WASHINGTON DC: Plaintiffs in the War crimes case against Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse on Friday (February 3) filed a memorandum of opposition to the suggestion of immunity by the United States of America and requested for oral argument on the matter.
The Plaintiffs through their attorney Bruce Fein submitted that the Torture Victims Protection Act  is […]

The case of two Swedish journalists imprisoned in Ethiopia sheds light on a harsh campaign of repression.
IN a filthy Ethiopian prison that is overridden with lice, fleas and huge rats, two Swedes are serving an 11-year prison sentence for committing journalism.
Martin Schibbye, 31, and Johan Persson, 29, share a narrow bed, one man’s head beside […]

We, the following undersigned citizens, strongly condemn the attack on the Viluthu office in Colombo between the night of the 23rd of January and early hours of
Tuesday morning, the 24th January. The office was broken into and searched by unknown persons. We are especially perturbed that this incident occurred in a high security zone in […]

New York 23 January 2012:The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east became more open, the government deepened repression of basic freedoms throughout […]

It’s December 2010, and two young law students are sitting for their exam.
The one is in a hall full of students, who are being monitored closely by the examiner to make sure they’re following the rules: no phones, no electronic devices, no
cheating.
The other, meanwhile is taken to a private air conditioned room with a computer […]

“Lasantha could not be straight-jacketed, could not be chained. Lasantha, in paying my personal tribute to you, let me say that at the Holy Grail of Journalism, none will fail to weep over your blood, to pay unreserved homage. And should your medal of glory cast some soft hued shadow, it will be the shadow […]

The concluding report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was finally made public in mid-December, after multiple delays and an
interim report that went mostly unnoticed.
Stifled public sphere
The Commission’s report has sparked considerable debate within an increasingly stifled public sphere, rejuvenating conversations in Sri Lanka about governance, human rights, and a permanent political […]

Despite differences that spurred civil war and cost tens of thousands of lives, the Tamils and the Sinhalese from Sri Lanka have at least one thing in common: a love of tea.
But some Tamil Americans say they are cautious when they go to Dupont Circle’s Teaism because their archenemies — the ethnically Sinhalese Sri Lankan […]

8 JANUARY 2012:Today  marks the third death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge a human rights journalist from Sri Lanka who fought
fearlessly for the freedom of the press and relentlessly pursued what he believed was right. On January 8, 2009 he was brutally murdered by the Sri Lankan authorities for his journalism.
Three years after Lasantha’s brutal murder […]

The raid of Freedom House’s office and those of several other NGOs in Cairo by Egyptian security forces today constitutes an unprecedented assault on international
civil society organizations and their local Egyptian partners. Freedom House strongly condemns the raid and calls for authorities to cease the unwarranted attacks and release confiscated property immediately.
This morning, Egyptian security […]