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Accountability for crimes in Sri Lanka

Refugee rights in protecting against torture in Sri Lanka

Tamil women protesting enforced disappearances, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, © Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo

Country information reporting on Sri Lanka has undermined the prevalence of Sri Lankan state sponsored torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and ongoing persecution of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Country Information reports are used and relied on by immigration decision makers at primary and merits review proceedings when making decisions on applications by people seeking refugee protection.

In December 2020, ACIJ and ITJP wrote a submission to DFAT’s Country Information team of concerns relating to the accuracy, methodology and validity of the conclusions reached in their latest 2019 report on Sri Lanka.

In May 2021 a landmark UK immigration case, known as a ‘country guidance case’ was published in which the UK Tribunal rejected and criticised Australian and UK country reports which are used as a basis to determine asylum applications for Tamils from Sri Lanka.

ACIJ and ITJP joined with the Tamil Refugee Council and other refugee rights legal centres in Australia to highlight the concerns of the DFAT report and the way in which these reports have been relied on detrimentally by a majority of decision makers including the Department of Home Affairs and merits review tribunals.

Latest on Accountability for Crimes in Sri Lanka

Joint Media Release: AFP fails to investigate visiting Sri Lankan General for war crimes; groups now declare #TimetoSanction under Australia’s new Magnitsky regime

Mar 31, 2022

Read Media Release PDF (English) Joint Media Release: AFP fails to investigate visiting Sri Lankan General for war crimes; groups now declare #TimetoSanction under Australia’s new Magnitsky regime 31 March 2022 Australian Tamils and human rights groups have called on...

Joint Submission: Letter to DFAT regarding its Country Information Report Sri Lanka

Jun 3, 2021

On 1 October 2020, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of concerns relating to the accuracy, methodology and validity of the...

Joint Media Release: Human rights groups demand suspension of reports on Sri Lanka to assess refugee applications following rejection by a UK court

Jun 3, 2021

3 June 2021 In a landmark immigration case in the United Kingdom, three Upper Tribunal judges have been scathing in their rejection of Australian and UK country reports used as a basis to determine asylum applications for Sri Lankan Tamils. The consequences for many...

Joint Statement: Calls for immediate release of poet Ahnaf Jazeem, detained for a year without charge in Sri Lanka

May 16, 2021

Poet and teacher, Ahnaf Jazeem has been detained, without charge under Sri Lanka's draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act for one year. On the first anniversary of Ahnaf Jazeem's detention, human rights organisations call on the Sri Lankan authorities to immediately...

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