\u201cOpen Wounds and Mounting Dangers: Blocking Accountability for Grave Abuses in Sri Lanka<\/a>,\u201d examines efforts by the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to thwart justice in seven prominent human rights cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe report describes the current context of government repression of activists, journalists, lawyers, and the families of victims, as well as threats against vulnerable minorities, the Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations Human Rights Council, at its session beginning February 22, 2021, should adopt a resolution upholding justice for serious international crimes in Sri Lanka and condemning ongoing abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Sri Lankan government\u2019s assault on justice increases the risk of human rights abuses today and in the future,\u201d said John Fisher, Geneva director. \u201cThe UN Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution at its upcoming session that demonstrates to the Rajapaksa administration that the world won\u2019t ignore its abuses and offers hope of justice to victims\u2019 families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Efforts to provide accountability significantly declined during 2020, Human Rights Watch said. Senior police officers investigating killings and enforced disappearances committed during the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration have fled the country or been charged with apparently fabricated offenses. A commission appointed by the president has sought to interfere in criminal cases involving his allies and supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trials of military and intelligence officials accused of enforced disappearances have been delayed and disrupted. And the Rajapaksa-dominated parliament passed an amendment to the constitution that abolishes key checks on presidential power, undermining the independence of the judiciary and institutions such as the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka\u2019s government is aggressively attacking efforts to hold officials to account for past…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltamilnews.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}