Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Rumbling public discontent from its once uncritical bastions should give the Sri Lankan Government pause. Myanmar’s point must be reiterated; desperate human beings have no limit to their defiance.
‘Get out Russia, get out China’ said the placards of Civil Disobedience activists in Myanmar as (...)
Since the end of the war in 2009, every year, come January, February, the Sri Lankan Government starts scrambling to respond to the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva. Once the sessions are over, other priorities take over. This has been the cycle for the past 12 years. Yet, problems on (...)
The 46th session of the Human Rights Council is set to begin next week.
In the nearly 12 years since her husband surrendered to the Sri Lankan Army, E. Sumathra has seen many sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva come and go. Half a dozen resolutions on Sri Lanka have been adopted (...)
There has been a great deal of turmoil in Indian and Sri Lankan politics over a statement made by Biplam Kumar Deb, the Chief Minister of Thripur, in a meeting last week. He had told that Amith Sha, the President of the BJP has stated at a meeting of BJP leaders that the party was planning to (...)
In January 2020, Sri Lanka’s president confirmed what many already feared: that more than 20,000 people who disappeared during the country’s civil war were dead. They were among the victims of the repression of the Tamil Tigers in May 2009. The Tigers’ defeat ended, for now, 26 years of military (...)
From rats, cockroaches and mosquitoes to ill-lit overcrowded cells, muddy kitchens infested with flies and shopping bags used as makeshift toilets in the night, HRCSL study exposes inhuman, nauseous and ghastly conditions inside the country’s jails Survey shows detention conditions are far below (...)
On 28 April, shaky footage taken on a smartphone showed hundreds of migrant workers in a country in the Middle East, crowded into an empty public park and asked to wait for answers for their inquiries on being repatriated back to Sri Lanka.
The woman recording the video said when they (...)
A severe staff shortage is reported at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), where a total of 98 posts fell vacant out of the 118 posts approved for the Commission to perform its duties, according to the Auditor General’s Department. In the report evaluating the performance of the (...)
The Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL) has warned against the Government’s move to amend the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Act as part of raising the retirement age as proposed by the 2021 Budget approved by Parliament last month.
CFL General Secretary T.M.R. Rasseedin in a letter to Labour (...)
After Priyantha was identified as a close contact of a recent Covid cluster he was sent to a quarantine centre in Polonnaruwa. At the end of the 14th day a ceremony was held at the quarantine centre where they were awarded a certificate to state that they had completed the mandatory quarantine (...)
Following the incidents in the Mahara Prison premises on 29 November, there are now discussions in the public domain of the pressing need for drastic prison reforms. Among the many limitations of the state prison system, the most acute according to many, is the overcrowding of the prison (...)
A new UNICEF Sri Lanka report recommends the establishment of a Universal Child Benefit (UCB) as a vital step to reduce the poverty and vulnerability faced by families and children in Sri Lanka, which for many has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Produced with support from the (...)
In an attempt to contain COVID-19, the number of children and youth not attending schools or universities is rising. With no end to the pandemic in sight, most of the world’s population had to make a sudden shift to the online world while adapting to new ways of learning and working.
The (...)
“And home isn’t here and home isn’t there” – Deborah Landau, The Last Usable Hour
Every story of ethnic cleansing is heart breaking. Some of them have been almost forgotten, overlooked in favour of others that were on a larger scale but they were just as driven by hatred and unsettling prejudices (...)
Over 50,000 of Sri Lanka’s free trade zone (FTZ) workers are at risk of exposure to COVID-19 as a result of the unexpected Brandix apparel factory cluster which at last count was at 1,034 confirmed cases.
Programme Coordinator of Dabindu Collective Chamila Thushari told EconomyNext that despite (...)
Apparel manufacturer responds to mounting allegations as concerns are raised Workers were sent home without conducting PCR tests Most workers were deployed from manpower agencies Rights group in FTZ complains poor living conditions and severe hardships Company says majority COVID-19 positive (...)
The plight of Sri Lankan migrant workers who died from COVID-19
The body of the Sri Lankan migrant worker Bandu who died of coronavirus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates — far from home — was kept inside the ambulance in front of the crematorium. A few of his work friends came by for a last (...)
Hopes Fade for a Reckoning With the Atrocities of the Civil War
Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war ended in a bloodbath in May 2009. Government forces decisively defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at the cost of tens of thousands of civilian lives. According to credible allegations, (...)
It is true that the era that ends with the introduction of the 20th Amendment cannot be considered as an era of democracy. However it was a period of struggle for democracy filled with mass struggles and out right treachery. Ranil was fortunate to get the support of Samasamajists and radical (...)
Although it happened over 20 years ago, Mahesh* (32) remembers every excruciating detail of that day.
“It was at my grandfather’s funeral. I remember feeling confused, at first, when [he] started pulling down my pants, and that turned into fear very quickly at what happened next. I was ten years (...)
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