Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

Last updated
Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice
Formation2009
Leader Charu Lata Hogg
Key people
Lakhdar Brahimi
Website Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice is an international, non profit, human rights group founded in 2009 to seek justice for thousands of Tamils killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War and promote lasting peace. [1] Charu Lata Hogg is the chair of the group and advisory council members include Lakhdar Brahimi. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Objectives

The objectives of the Sri Lanka Campaign are to:

1. Achieve genuine reconciliation based on accountability for violations of international law

2. Build respect for human rights and the rule of law

3. Support efforts within Sri Lankan civil society to promote a just and lasting peace

Related Research Articles

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 1976–2009 militant Tamil organisation in Sri Lanka

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was a Tamil militant organization that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. Its aim was to secure an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east in response to the state policies of successive Sri Lankan governments that were widely considered to be discriminatory towards the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, as well as the oppressive actions—including anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956 and 1958—carried out by the majority Sinhalese.

Sri Lankan Civil War 1983–2009 civil war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists

The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran-led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government.

Michael Morris, Baron Naseby

Michael Wolfgang Laurence Morris, Baron Naseby, PC is a British Conservative Party politician.

Sunila Abeysekera was a Sri Lankan human rights campaigner. She worked on women's rights in Sri Lanka and in the South Asia region for decades as an activist and scholar. Quitting a career as a singer, Abeysekera briefly joined the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and then founded the Women and Media Collective in 1984. As head of the INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre, she monitored human rights violations by all parties in the civil war. She received the United Nations Human Rights Award in 1999 and the Didi Nirmala Deshpande South Asian Peace and Justice Award in 2013.

Human rights in Sri Lanka provides for fundamental rights in the country. The Sri Lanka Constitution states that every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. And, that every person is equal before the law.

Ian Martin (UN official) UN Official

Ian Martin is an English human rights activist/advisor and sometime United Nations official. His most recent UN assignment was as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. From 2015 to 2018 he was Executive Director of Security Council Report.

Sri Lanka and state terrorism

The Sri Lankan state has been accused of state terrorism against the Tamil minority as well as the Sinhalese majority, during the two Marxist–Leninist insurrections. The Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have been charged with massacres, indiscriminate shelling and bombing, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, disappearance, arbitrary detention, forced displacement and economic blockade. According to Amnesty International state terror was institutionalized into Sri Lanka's laws, government and society.

Deshamanya Radhika Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan lawyer, diplomat and human rights advocate who served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict until 13 July 2012. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to the position in April 2006. She was nominated to the Constitutional Council as a civil representative on 10 September 2015. In 2017, after atrocities against the Rohingya people, she was appointed a Member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar.

Christopher Weeramantry Sri Lankan judge

Sri Lankabhimanya Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, AM was a Sri Lankan lawyer who was a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1991 to 2000, serving as its vice-president from 1997 to 2000. Weeramantry was a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka from 1967 to 1972. He also served as an emeritus professor at Monash University and as the president of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms.

The Elders (organization) Organization founded by Nelson Mandela

The Elders is an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. They describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights". The goal Mandela set for The Elders was to use their "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to work on solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems such as climate change, HIV/AIDS, and poverty, as well as to "use their political independence to help resolve some of the world's most intractable conflicts".

British Tamils Forum or BTF, is a largest organisation representing the Tamil Community in the United Kingdom. The BTF intends to be the voice of the Tamil Community in the UK by raising the issues on Tamils in UK and to bring awareness to the issues affecting Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka and around the world. The BTF's work is focused on addressing the root cause to the conflict through an international justice mechanism to bring truth and justice to all victims of war and to bring end to the entrenched culture of impunity in Sri Lanka.

War crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War

There were war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the Sri Lankan Civil War, particularly during the final months of the Eelam War IV phase in 2009. The war crimes include attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; acute shortages of food, medicine, and clean water for civilians trapped in the war zone; and child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010 after the 26-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka to function as a Truth and reconciliation commission. The commission was mandated to investigate the facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the ceasefire agreement made operational on 27 February 2002, the lessons that should be learnt from those events and the institutional, administrative and legislative measures which need to be taken in order to prevent any recurrence of such concerns in the future, and to promote further national unity and reconciliation among all communities. After an 18-month inquiry, the commission submitted its report to the President on 15 November 2011. The report was made public on 16 December 2011, after being tabled in the parliament.

The Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka was a 2011 report produced by a panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The report is referred to by some as the Darusman Report, after the name of the chairman of the panel.

Reactions to the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War on 18 May 2009 have generally been positive and welcoming, while some countries expressed concern over the civilian casualties and the humanitarian impact.

<i>Sri Lankas Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished</i>

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished was an investigatory documentary about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War broadcast by the British TV station Channel 4 on 14 March 2012. It was a sequel to the award-winning Sri Lanka's Killing Fields which was broadcast by Channel 4 in June 2011. Made by film maker Callum Macrae, this documentary focused on four specific cases and investigated who was responsible for them. Using amateur video from the conflict zone filmed by civilians and Sri Lankan soldiers, photographs and statements by civilians, soldiers and United Nations workers, the documentary traced ultimate responsibility for the cases to Sri Lanka's political and military leaders. The documentary was made by ITN Productions and presented by Jon Snow, the main anchor on Channel 4 News. The Sri Lankan government has denied all the allegations in the documentary.

Terrorism in Sri Lanka has been a highly destructive phenomenon during the periods of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009) and the first and second JVP insurrections. A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government for political, religious, or ideological goals. Sri Lanka is a country that has experienced some of the worst known acts of modern terrorism, such as suicide bombings, massacres of civilians and assassination of political and social leaders, that posed a significant threat to the society, economy and development of the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 is the legislation, that provides the powers to law enforcement officers to deal with issues related to terrorism in Sri Lanka. It was first enacted as a temporary law in 1979 under the presidency of J. R. Jayewardene, and later made permanent in 1982.

Fred Carver is a researcher and an expert in the field of international relations with specific expertise on the United Nations, Peacekeeping, Human rights, Atrocity Prevention, civil wars and political violence. He was the Head of Policy in the United Nations Association – UK till 2020. He was first Campaign Director of Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice from 2011 to 2016. He earlier did consultancy work in Human Rights Watch. He was the youngest Councilor in the history of the London Borough of Camden when he was elected to the Cantelowes (ward) in 2006. He was a Campaign manager for the Liberal Democrats but he later he left the party. He has done his Masters in Asian Politics from SOAS University of London.

References

  1. "Why We formed". Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  2. "Why Sri Lanka matters". United Nations Regional Information Center. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  3. "Rights group opposes GSP+ benefits to Sri Lanka". Tamilnet. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  4. "UN 'failed Sri Lanka civilians', says internal probe". 13 November 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  5. "Joint Statement by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice" (PDF). humanrightsinitiative.org. Retrieved 11 November 2013.