New Reports & Releases
Documents from before September 2007 can be found in the archive. |
The only local, independent human rights monitoring body in the NorthEast of Sri LankaBackgroundOver the course of the past two decades, war has devastated the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. Tamils in this area have faced extreme violence and been the victims of appalling human rights abuses. When the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was put in place, standard law enforcement mechanisms broke down and victims were left without recourse in the face of abuse. In response, community leaders in the NorthEast established citizens' committees to hear complaints and took whatever limited actions they found possible. As a part of the 2002 peace process, the international community recommended the strengthening of the human rights protection mechanisms in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. In response, the very community leaders who had been involved in the citizens' committees launched the NorthEast Secretariat On Human Rights (NESOHR) on July 9, 2004, in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka.
|
