Perhaps the clearest test of a pluralistic outlook amongst Sri Lankans, to say nothing of basic decency too, is their response to the events of July 1983. Anyone fit to pass the test sees it as an aberration in Sri Lankan history, an outrage in which defenceless Tamils were systematically persecuted. Those who offer excuses or play down the event ...
I also suggested, as happened in Pakistan, the establishment of ordinary schools by the military, or taking over the management of existing schools in areas where the military had a presence. This had been essential in Pakistan, where the public education system had been inadequate in rural areas where there were military cantonments. The army had therefore begun schools to ...
FUTA President Dr Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri By Dinouk Colombage FUTA President Dr Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri has made it clear that despite FUTA demanding a six percent increase in the allocations to the educations budget, the union is still unsure of what the money should be spent on. In a debate involving UPFA Parliamentarian Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe, and moderated by UNP ...
The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2011 – 2016 as well as the full series of Sri Lanka Rights Watch are available at the Peace & Reconciliation Website. The first part of the LLRC Action Plan deals with what are termed International Humanitarian Law Issues, which may create the wrong impression given the excessive attention focused on what ...
Daily News 5 July 2011 – http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/07/05/fea15.asp ...a massive belt of oil and gas resources. In this series of reflections, I have looked at various aspects of Western involvement in the Middle East, and in the Wider Middle East as well. The latter term refers, as Craig Murray defines it, to ‘the Middle East as we understand it, plus the ...
I referred some weeks back to the games being played by various individuals and institutions in Colombo with regard to the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, the political foundation of the German Free Democratic Party. This is a member of Liberal International, though its Liberalism is generally more concerned with free market economics, and does not have the same commitment to social ...
Sri Lanka is full of conspiracy theories. There are many reasons for this, not least the fact that theorizing about conspiracies is a universal practice, and we in Sri Lanka are victims of this as well as practitioners. Then there is the fact that conspiracy theories are fun. Since they necessarily assume that evidence must be shadowy, they allow those ...
The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2011 – 2016 as well as the full series of Sri Lanka Rights Watch are available at the Peace & Reconciliation Website. I have been deeply disturbed by some reactions to what seems a spate of criminality relating to the abuse of children. The argument is that we should respond to this ...
First published 18 Nov 2014 My mother, had she lived, would have been 89 today. Mahinda Rajapaksa is 69, and today is also the 9th anniversary of his election to the Presidency. Given that the Constitution prescribes 6 year terms, it seems absurd that he is thinking of cutting short his Presidency yet again, and submitting himself for election for ...
Amongst the Ministries and Departments that have contributed most actively to work on the National Human Rights Action Plan are the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reform, and the Department of Prisons. They have explained to us the problems they face, and have made it clear that they would welcome a reduction in the numbers they have to take charge ...
The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2011 – 2016 ( sinhala & tamil) as well as the full series of Sri Lanka Rights Watch are available at the Peace & Reconciliation Website. 19 Oct 2012 The passing last week of the Local Government Elections Bill was a singularly important occasion. It abolished the single most destructive element of our current political ...
The government has agreed to receive a delegation by the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to offer “advice and technical assistance” to implement the US-backed resolution on Sri Lanka. Does not that signal a change in the previously stated position of the government? (The government, earlier, rejected the UN resolution and External Affairs Minister G ...
Amongst the suggestions made at recent Reconciliation meetings in the North was that Divisional Secretaries should prepare systematic schedules of assistance that has been received in each Grama Niladhari Division in vital areas such as housing and livelihood. The first such returns have now come in, and will provide a useful planning tool for helping to ensure that assistance is ...
The full series of Sri Lanka Rights Watch as well as the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2011 – 2016 are available on the Peace & Reconciliation Website I was recently sent an article which suggested that in Sri Lanka sexual offenders went scot free. Coincidentally we had been discussing this matter at the last meeting of the Task ...
Last week the Marga Institute held a discussion on several sets of proposals that had been forwarded to the Parliamentary Select Committee looking into ‘Political and Constitutional Measures to Empower the People of Sri Lanka to Live as One Nation’. After much animated discussion, it was decided to work with the set of proposals put forward by Vasantha Senanayake, and ...
Presentation by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha At the Defence Seminar 2012 – Towards Lasting Peace and Stability August 10th 2012 I will begin with what might seem a paradox in the current context. I believe that much more must be done by the armed forces to promote reconciliation. I know that much fuss is now being made about the role of ...
The note that Save the Children kindly prepared for me on Children’s Clubs also noted the Objectives of the National Children’s Council, viz To promote the discipline, protection, development and participation of Sri Lankan children To ensure that Sri Lankan children are equipped with creative skills and would shoulder the national development. To create a patriotic, morally sound, healthy and ...
Following on suggestions made previously with regard to land and livelihood issues, I present here recommendations as to the two other areas I highlighted. Improving psycho-social services is vital, and it is astonishing that we have not paid greater attention to this in the past. We had been concerned about this problem at the Peace Secretariat, and I recently came ...
I was most disturbed that the proposed 19th amendment does not seem to take seriously the commitment in the President’s election manifesto to ensure the independence of the Public Service. Two dangerous provisions remain from the past. The first is that Ministry Secretaries shall be appointed by the President (though, according to the amendment introduced in the Supreme Court, only ...
The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2011 – 2016 ( sinhala & tamil) as well as the full series of Sri Lanka Rights Watch are available at the Peace & Reconciliation Website. I was privileged last week to attend the 5th South Asia Economic Summit that was held in Islamabad, with active participation by South Asian academics, politicians, government officials and ...
