ACPR Statement May 18, 2020 Today we commemorate all those lives that we lost during the war, especially the tens of thousands of Tamil lives that were taken by horrific atrocities perpetrated during the final phase of the war and as a result of the numerous massacres and atrocities committed during the Sri Lankan state’s…
ACPR Statement March 30, 2020 The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research condemns the decision of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to grant a presidential pardon to Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake. Ratnayake was convicted for killing eight unarmed Tamil civilians including three children on the 19th of December 2000 in Mirusuvil, Jaffna. As described by the…
In Solidarity with those affected by recent events May 4, 2019 We the undersigned Tamil civil society organizations unequivocally condemn the horrific Easter Sunday attacks which took more than two hundred and fifty lives, and also express our wholehearted solidarity and support to our Christian communities, targeted in this cowardly act of violence by extremists….
January 30, 2019 We the undersigned civil society groups, in particular from the North and East of Sri Lanka, members of war victims’ associations, other likeminded organisations and individuals concerned about the current state of affairs in Sri Lanka and lack of progress on peace and justice, bring to your kind attention the following issues…
(Jaffna/Washington, 14 January 2019) The undersigned organisations strongly condemn the Sri Lankan Government’s decision to appoint Major General Shavendra Silva, an alleged war criminal, as the new Chief of Staff of the Sri Lankan Army. Brigadier Silva as he then was, led the Sri Lankan Army’s 58 Division during the last phase of the armed…
This week we commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Black July pogrom in which state-sponsored Sinhala mobs attacked Tamils in Colombo and elsewhere killing approximately 3000 Tamils and displacing over 200,000. 35 years have passed and to date, there has been no accountability for this horrific week of genocidal violence, nor even an attempt at…
Statement by Tamil Civil Society condemning violence against Muslim community March 6, 2018 We strongly condemn the violence being unleashed against the Muslim people in Kandy this week and in Ampara earlier last week. Initial reports from Ampara and Kandy make clear that the police by inaction were complicit in the violence. We, as Tamil civil society organizations who work…
Joint Civil Society Statement In Solidarity with Families of Disappeared’ Year-Long Protest February 20, 2018 Today marks one year since Families of the Disappeared took to the road in Kilinochchi, Marunthankerny (Jaffna), Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu demanding answers about the fate of their disappeared loved ones. Despite meetings with President Sirisena last year in which…
Impunity for Sri Lankan security forces must end now Call for the international community to re-prioritize accountability and justice in Sri Lanka November 13, 2017 We the undersigned organizations call upon members of the international community to re-prioritize accountability and justice for atrocity crimes committed during and after the armed conflict in their engagement with…
Statement by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) for UPR Info Pre-Session (Geneva) October 10, 2017 Delivered by: Dharsha Jegatheeswaran, Research Director of ACPR *Check against delivery* *Read full statement here. Dear Member States of the UN Human Rights Council and civil society colleagues, I speak today as the Research Director of the Adayaalam Centre…
