The statement below was picked up from the Official Government news agency of Sri Lanka on 15 August 2013. I do not know who the professors in question are and therefore we cannot know whether they are human rights defenders, but in view of earlier retaliation by the governmental media in that country against those who testified before the UN mechanisms on human rights and the tone of the message, there is no doubt that those who speak out risk more than disagreement! Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘Sri Lanka’
4 Sri Lankan Professors gone to Britain accused of launching ‘anti-Sri Lanka activities’
August 16, 2013State media in Sri Lanka lead attacks on Human Rights Defenders
June 4, 2013According to a statement from the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on 4 June there is an ongoing attack in Sri Lanka on Human Rights Defenders, NGOs & opposition politicians through the Independent Television Network (ITN). The statement give concrete and detailed indications to show that ITN – in spite of its name – has continued to follow the government line and started a fresh round of attacks in May this year. Read the rest of this entry »
High Commissioner Pillay attacked and defended by States in Human Rights Council
March 4, 2013The ongoing session 22nd of the UN Human Rights Council has many interesting issues that relate directly or indirectly to human rights defenders. One of the organizations that provides regular comments is the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) in Geneva. Below is an example and anyone interested to follow developments should subscribe: http://www.ishr.ch/council
On Thursday 28 February 2013, the High Commissioner Mrs Pillay presented her annual report, outlining a number of thematic priorities, including tackling discrimination on all grounds, ensuring accountability for human rights violations, and strengthening human rights mechanisms. Following the presentation of the report a number of States took the floor to respond. The High Commissioner faced criticism from States unhappy with her highlighting of particular country and thematic situations of concern during her annual update to the Human Rights Council. Her call on States to ensure that no individual faces discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, was met once again with categorical denial by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation OIC that any such responsibility exists in international human rights law. The OIC reproached the High Commissioner for promoting a notion that is ‘outside the framework of international human rights law’. The OIC has expressed this position many times previously, but it is increasingly anachronistic given the mounting acceptance at the Council that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as shown by its adoption of a resolution on this subject in June 2011 and subsequent holding of a panel discussion. Read the rest of this entry »
Sri Lanka and the war-time massacres: how ideally the Government should react
March 4, 2013In one of my posts of last week I referred to the panicked, knee-jerk reaction of the Sri Lankan Government to the showing of the film No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka at the UN in Geneva. Now I have come across a much more reasonable and constructive reaction published in the Sri Lankan The Island of 1 march 2013. The whole piece is worth reading; here follow just some excerpts for those pressed for time:
Every time, the United Nations Human Rights Council meets in session or one of the international Human Rights Organizations issues a statement on violations of human rights in Sri Lanka, the government of Sri Lanka gets into a combat mode. Their response follows the rule that attack is the best form of defence. The attack takes the form of personal abuse directed at the human rights defenders; there is no attempt to meet the issues of violations that have been raised. Its apologists and other hangers-on merely follow suit with hysterical outbursts against the United Nations, the international community and the local human rights defenders. None of them seem to care to read the reports released by the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights or by the different human rights organizations. Their criticism of the reports is therefore not informed and raises more issues than clarifying any. Mahinda Samarasinghe [the SL Ambassador] is normally not prone to such hysterical responses; his speech at the current sessions of the UNHRC therefore seems untypical of him.
Read the rest of this entry »
Correction: link to Sri Lankan Ambassador’s protest letter re Killing Fields film now working
February 26, 2013With apologies to the early viewers of my post of today regarding the Geneva film festival and the showing of a documentary in the UN building on alleged war crimes committed by both sides in the conflict, the link to the Sri Lankan Ambassador’s letter was faulty. This is now repaired with: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/465065/Letter-to-the-President-Human-Rights-Council-2.pdf.
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- 11th Human Rights Film Festival starts 1st March in Geneva with a bang that upsets Sri Lanka (thoolen.wordpress.com)
11th Human Rights Film Festival starts 1st March in Geneva with a bang that upsets Sri Lanka
February 26, 2013Since 2003, the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival (with the more complicated French name and abbreviation: le Festival du film et forum international sur les droits humains – FIFDH) takes place in parallel to the UN Human Rights Council. Based on the concept “A film, a subject, a debate”, the FIFDH features documentary as well fiction, on themes linked to human rights such as: violence against women, poverty, torture, international justice and even climate change. During 10 days the public is invited to watch the films, meet film makers, actors, experts and victims of human rights violations. There are special screenings for students, and teachers are issued with thematic material. This year a total of 40 films will be screened. New this year is the competition for international fiction. The Jury includes filmmakers and human rights defenders such as: Ai Weiwei, Patrick Chapatte, Romain Goupil and Fadwa Suleiman, Syrian actress in exile. The longstanding festival director is Leo Kaneman: for the programme see: http://www.fifdh.org/
In the meantime, a big controversy has erupted about the showing of the documentary “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka” in what is called in UN terminology a ‘side event’, organised by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the above-mentioned FIFDH, on the premises of the UN. As reported by AP on 25 February, the Sri Lankan Ambassador has sent a letter to the whole Human Rights Council denouncing the film as “discredited, uncorroborated and unsubstantiated” and warning that the Council would be violating its own rules if the film is screened March 1 in Geneva as planned.
The 90-minute documentary alleges government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels engaged in war crimes during the final stages of the conflict in 2009. The film shows interviews with eyewitnesses and original footage of alleged atrocities against civilians including summary execution, sexual violence and torture. The film director Callum Macrae denied that it distorted the facts: “We believe that our film contains very important evidence about the terrible events in the last few months of this war and we believe we have a duty to make that evidence available to the diplomats and country missions at the U.N. Human Rights Council who must make important decisions about how to ensure accountability and justice in Sri Lanka“. See: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/sri-lanka-opposes-screening-critical-film-18590958. The Sri Lankan Ambassador’s letter which certainly will help to attract a larger audience is to be found on: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/465065/Letter-to-the-President-Human-Rights-Council-2.pdf.
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- Ai Weiwei heads jury of Geneva’s human rights film festival (worldradio.ch)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: a real human rights actor
January 23, 2013On earlier occasions I have expressed my admiration for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Pillay, and her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, for the forthright manner in which this Office nowadays express itself on on-going human rights issues, including very often on Human Rights Defenders. It may seem tame in the eyes of some activists but one should not forget that (1) the Office remains an intergovernmental institution created and controlled by governments, and (2) not so long ago this was unheard of. Until the late 70’s countries could not be named in the proceedings of the UN Human Rights Commission, in the early 80’s under the leadership of Theo van Boven the first ‘special procedures’ were established but he was forced out of his job in 1982 for too much naming and shaming of Governments.
Navanethem Pillay (credit: Wikipedia)
To illustrate my point here follows a summary of a press statement made on 18 January 2013:
1) Mali
The crisis in Mali has led to various human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, rape and torture. These have been documented in a report requested by the Human Rights Council which was published by our Office on January 14, along with the growing ethnic tensions in the country which raise very serious concerns. Our report (http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session…in French only) presents the findings of a human rights mission deployed to Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger from 11 to 20 November 2012. …….OHCHR stands ready to provide assistance to the Malian Government by supporting the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism to facilitate national reconciliation.
2) Sri Lanka
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is deeply concerned that the impeachment and removal of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice has further eroded the rule of law in the country and could also set back efforts for accountability and reconciliation. The removal of the Chief Justice through a flawed process — which has been deemed unconstitutional by the highest courts of the land — is, in the High Commissioner’s view, gross interference in the independence of the judiciary and a calamitous setback for the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was served notice of her dismissal and removed from her chambers and official residence on Tuesday (15 January), in spite of a Supreme Court ruling that the parliamentary procedure to remove her violated the Constitution. Sri Lanka has a long history of abuse of executive power, and this latest step appears to strip away one of the last and most fundamental of the independent checks and balances, and should ring alarm bells for all Sri Lankans.
The jurist sworn in by the President as the new Chief Justice on 15 January, the former Attorney-General and Legal Advisor to the Cabinet, Mr. Mohan Peiris, has been at the forefront of a number of government delegations to Geneva in recent years to vigorously defend the Sri Lankan government’s position before the Human Rights Council and other human rights mechanisms. This raises obvious concerns about his independence and impartiality, especially when handling allegations of serious human rights violations by the authorities……Just this morning we have received alarming reports from the Independent Bar of Sri Lanka of a series of death threats, acts of intimidation and even a couple of reported murder attempts against lawyers who have been supporting Chief Justice Bandaranayake, and the rulings of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal on her case. The High Commissioner will be issuing a report on Sri Lanka at the February-March session of the Human Rights Council, focusing on the engagement of UN mechanisms in support of the accountability and reconciliation processes.
3) Zimbabwe
We condemn recent attacks against human rights defenders in Zimbabwe, including arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment. In the latest case, on January 14, the police charged Okay Machisa, the director of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) and chairperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, for allegedly publishing false statements prejudicial to the State, fraud and forgery after allegedly conducting illegal voter registration. Machisa handed himself to the police on January 14, accompanied by his lawyer, and remains in detention. In a previous incident, ZimRights Education Programmes Manager, Leo Chamahwinya, and ZimRights Local Chapter Chairperson, Dorcas Shereni, were arrested by the police on 13 December 2012. They were both denied bail by the High Court and remain in detention. We are concerned about the crackdown on non-governmental organisations and dissenting voices seen as critical of President Robert Mugabe’s rule and apparently politically motivated prosecutions, ahead of the elections which are expected to take place later this year.
4) Iran
We welcome the temporary release of Nasrin Sotoudeh, the well-known lawyer and human rights activist who is serving a six-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison. Ms Sotoudeh was granted a three day temporary leave and it has now been confirmed that she joined her family yesterday. The travel restrictions imposed on her family – the issue that caused her to go on hunger strike in the autumn — were lifted in December, so her temporary release marks a second improvement in her case. We hope that the temporary leave will be extended, and that Ms Sotoudeh will soon be indefinitely released.
If you want to be kept informed yourself, you can follow the UN Human Rights work on the following social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unitednationshumanrights
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UNrightswire
Google+ gplus.to/unitednationshumanrights
YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR S
torify: http://storify.com/UNrightswire
Attack on human rights defender Mr Gunaratne Waninnayaka in Sri Lanka
December 20, 2012On 17 December 2012, a group of four armed men carried out an attack on human rights defender Mr Gunaratne Waninnayaka, the president of the Colombo Magistrate’s Court Lawyers’ Association and the convenor of People’s March. Gunaratne Waninnayaka is an outspoken campaigner for the independence of the judiciary. Over the past years, Gunaratne Waninnayaka has figured prominently in campaigns to protect the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka. Most recently he has been at the forefront of the campaign opposing the Sri Lanka government’s move to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, who was a member of the Supreme Court when it delivered an adverse ruling to the government.
In the morning of 17 December, Gunaratne Waninnayaka was ambushed outside his house by four unidentified persons armed with automatic weapons who had been waiting for him to return home. As he approached his home, he saw the armed group and managed to enter his residence in his car, enter his home and block the entrances. The armed persons tried to enter the house but failed.
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ar/
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- An attempt on a lawyer’s life; an attempt to use violence against lawyers opposing the government’s move to impeach the CJ (oneislandtwonationsblogspotcom.typepad.com)
Harassment and illegal arrest of HRD in Sri Lanka – backlash against testimony in the UN
November 30, 2012Today Front Line Defenders reports the case of arbitrary arrest of human rights defender Mr Sanjeewa Samarasinghe in Sri Lanka.
On 27 November 2012, human rights defender Mr Sanjeewa Samarasinghe was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and questioned for 13 hours without a reason given or a lawyer present, before being released. Sanjeewa Samarasinghe is a journalist and the chairman of the State Media Workers’ Association, which defends press freedom and the rights of media workers in Sri Lanka. The human rights defender was taken to the CID office in Colombo 1 with a friend present, although his friend was told to leave the interrogation after 15 minutes. The defender asked the police officers to wait for his lawyer to arrive before questioning him, but this request was ignored and the police proceeded to question him in the absence of his lawyer. The defender’s lawyer was not permitted to enter the CID premises for the entire duration of the interrogation. It is reported that Sanjeewa Samarasinghe was subsequently questioned throughout the night for a period of 13 hours until he was eventually released around 9.30am the following morning on 28 November. Although no reason was given for the arrest, he was reportedly asked during the questioning whether he had been supplying information on human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Sanjeewa Samarasinghe works as a journalist and leads the State Media Workers’ Association, which works on issues related to media freedom, the right to freedom of expression, and which holds conferences, campaigns, and demonstrations on the rights of media workers.
It would seem another case of backlash against those HRDs who testify in the UN on which I reported previously and which has been condemned in the strongest terms by the United Nations.
Harassment of HRDs confirmed by the UN
August 18, 2012A few months ago I drew your attention to the annual effort by the UN to collect information on the harassment of those who cooperate with the United Nations (its representatives and mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteurs). Now – on 13 August 2012 – the report has been published as GA A/HRC/21/18 and makes grim reading. Several countries (such as Bahrain, Colombia, Iran, China, Sri Lanka) continue to punish or intimidate persons who had the courage to stand up in the United Nations and accuse their country of human rights violations. Government controlled media routinely refer to them as ‘traitors’ and that is the least of the bad treatment given. One would wish that the UN would be even more outspoken and concrete in protecting its own sources!
full document in PDF:
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 