from IRIN Few die at childbirth, most go to primary school and almost all are vaccinated at the right time, but the sizeable number of Sri Lankan children who are stunted, wasted and underweight for their age are a cause for concern, according to nutritional authorities.Recently published government statistics show that despite countless initiatives to alleviate malnutrition over the years, the condition is still entrenched in traditionally poor and conflict-hit regions, and affects hundreds of thousands of children.The Demographic and Health Survey 2006/2007, a draft of which was released by the Health and Nutrition Ministry and the Census and Statistics Department, shows that 22 percent of Sri Lankan children are underweight, 18 percent are stunted and 15 percent show signs of...
Government Misusing Emergency Regulations
The Sri Lankan government should release a prominent journalist and two others connected to a website critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The three have been held without charge since March under emergency regulations....
from ABC33/40 Alabama Written By RAVI NESSMANIyathigewewa is a classic company town. But the youth don't head off to work in the local mine or factory - they go to war. With no other job prospects in this impoverished, remote northern village about 27 miles south of the front lines, roughly half the men of fighting age have enlisted in the army, navy, police or other security branches."When we want to find a job, the easiest thing is to join the security forces," said Sisira Senaratna, 38, a 16-year police veteran who has two brothers who enlisted in the army and another in the police force.After a quarter century of civil war between government forces and ethnic Tamil rebels, fighting is so entrenched in this Indian Ocean island it has become a career for tens of thousands seeking a...
Colombo Should Now Prosecute Karuna Amman
The British government today regrettably allowed an abusive former Tamil Tiger leader who had been in its custody to return to Sri Lanka as a free man, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate and prosecute Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, known as Colonel Karuna Amman, for war crimes committed as a commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and later as head of an anti-LTTE armed group....
Government Illegally Holding Civilians Fleeing Fighting in the North
The Sri Lankan government should end the arbitrary detention of more than 400 civilians displaced by recent fighting at a newly established camp in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today....
UN Vote Upholds Council Membership Standards on Rights
NGOs around the world call Sri Lanka's defeat in today's Human Rights Council elections a victory for the UN body....
Three Nobel Peace Laureates Oppose Colombo’s Bid for Re-election
Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Adolfo Perez Esquivel have joined Sri Lankan and International NGOs in opposition to Sri Lanka's bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The three Nobel Peace Prize winners, representing three seperate continents, have each called on UN member states to reject Sri Lanka's candidacy....
Karuna Case Could Have Been Landmark for International Justice
The British government’s failure to file criminal charges against a former Tamil Tiger leader for grave human rights abuses in Sri Lanka is a tragic missed opportunity to bring a notorious rights abuser to justice, Human Rights Watch said today....
Don’t Reward Failed Promises to Improve Rights
Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights record and failed promises for improvement undermine its claim for a place on the UN Human Rights Council, a coalition of more than 20 national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) said in a letter released today....
from United Press InternationalBy JEHAN PERERACOLOMBO, Sri Lanka, The Sri Lankan government has been engaged in a battle against the human rights lobbies in the international community, and not only in battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, in recent months. Wide publicity has been given to the prospect of unfair aid and trade sanctions by Western countries.Government spokespersons have been making powerful arguments against such sanctions. They have pointed out that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka is better than in comparable cases worldwide. The most serious of the potential sanctions against the country is the possible withdrawal of the European Union's GSP+ privileges -- the Generalized System of Preferences that gives duty-free access to European markets. These...
from the Daily NewsCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka has won kudos as being the first among all South East Asian countries which had successfully controlled the Malaria epidemic. Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said.The sources said that in 2007 Sri Lanka recorded only 196 Malaria patients down from 591 in 2006. The number of Malaria patients recorded in Sri Lanka in 2005 was 1640.No patient has died from Malaria in Sri Lanka after the year 2000. This is a record in South East Asia. In 2007 one patient died and he was suffering from a combination of Dengue and Malaria.According to the sources, at present, 4000 persons die from Malaria annually in South East Asian countries. The highest number of cases are reported from India while Myanmar tops the number in Malaria contracted deaths.Sri...
The report "Recurring Nightmare: State Responsibility for 'Disappearances' and Abductions in Sri Lanka" contains detailed descriptions of 99 cases of “disappearances” and abductions documented by Human Rights Watch. Here are four of those cases....
International Human Rights Monitoring Mission Urgently Needed
The Sri Lankan government is responsible for widespread abductions and “disappearances” that are a national crisis, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to reveal the whereabouts of the “disappeared,” immediately end the practice, and hold the perpetrators accountable....
from The IslandPolicies and prospects - Part Iby M U A Tennakoon Ph.D,DScEarly PoliciesSri Lanka, by the 1980s, possessed substantial achievements in human development in areas such as universal primary school enrollment, a high literacy rate, gender equality, lowered infant and maternal mortality, a high life expectancy etc. largely due to the welfare-oriented development strategies followed since independence in 1948. According to the World Human Development Index, Sri Lanka ranked 99th out of 191 countries. Some of those achievements are in par with those of the middle income countries.In those development aspects, Sri Lanka has already met some of the Millennium Development Goals towards the turn of the twentieth century. But poverty remains a persistent worry. Out of the urban...
Government Fails to Investigate Its Forces’ Complicity in Child Abductions
The UN Security Council should impose sanctions on armed groups in Sri Lanka for using children in their forces, Human Rights Watch said today....
Courtesy of Nuwan on the humanitarian-ict mailing list, I just watched “The Long Last Mile” on YouTube. Produced by Television for Education - Asia Pacific, it describes the project by LIRNEasia to evaluate Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination. Some useful points in an accessible format - redundancy in communication technologies, identification of key responders, community engagement in the process, the importance of simulation exercises for learning, and so on. Only 12 minutes long, it’s definitely worth watching. Plus, YouTube! Web2.0! Etc, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riFafNpeM_M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMjlj7dV5tQ...
Warring Sides Should Better Protect Civilians
The imminent departure of Norwegian-led monitors from Sri Lanka highlights the need for a UN human rights monitoring mission, Human Rights Watch said today. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is leaving because of the Sri Lankan government’s decision to end the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)....
UN Human Rights Monitoring Urgently Needed to Stem Violations
The recent downgrading of Sri Lanka’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by an international committee highlights the need for independent international monitoring of the human rights situation in the country, Human Rights Watch said today....
The United Nations Human Rights Council should press the Sri Lankan government to agree to the immediate establishment of a UN human rights field operation with a strong monitoring mandate, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in an open letter today....
The armed opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government are deliberately and indiscriminately targeting attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) bombings in Colombo and a Sri Lankan government aerial bombing of an LTTE radio station this week resulted in more than two dozen civilian deaths....
Karuna Case Important for Bringing Justice for International Crimes
The British government should open a criminal investigation into a former Tamil Tiger leader in immigration detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, known as Colonel Karuna Amman, was a leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) until he split to form his own group....
Country of Origin Information and Women: Researching gender and persecution in the context of asylum and human rights claims (Asylum Aid, Nov. 2007) [text]
Education and Schooling for Asylum-Seeking Refugee Students in Scotland: An Exploratory Study (Scottish Government Social Research, Nov. 2007) [text] [summary version]
From Refugee to Citizen: "Standing On My Own Two Feet" (Institute for...
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Labor Laws Leave Migrant Women Exposed
Sri Lankan domestic workers face serious abuses, including violence, harassment and exploitation when they migrate to work in the Middle East, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch said the governments of Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should do more to protect women from labor exploitation and violence when they migrate to the Middle East, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....
from the Sunday TimesThe effectiveness of poverty alleviation programmes like Janasaviya, Samurdhi and Maga Neguma) have been hindered by political patronage and misallocation of resources, says the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA).In a statement issued to coincide with the international day for the eradication of poverty commemorated last week, the CEPA said the Samurdhi programme for example, has come under increasing criticism since the Department of Census and Statistics revealed that its targeted food stamp programme, which constitutes 80% of the total programme budget, misses about 40% of the households in the poorest quintile while almost 44% of the budget goes to households in the top three quintiles.It said there was an inconsistent approach to poverty. “The lack of a...
from The Asia Times OnlineBy Feizal SamathMAHAVILACHCHIYA, Sri Lanka - In a north-central village, deep inside Sri Lanka's backwoods, a young man is glued to a computer screen, pushing a mouse and filling in figures.Isuru Senevirathna is entering data at Sri Lanka's first business processing outsourcing (BPO) company set up in a village, and probably among the first in the world that is surrounded by tall trees, bird calls, paddy fields and streams."It's nice to be able to do a job like this," the 20-year-old youth, operations director of OnTime Pvt. Ltd, told Inter Press Service.BPO is a growing IT business which Sri Lanka embraced with relish. Dozens of companies are now springing up in Colombo as many of the world's best Western corporations look for cost-effective ways to handle their...
Dealing with the Past in Post-Conflict Societies: Ten Years after the Peace Accords - in Guatemala and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Swiss Peace Annual Conference, Sept. 2007) [text via ReliefWeb]
Determining the Best Interests of Unaccompanied and Separated Children: Lessons from Guinea (International Rescue Committee, Sept. 2007) [text via ReliefWeb]
"Drug Donations in Emergencies, the Sri Lankan...
Asylum Disparities Persist, Regardless of Court Location and Nationality (TRAC, Sept. 2007) [text]
The building blocks of sustainable peace: The views of internally displaced people in Northern Uganda, Oxfam Briefing Paper 106 (Sept. 2007) [text]
Civilians in the way of conflict: Displaced people in Sri Lanka (IDMC, Sept. 2007) [text]Getting the Policies Right: The Prioritization and Sequencing...
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2007 Report on International Religious Freedom (U.S. Dept. of State, Sept. 2007) [text]"After the Wave: A Pilot Project to Develop Mental Health Services in Ampara District, Sri Lanka Post-Tsunami," Journal of Humanitarian Assistance (Sept. 2007) [text]Protracted displacement and remittances: The case of Somalis in Eastleigh, Nairobi, New Issues in Refugee Research Paper No. 143 (UNHCR, Aug....
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from Lanka Business OnlineIf market reforms and globalization that brought prosperity to Sri Lanka's Western Province could be replicated countrywide, extreme poverty could be eliminated in a generation, a development economist said.Sri Lanka's Western Province which had seen the most market oriented reforms since 1977 and was most open to the world, had grown the fastest and had reduced poverty to 9 percent while the national poverty headcount was 23 percent."If the rest of the country can mimic the Western Province’s performance Sri Lanka can eliminate extreme poverty in one generation," Naoko Ishii, World Bank's country chief, told the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Economic Association."The rising inequality within the country has severely limited the extent the growth could have...
Killings, Abductions and Displacement Soar as Impunity Reigns
The Sri Lankan government is responsible for unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations since the resumption of major hostilities with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today....