Sri Lanka: two family members of the disappeared arrested for protesting
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2024
- Event Description
The Police dragged away the president of the Vavuniya Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared (ARED) Sivananthan Jenita and Meera Jasmine Charlesnise.
The activists were protesting in Vavuniya with the families of the disappeared when the Police arrived and ordered them to leave.
A heated exchange of words took place between the activists and the Police.
The Police later dragged the two activists into a Police a bus.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe was on a visit to the North for meetings which was also attended by members of the Illangai Tamil Arasu Katchi.
Tamil families of the disappeared have been protesting for approximately 5 years continuously, demanding justice and accountability for their disappeared family members. This particular protest was held outside the Vavuniya Municiple Council, where President, Ranil Wickremesinghe was attending a meeting. The two activist family members were arrested from the protest, by the Police.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to liberty and security
- Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 8.750456852358719
Longitude: 80.49197095480707
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 5 January 2024, Sivananthan Jenita and Meera Jasmine Charlesnise of the Vavuniya Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared (ARED), were arrested by the police during a protest in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka.