Sri Lanka: community-based defenders prevented from protesting
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Jul 13, 2020
- Event Description
The families were met by a heavy police presence who claimed to have obtained a court order from the Eravur Magistrate Court to stop the protest from going ahead.
However, the organisers had notified the health department and the police department prior to the planned protest but were still disrupted by the police. This forms part of the ongoing surveillance and attempts to intimidate families and community representatives who are seeking justice for their loved ones.
Families from Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampara had travelled to Chenkalady to participate in the protest organised by the North Eastern Missing Person Organisation.
While the families have been campaigning for over a decade, they have been continuously protesting for over 1,250 days, demanding the fate of their relatives to be revealed.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- Freedom of movement
- Offline
- Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 7.731803027118701
Longitude: 81.69197219279674
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 29 July 2020, an undefined number of community-based defenders protesting for their enforced disappeared relatives were blocked by the police upon court order in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.