Prime Minister: Reconsider CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka

Prime Minister: Reconsider CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka

Started
3 April 2013
Petition to
Tony Abbott MP and
Petition Closed
This petition had 3,947 supporters

Why this petition matters

 

Update 8 October 2013

Many thanks to the 3000+ of you who signed this petition.

On Monday 7 October 2013 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that he will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meetings to be held in Sri Lanka later this year as Sri Lanka failed to uphold the Commonwealth's core values.

Former Prime Minister Hon Malcolm Fraser is among dozens of prominent Australians calling on the federal government to consider boycotting a major Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this year.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s report after a visit to Sri Lanka in August made it very clear that there continued to be persistent human rights violations and she expressed deep concerns of the heavy military presence in Tamil areas, vulnerability of women and girls to sexual harassment and abuse especially at the hands of military personnel.

Human Rights abuses in Sri Lanka are inextricably linked to Tamils comprising the largest group of asylum seekers arriving on our shores.

Please invite your friends and family to sign the petition that Malcolm Fraser has signed to tell Australia that it is unacceptable to reward an abusive government the privilege to host the summit and subsequently Chair the association.

 The petition has been endorsed by:

 * Professor Raj Rajeswaran, Chairman, Australian Tamil Congress
* Hon Malcolm Fraser, Former Australian Prime Minister
* The Australian Greens
* Lee Rhiannon, Senator, The Australian Greens
* David Shoebridge, Member of the NSW Legislative Council, The Greens
* Colleen Hartland, Member of the Victorian Legislative Council, The Greens
* John Kaye, Member of the NSW Legislative Council, The Greens
* Jamie Parker, Member for Balmain, The Greens
* Bruce Haigh, Former Australian Deputy High Commissioner in Sri Lanka
* Professor Jake Lynch, Director, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, USYD
* Professor Damien Kingsbury, Director, Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University
* Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees AM, Director, Sydney Peace Foundation, USYD
* Antony Loewenstein, Independent journalist and author
* Professor Wendy Bacon, academic and investigative journalist
* Stephen Blanks, Sectretary, NSW Council for Civil Liberties
* Peter Murphy, Coordinator, The Search Foundation
* Julian Burnside AO QC, Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, author
* Sue Bolton, Socialist Alliance councillor, Moreland City Council, Melbourne
* Refugee Rights Action Network (WA)
* Labor for Refugees
* Socialist Alliance

 Please note that we have updated the petition as follows:

 - The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meets in less than a month (April 26). This is because the CMAG meeting has now passed

 -We have updated the line which stated CHOGM was nine months away

 

Petition Closed

This petition had 3,947 supporters

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