Article 24: The Right to Play

Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. As I was growing up, I often felt nostalgic, and yearned to be a child once again. Why? Because to me, early childhood was a time of fun and games; I could play until I became tired of playing, and there were no problems in the world (at least that’s what I thought).

Article 23: Worker’s Rights

Article 23: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

On this Day: May 23, 2009

In 16 Hours in Sri Lanka, UN’s Ban To Overfly Zone of Carnage, Dine with President: In the wake of what UN officials called a bloodbath on the beach, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Press are set for a sixteen hour jaunt around Sri Lanka on Saturday, which some call the victory tour. On military helicopters the entourage will travel to Manik Farm, which the UN’s John Holmes has repeatedly called the largest camp for Internally Displaced People in the world. Only Zones 1 and 4 will be toured. Click here to read full article

On this Day: May 22, 2009

On this Day: May 22, 2009- Banned arms’ use caused high casualties in Sri Lanka, says aid worker: ROME – The high number of casualties was caused by “a generous use” of weapons, such as cluster and chemical bombs, that are banned by international treaties and, therefore, their use represents a crime against humanity, he told Catholic News Service in Rome May 21. Today the conflict zone of Vanni “is like a burial ground, nothing left behind, no buildings, no churches, utter destruction,” he said. Click here to read full story

Article 20: Right to Assembly and Association

Article 20: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. On Tuesday, many Tamils gathered to mourn the deaths of their family, friends and people who perished in the May massacres. While standing among my many brothers and sisters, who all came together in solidarity to commemorate the deaths of our people back home, I was reminded that the strength of our community, is unity and pride of being a Tamil. All those in attendance, and all those many others who stood in spirit with us, all respected us as being Tamils. We are Tamil, and we take pride in being so. However, the Sri-Lankan Government did not recognize the freedom of association, and the freedom from being compelled into another association.

On this Day: May 21, 2009

On this Day: May 21, 2009- South Africa calls for investigations into violations of Geneva Conventions: Noting that “[t]he military offensive conducted by the Sri Lankan government has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the north of the country and resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and the displacement of many hundreds of thousands of citizens,” South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ehrahim Ebrahim in a press release issued today, urged the UN to “to urgently investigate possible violations of international human rights law and contraventions of the Geneva Convention,” and called for “peaceful dialogue with all minorities to address their long standing grievances.” FULL ARTICLE