5 years after the war many villages, well over 60% have no basic utilities supplied to them by the government. There are huge implications for the well being and safety of these people as a result. The following are excerpts of a list of GNDs only in Vavuniya and Kilinochchi Districts, which have been provided to the writer by the villagers. The writer has an indepth knowledge about the North and East. Details of the other Districts will follow.

Low income earners in Sri Lanka living on one and a half dollars a day

Senior Minister Amunugama tells SAARC PCSCs
Don Asoka Wijewardena
Most low income groups in Sri Lanka are eking out an existence on just one and a half dollars a day and poverty is common among some local social segments, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance Minister Sarath Aminugama said.

Facing the challenge of single-issue international agenda

Jehan Perera

Stephen J. Rapp, Ambassador-at-Large of the Office of Global Criminal Justice of the United States will be in Sri Lanka this week.  He will be meeting with political leaders and also with other influential opinion formers to ascertain the situation in the country relevant to his interests and to make known his own views. His visit will be followed shortly thereafter by Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs of the US government, Nisha Desai Biswal.  Both these visits are evidence of the international interest in Sri Lanka and its present trajectory of political development.  They are also likely to be connected to the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March, where Sri Lanka is likely to figure as an important issue and perhaps even as a test case for collective international action.

India and Sri Lanka: A sea of conflict

Meera Srinivasan

Tamil Nadu fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters interfere with the livelihood of Sri Lankan Tamils struggling to make a living from the sea after a brutal war

The haunting image — from a reporting assignment over a month ago — of an army of Indian trawlers charging towards the shore of Analativu, a small island in the northern tip of Sri Lanka, remains vivid in my memory. 

Though there were no arrests reported that night, the Sri Lankan Navy, on several occasions before and after that, have arrested Indian fishermen on charges of trespassing. Not just in Analativu, but at different points off Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern coasts. 

Sri Lanka: Poverty in Vanni: Ghost of Sri Lanka's war

Amantha Perera
Its early morning in Mankulam, and I’m driving along the A9 – the road is paved, in marked contrast to the giant potholes that dotted the track a decade ago. It looks more like one of those new highways that have come up elsewhere in the country. This one is not as busy, but drivers need to be mindful of cyclists and cattle straying onto the road. I am here to cover the provincial council polls, as are many other journos. The ‘parachutes’ have landed from New Delhi and elsewhere. And almost all of them are converging on Jaffna.

Sri Lanka's detention of Indian fishermen warlike act: Jayalalithaa

Arrested Indian Fishermen ( File photo)

Chennai, Dec 12 (IANS): India cannot continue with the facile "do not touch" policy with Sri Lanka in the wake of its "brazen" and "warlike" mass abduction of Indian fishermen, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said Thursday.
"These are the largest and most outrageous acts of mass abduction of our fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy," Jayalalithaa said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday, the text of which was released to the media here.

CPA/SI Survey on Democracy in Post-War Sri Lanka: Summary of Findings

• Given the opportunity to allocate money from the National Budget to sectors of their choice, people would choose Education, Health and Agriculture.
• Around 82% of Sri Lankans say that the general security situation in the country has changed for the better over the last two years, with 42.8% stating that it has got a lot better.
•  Only 32.3% of Sri Lankans have heard of the LLRC.
• 70% say that Sinhala is the only official language of Sri Lanka.
  • 40.3% of Sri Lankans stated that they have a great deal of trust in the Army while 46.1% said that they have some trust.
• 42.5% believe that the media in Sri Lanka is completely free to criticise the Government while 25% disagree.
• 96.3% of Sri Lankans believe that they are free to practice their religion in their community. 

Trade Unions object to court involvement in TU action

Joseph Stalin

The Government, Semi- Government and Private Trade Unions Collective Committee has voiced its objections against the involvement of the courts with regard to Trade Union issues, General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union Joseph Stalin stated during a media briefing today.
Stalin who was representing the Government, Semi- Government and Private Trade Unions Collective Committee said that protesting was a fundamental right and the government should not involve the courts and take away the rights of the people.

Top line survey results: Democracy in post-war Sri Lanka

8 November 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka: According to a new survey conducted by Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lankans continue to be divided on the topic of reconciliation. However, when it comes to the economy and development, priorities across the four main communities are similar. 

Sri Lanka: Post-war development myth of the war-zone: only 9% has regular aincome; monthly income of 43 %US $ 43

Beneath a veneer of development, reflected in this newly laid railtrack, Sri Lanka's former war-zone is plagued by poverty, debt and lack of jobs. Credit: Amantha Perera/IP

Dwindling Aid Slows Sri Lanka by  Amantha Perera  

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka , Nov 7 2013 (IPS) - When the first trains in almost two and a half decades started running through this war-ravaged town in Sri Lanka in mid-September, Sinngamuththu Jesudasan could not resist the temptation to go and have a look – repeatedly.

Cost of short new expressway is more than budgetary allocation for Education, Agriculture, Higher Education, Power and Energy, Environment, ,Social Services +++

Children of a Lesser God by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“…justice by its very nature has to have a universal reach, rather than being applicable to the problems and predicaments of some people but not of others”.

Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice)

Rs.1.8 billion was spent on building one kilometre of the Katunayake-Colombo expressway.

That was more than the 2014 Budgetary allocation for Child Development and Women’s Affairs (Rs.1.24 billion), Culture and Arts (Rs.1.48 billion), Telecommunication and Industrialisation Technology (Rs.0.957 billion), Wildlife Resources and Conservation (Rs.1.31 billion), National Heritage (Rs.1.26 billion) or Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare (Rs.0.58 billion).

Women Battle On After Lanka War

Women in Alankulam village in the northern Mullaittivu district help dig a community well. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS.

By Amantha Perera

BATTICALOA/KILLINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka, Oct 30 2013 (IPS) - The battle might have been over four long years ago, but for the women in Sri Lanka’s former conflict zones in the northern and eastern provinces, the war continues.