Search Results for: sri lanka

Free speech organization Article 19 released its 2024 Global Expression Report (GER) on Tuesday showing that more than half of the world’s population is “living through a freedom of expression crisis,” unable to speak freely. In 2023, the percentage of people living in this crisis rose to 53 percent, or about 4 billion people. This [...]

Sri Lanka is sending a high-level delegation to Russia to investigate the involvement of hundreds of Sri Lankan nationals reportedly recruited to fight in the Ukraine war, announced a top official on Thursday. Earlier this month, Sri Lankan authorities began investigating these reports, focusing on the trafficking of individuals with military training to fight in [...]

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) apprehended Wednesday an accused offender who had absconded after skipping bail in an espionage case that implicated individuals from Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The NIA said in their statement announcing the arrest: Nuruddin Rafi, who was carrying cash reward of Rs. 5 lakhs, was nabbed from Rajiv Nagar areaof Mysuru, [...]

Sri Lankan security forces continue to impose abduction and torture on Tamil civilians, a Wednesday report from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) revealed. The report analyzed the statements of 123 Tamils (aggregately detained for a total of 139 times) who were unlawfully detained by Sri Lankan security forces between 2015 and 2022, all [...]

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers on Friday approved a new legislative bill, endorsed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that will allow the state to confiscate any property or proceeds resulting from criminal activities, a spokesperson for the cabinet told local media.  Under the new law, known as the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), the [...]

Under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership, the Sri Lankan civil war reached a brutal conclusion on May 18, 2009, ending a 25-year-long conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist rebel group. Rooted in longstanding grievances, including discriminatory policies against Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, the conflict saw the [...]

The year 2024 is an important one for Sri Lanka. It is a presidential election year, and a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council to gather evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions is due for renewal. After the public ousters of the former-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2023, Ranil Wickremesinghe [...]

The Sri Lankan Parliament passed a controversial bill Wednesday, which has been condemned by opposition politicians and several human rights groups for curtailing free speech in the country. The Online Safety Bill aims to tackle cybercrimes such as child abuse, data theft and online fraud. However, human rights organizations warned that the bill poses a [...]

In a press conference Sri Lanka’s Public Security Minister Tiran Alles, one of twelve members of Parliament’s Select Committee to deal with the “drug menace,” vowed to continue the controversial anti drug campaign Yukthiya amid human rights concerns. The campaign was announced in early December 2023 via press conference. In a message directed to the [...]

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court invalidated on Wednesday, for the first time ever, a presidential pardon to former member of Parliament Duminda Silva. In a unanimous ruling, the court found that there was “no legal basis or even a factual basis to uphold the decision made by” former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to pardon Silva. Silva and [...]