Tamil Centre for Human Rights

¨        Promoting and Protecting Human Rights and working towards implementation of UN covenants and international human rights instruments

¨        Promoting Justice and Peace through international human rights advocacy

TCHR facilitates and encourages international efforts to raise awareness of human rights situations around the world and works towards putting an end to human rights violations. Due to our limited resources and our particular skills, we specialise in areas where we have linguistic and cultural expertise; these areas are not covered by any other human rights organisation in depth.

Thus we make our contribution to humanity’s global effort to secure human rights for all. Only by ensuring that obligations under international treaties and conventions are complied with, can the promotion and protection of human rights be realised.

The foundations of International peace and security are built on respect for Human Rights and adherence to international standards and human rights norms. There can be no peace without respect for human rights.

The Universal Declaration for Human Rights is the touchstone of international human rights systems. Governments, under international law, must respect the human rights of all their citizens; otherwise they lose their right to the allegiance of the people.

Being party to Human Rights instruments must not be simply for the good image created thus in the international arena. To be meaningful in human rights terms there must be implementation.

OBJECTIVES

¨        To promote public awareness of all legal instruments in particular for oppressed peoples, people suffering gross and systematic human rights violations and for human rights protection as subscribed to by the United Nations and international law.

¨        To advocate ratification of and assist in monitoring adherence to all human rights instruments.

¨        To seek co-operation with governments in the implementation of the covenants and other human rights instruments and to bring to the attention of governments and the UN the particular needs of communities suffering flagrant human rights violations.

¨        To support proposals within other international organisations and the UN for improved procedures and conventions for the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms and peace.

¨        To be a facilitator for enabling complaints of human rights violations to reach the UN mechanisms, to act as early warning for conflict resolution.

METHODS

¨        By using all available methods of communication within our means, including : Monthly bulletin ~ “Les Droits Tamouls”/ “Human Rights of Tamils”, reports, appeals, urgent actions, press releases, speaking and teaching engagements, conferences, submissions of briefings and papers, in association with other human rights organisations.

¨        By submitting briefings and appeals to the UN Human Rights bodies, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and other bodies to whom human rights issues are relevant and pertinent.

¨        By working in co-operation with all human rights bodies such as the UN Commission on Human Rights and the Sub~Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, Treaty bodies, the OHCHR and NGOs.

¨        By encouraging governmental investigation and evaluation of human rights implementation efforts, especially with reference to reporting processes, response to petitions etc.

¨        By consultation services and education programmes for individuals and organisations.
 

17th largest linguistic group in the world

Tamils are in many countries all over the world, including India, Island of Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore and La Reunion.

According to the United Nations statistics, there are 60 million Tamils in India and the island of Sri Lanka alone and Tamils rank as the 17^th largest linguistic group in the world.
 

2nd HIGHEST NUMBER OF DISAPPEARANCE IN THE WORLD

According to the UN Working group on enforced and involuntary disappearances “Sri Lanka is the country with the second highest number of disappearances in the world”
 

WITHIN 17 YEARS OVER 70,000 TAMIL CIVILIANS WERE KILLED IN SRI LANKA

In July 1983, 6000 Tamils were butchered or burnt alive all over the island of Sri Lanka, in state sponsored racist pogroms. Massacres of Tamils have continued to the present day. There have never been any independent investigations.

Many mass graves are known to exist in the Tamil hereditary areas of the island of Sri Lanka. No independent investigation has been conducted into any of these mass graves.

In the last 17 years over 70,000 Tamil civilians have been killed by Sri Lankan armed forces. The draconian Emergency Regulations (ER) which were in force for 27 years, until only very recently, allowed the security forces to arrest, detain, torture, rape, disappear and kill Tamils with impunity. The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which is still in force, also allowed these human rights violations to flourish with impunity. Indeed it continues to do so in the case of political prisoners. International human rights organisations have called consistently for the repeal of the PTA.

MARY ROBINSON

“Today’s Human Rights violations are the cause of tomorrow’s conflict”