Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Sri Lanka’s international trading partners to consider imposing targeted sanctions on officials accused of rights abuses and to leverage trading schemes in order to pressure Colombo to comply with human rights obligations, in a report examining the much-criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) released today.

The 59-page report slams Sri Lanka’s use of the PTA, detailing how it has been utilised to detain Tamils and Muslims and supress civil society on the island.

British Tamils organised a protest against the Sri Lankan Independence Day in front of the country’s High Commission in Hyde Park Gardens, London. 

A large number of people gathered at the spot last Friday, despite the damp London weather, to mark the day as a “black day” for Tamils. 

The protesters held flags of Tamil Eelam and shouted slogans denouncing Sri Lanka’s continued subjugation of Tamils. 

Sri Lanka’s former human rights commissioner, Ambika Satkunanathan, rebukes a defamatory statement released by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry which attacked her submission to the European Parliament claiming it “reminiscent of LTTE propaganda”.

Muslim human rights lawyer, Hejaaz Hizbullah has finally been granted bail by the Court of Appeal after being detained for over 20 months and initially denied bail by Puttalam High Court.

He was initially detained by the Criminal Investigation Department on 14 April 2020 under Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act under dubious allegations that he aided the Easter Sunday attack. These charges later changed to allegations that he had promoted racial hatred. Hizbullah has spent 10 months in custody before being charged.

Following Sri Lanka’s 74^th Independence Day, Tamil parliamentarians have called on Britain’s Minister for South Asia, Lord Tariq Ahmad to take “meaningful action” on Sri Lanka as they list over 800 cases of abuse on the island, with 38 cases from January 2022 alone.

A signature campaign was launched in Kilinochchi yesterday, demanding the Sri Lankan government to repeal the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

Tamil National Alliance MP S Shritharan and Karachchi Pradeshiya Sabha chairman Velamalikithan were amongst those who signed the petition to repeal the legislation which has been used disproportionately against Tamils for decades and has been linked to torture on the island.

Writing in The Morning, Ambika Satkunanathan, former Human Rights Commissioner of Sri Lankan (HRCSL), explains how most of the recently announced proposed 'reforms' to the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) "already exist and are not new."

Sri Lanka’s ‘Independence Day’ parade has drawn attention after it emerged that a military float carrying ‘War Heroes of Sri Lanka’ was adorned with a photograph of LTTE fighters.

The float, which was carrying seated fighters from the Sri Lankan military, was given a prominent place in the parade, reportedly carrying “War Heroes”.

It has since emerged that the second photograph on the float, seen in the photograph above, is of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) commandos on the battlefield.

"One shouldn't harp on my statement on purchasing dollars from black market" - Basil Rajapaksa.#SriLanka #SLnews pic.twitter.com/Wo58AqoNB4

Batticaloa police served Tamil journalist Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran with a restraining order yesterday, to ban him from covering a protest that the police claimed was planned against Sri Lanka's independence celebrations.