I met with Hon. M.A. Sumanthiran, Member of Parliament of Sri Lanka since 2010 representing Jaffna Electoral District and the official Spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Party to discuss the current human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

Hon. Sumanthiran was educated Colombo, Madras and Melbourne and is one of Sri Lanka’s top human rights and constitutional lawyers. He has appeared in a number of fundamental rights cases and judicial reviews of parliamentary legislation and executive action including the charging of levy for water and establishing a revenue authority. He prevented the forced expulsion of Tamils from Colombo and successfully challenged an anti-conversion bill which the courts struck down as being unconstitutional. He has also appeared for petitioners against the proposed 18th and 19th amendments to the constitution which were found to be unconstitutional and required two-thirds majority in Parliament and a referendum. He has worked on a number of public interest cases including the on-going attempt by residents of the Valikamam North High Security Zone to get their land back from the Sri Lankan military. His human rights work has led to him being threatened and being branded “traitors in black coats” by the Sri Lankan military.

Hon. Sumanthiran is now working on the implementation of the recent UN Human Rights Council report: ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.’