{"id":51456,"date":"2021-02-24T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/feb\/24\/sri-lanka-risks-return-to-past-atrocities-activists-warn-rajapaksa"},"modified":"2021-02-24T06:00:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T06:00:02","slug":"sri-lanka-at-tipping-point-with-risk-of-return-to-past-atrocities-activists-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/24\/sri-lanka-at-tipping-point-with-risk-of-return-to-past-atrocities-activists-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka at &#8216;tipping point\u2019 with risk of return to past atrocities, activists warn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Civil rights groups say situation \u2018getting worse on a daily basis\u2019 as UN human rights chief expresses alarm over deepening impunity<\/p><p>Sri Lanka could descend swiftly back into violence and human rights abuses unless decisive international action is taken, the UN high commissioner for human rights and civil rights groups warned.<\/p><p>In a speech to the human rights council on Wednesday, Michelle Bachelet is expected to issue a stark warning that the Sri Lankan government has \u201cclosed the door\u201d on ending impunity for past abuses and is facing a return to state repression of civil society and a militarisation of public institutions.<\/p><p><\/p><p>A year on from the start of the world\u2019s biggest health crisis, we now face a human rights pandemic. Covid-19 has exposed the inequalities and fragilities of health and political systems and allowed authoritarian regimes to impose drastic curbs on rights and freedoms, using the virus as a pretext for restricting free speech and stifling dissent.<\/p><p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/gallery\/2018\/nov\/22\/in-my-dreams-i-see-my-son-grieving-sri-lanka-disappeared-in-pictures\">\u2018In my dreams I see my son\u2019: Sri Lanka mourns its missing \u2013&nbsp;in pictures<\/a> <\/p><p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/feb\/22\/human-rights-in-the-time-of-covid-a-pandemic-of-abuses-says-un-head\">'A pandemic of abuses': human rights under attack during Covid, says UN head<\/a> <\/p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/feb\/24\/sri-lanka-risks-return-to-past-atrocities-activists-warn-rajapaksa\">Continue reading...<\/a>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2021\/feb\/24\/sri-lanka-risks-return-to-past-atrocities-activists-warn-rajapaksa\">Human rights | The Guardian<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Civil rights groups say situation \u2018getting worse on a daily basis\u2019 as UN human rights chief expresses alarm over deepening impunitySri Lanka could descend swiftly back into violence and human rights abuses unless decisive international action is taken,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1333,1334,6,9879,2038,2678,111,1310],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51457,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51456\/revisions\/51457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}