Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Click here to watch a video on Article 9, No Unfair Detainment
If you were stopped on your way to school for being of your gender, and arrested for that, or wee thrown into a concentration camp, would you accept it? Would it be fair if the police arrested you, for no wrongdoing of yours, and forced you to live in an unsanitary camp? No, it would not be fair, and if this was done to you, it’s a violation of YOUR rights. You have a right from arbitrary arrest, detention and exile.
Yet, thousands of Tamil civilians were, and are still being detained by the Sri Lankan government in concentration camps. According to the Telegraph, they were screened for terrorist connections and then held under armed guard; single youngsters are confined to the camps. This is unfair detainment. By confining Tamils to concentration camps, and restricting the freedom of movement for no other reason than discrimination, it is unfair. 100,000 people still remain in these camps, unsettled in their villages.
Here’s another excerpt from the Telegraph, further illustrating the reality of detainment: “Officials had originally planned to detain civilians there for three years but, following an outcry from humanitarian groups, said they hoped to resettle 80 per cent within a year. Aid groups, senior opposition leaders and Britain’s Department for International Development have all denounced the plan, which was on Friday compared to Hitler’s demonisation of the Jews in the 1930s. It is amazing and terrible. A few months ago the government started registering all Tamils in Colombo on the grounds that they could be a security threat, but this could be exploited for other purposes like the Nazis in the 1930s. They’re basically going to label the whole civilian Tamil population as potential terrorists.”
It’s a right to not be detained unfairly. Being detained in concentration camps for merely belonging to a particular race is unjust and should not be tolerated. The Jewish people were forced into labour camps during the Holocaust, and were massacred in these ‘labour camps’ through poisonous gas being pumped during showers. Detaining thousands of victimized and stigmatized people in one location and restricting their movement only makes killing them that much easier.
In a couple of days, we will take a closer look at the camps when we touch upon the other rights violated, so stay tuned.
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