cultural rights Archives - Ceylon Independent

Sri Lankan human rights defender Shreen Abdul Saroor is a recipient of the Franco German Human Rights Award 2017. In 2017, the prize is being awarded for the second time to 15 committed human rights defenders from around the world who have done outstanding work in their respective countries to uphold human rights and the rule of law. Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera congratulating Ms. Saroor for her achievement praised her work in helping the marginalized and vulnerable women in the North and East. "You had the courage to use your personal adversity to help the most vulnerable. What you did & continue to do, stands not only as a contribution to the citizens of Sri Lanka, but to all of humanity," the Minister said in a Twitter post. At the Franco-German...

Deputy Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs Dr. Harsha de Silva, who delivered Sri Lanka's statement to the third cycle of UPR review of Sri Lanka on Wednesday in Geneva, said the response to the island nation's progress in Human Rights from member states of the UN Human Right Council were "extremely positive and constructive". "It was a great pleasure for our delegation to hear State after State commend the progress made by our National Unity Government after I made my opening remarks," the Deputy Minister said in a Facebook post. He said 90 countries made short interventions and they appreciated Sri Lanka's commitment and understood the difficulties in implementing its commitments. "They encouraged us to do more particularly on reconciliation and accountability," h...