The whole of Northeast Sri Lanka has been cut off from the rest of the country for three years and Jaffna peninsula has been cut off from the rest of the Northeast. Now 300,000 people are detained in a camp surrounded by barbed wire and heavily guarded by the Army.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/28/sri-lanka-free-civilians-detention-camps
Sri Lanka: Free Civilians From Detention Camps, 28 July 2009:

”Humanitarian organizations with access to the camps have been forced to sign a statement that they will not disclose information about the conditions in the camps without government permission.”

Sri Lanka: 34 journalists and media workers killed during present government rule, Sunday Leader(Sri Lanka), 26 July 2009:
”Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) express its serious concern that 34 journalists and media workers have been killed with no recourse to justice since the present government was formed. Out of 34 killed three were Sinhala journalists, one Muslim and 30 were from the Tamil community.”

Sri Lanka: Free Civilians From Detention Camps, Human Rights Watch, 28 July 2009:

”Inside the camps, humanitarian workers are prohibited, on threat of being barred from the camps, from discussing with residents the fighting in the final months of the conflict or possible human rights abuses.”

Just the recipe for world peace and prosperity, Sir.

The world is overflowing with laws, declarations, resolutions, reports, recommendations ……

But the oppressed contonue to be oppressed:

Sri Lanka: Free Civilians From Detention Camps, Human Rights Watch, 28 July 2009:

”The government, in violation of international law, has since March 2008 confined virtually all civilians displaced by the fighting between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in detention camps”.

Can it prevent the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka?

Professor Francis Boyle(who single-handedly won two World Court Orders in 1993 on the basis of the 1948 Genocide Convention that were overwhelmingly in favour of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina against Yugoslavia to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Bosnians) of Illinois College of Law, 3 February 2009: ?It is the culmination of the long-standing GOSL policy to inflict genocide upon the Tamils in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party.”

Professor Sornarajah (Faculty of Law, Singapore National University), 24 March 2009: “Every indicia of genocide is satisfied by the conduct of successive Sri Lankan governments, the oppression accentuated in intensity by the present government which has unleashed immense terror through its armed forces on a people in the name of suppression of terrorism. There is a duty incumbent on every state to ensure the protection of the Tamil people. It is important that this duty be taken seriously so that such scourges on humanity are not repeated??.

300,000 Tamils have been detained for months behind barbed wire under heavy military guard in Northeast Sri Lanka with restriced access for aid agencies(and NO access for the media).

This is inconsistent with Harare Declaration of the Commonwealth. This is consistent with the UDHR of the UN to which Commonwealth members belong. This is inconsistent with international laws.

We don’t need new laws and new organisations to protect the oppressed around the world. We need countries to uphold the laws that are already there. We need statesmen, not heads of governments that respond to populist demands of ethnic majorities.

Sri Lanka: Briefing Paper – Emergency Laws and International Standards, International Commission of Jurists, March 2009: ”The ICJ is deeply concerned that the approach taken by Sri Lanka over several decades, and especially in recent years, has resulted in a confusing, overbroad and all-pervasive emergency law framework that fails to protect the rights of its citizens, encourages a culture of impunity for serious violations, and exacerbates ethnic tensions and political divisions.”

Sri Lanka?s Judiciary: Politicised Courts, Compromised Rights, International Crisis Group, 30 June 2009:
Sri Lanka?s judiciary is failing to protect constitutional and human rights. Rather than assuaging conflict, the courts have corroded the rule of law and worsened ethnic tensions. Rather than constraining militarisation and protecting minority rights, a politicised bench under the just-retired chief justice has entrenched favoured allies, punished foes and blocked compromises with the Tamil minority.

Justice in retreat: A report on the independence of the legal profession and the rule of law in Sri Lanka, International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, 26 May 2009:”Judicial independence, the increase in threats and attacks against lawyers filing fundamental rights applications, representing terrorist suspects and taking anti-corruption cases, and the situation of journalists are areas of particular concern.”

Then Commonwealth may pay attention to this:

Sri Lanka: Twenty years of make-believe. Sri Lanka?s Commissions of Inquiry, Amnesty International, June 2009:
Official hostility towards critics, and antipathy expressed against international involvement in Sri Lanka, make useful collaboration with the international community on human rights issues that much more difficult. But given the profound domestic limitations on access to justice, and the grave reality of persistent human rights violations, we can see no other solution. The international community should use its significant influence to encourage the Sri Lankan authorities to investigate past violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law, prosecute suspected perpetrators in proceedings that meet international standards of fairness, ensure reparations for victims, and prevent future violations.