Press Releases
Joint Tamil Civil Society Statement: Sri Lanka’s Political and Economic Crisis
July 14, 2022 Jaffna – On July 13, 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka leaving the island in political chaos. Many among the island’s Sinhala majority and the international community have heralded this moment, a culmination of months of protest, as a potentially revolutionary moment. And indeed, the departure of a president who has overseen…
Read MoreIn Solidarity with those affected by recent events
We the undersigned Tamil civil society organizations unequivocally condemn the horrific Easter Sunday attacks which took more than two hundred and fifty lives, and also express our wholehearted solidarity and support to our Christian communities, targeted in this cowardly act of violence by extremists. We stand with the Christian people, as members, as allies, as…
Read MorePEARL Demands Justice for Genocide Against Tamils
(Washington, D.C.; December 10, 2018)—Following yesterday’s International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime, PEARL remembers the victims of Sri Lanka’s genocide against the Tamil people and demands justice. Sri Lanka’s “slow genocide” against the Tamil people started in 1948, when Sri…
Read MoreTamil Women’s Day: Honoring Strength & Resistance in the Face of Oppression
(Washington, D.C.; October 10, 2018) – On Tamil Women’s Day, PEARL remembers the women who participated in the Tamil struggle for rights and self-determination, and honors the ongoing fight against oppression. October 10, 1987 marked the death of 2nd Lt. Malathy, the first LTTE female fighter to die in combat. This day is now used…
Read MoreOn Anniversary of Black July, International Community Should Recognize Sri Lanka’s Successive Genocides Against Tamil
Photograph: Tamil Guardian (Washington, D.C.; July 23, 2018) – On the 35th anniversary of the start of “Black July” 1983, PEARL remembers the Tamil victims, survivors, and generations affected by all of Sri Lanka’s atrocities against the Tamil people. Thirty-five years ago this week, the government of Sri Lanka sponsored a brutal anti-Tamil pogrom,…
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