On behalf of 17065 signatories of the online petition (https://www.change.org/tamilgenocide the Ottawa Tamil Association, and Tamil Genocide Memorial thank our members of parliament for recognizing the Tamil Genocide on May 18, 2022. In 2020, we started this petition to request the Canadian government to officially recognize Sri Lanka’s Genocide against Tamils. On August 30, 2022, we are closing the petition as our request was heard by our parliamentarians. We firmly believe that our Global affairs and the office of the prime minister will make this unanimous motion of parliament an official foreign policy. Tamil Canadians and Tamil diaspora wholeheartedly thank the parliamentarian for recognizing Tamil Genocide (https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/573298886
In 2012, a United Nations panel report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka (https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/737299 reported war crimes and the failure of the UN in triggering genocide investigation. Tamil diaspora and human rights activists continued to call for an international tribunal like Nuremberg. In 2015, UNHRC resolution 30/1 mandated a hybrid court with foreign prosecutors and judges. As usual, the Sri Lankan government denied implementing it.
On February 20, 2017, Tamil women-led families of the disappeared began protesting by the roadside in Kilinochchi to demand answers regarding the fates and locations of their loved ones. Most of their children and family members were handed over to the Sri Lankan military at the end of the war in 2009 and they still don’t know the whereabouts of their family members. They felt a sense of hope for justice by the Canadian parliament Genocide recognition.
“Earlier this year, another damning report from the UN’s High Commissioner on Human Rights called out the Sri Lankan government for “its unwillingness to recognize serious international crimes and pursue accountability.” The report went on to urge countries around the world to consider universal jurisdiction and targeted sanctions against alleged perpetrators.” As stated on August 26, 2022, CBC article, (https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/sri-lanka-gotabaya-rajapaksa-war-crimes-1.6561580
On July 24, 2022, the ITJP (https://itjpsl.com/ filed a criminal complaint with the attorney general in Singapore, where former president Rajapaksa first fled, asking that he be arrested under that country’s Geneva Conventions Act. Their hope was that the ousted president could be held accountable under universal jurisdiction — the idea that any nation’s courts can try people for alleged crimes against humanity committed elsewhere.
As former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa lose immunity, the Tamil Canadians call for sanctions and prosecutions on Rajapakse. We also urge Canada to pursue action against Sri Lanka at the International Court of Justice and to request the International Criminal Court to explore opportunities to investigate and prosecute Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils.
Ottawa Tamil Association
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