Springer Sri Lanka, Human Rights and the United Nations: A Scrutiny into the International Human Rights Engagement with a Third World State (International Law and the Global South)

This book examines the engagement between the United Nations’ human rights machinery and the respective governments since Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) joined the United Nations. Sri Lanka has a long and rich history of engagement with international human rights instruments. However, despite its active membership in the UN, the country’s post-colonial trials and tribulations are emblematic of the limited influence the international organisation has exerted on this country in the Global South. Assessing the impact of this international engagement on the country’s human rights infrastructure and situation, the book outlines Sri Lanka’s colonial and post-colonial development. It then considers the development of a domestic human rights infrastructure in the country. It also examines and analyzes Sri Lanka’s engagement with the UN’s treaty-based and charter-based human rights bodies, before offering conclusions concerning the impact of said engagement.  The book offers an innovative approach to gauging the impact of international human rights engagement, while also taking into account the colonial and post-colonial imperatives that have partly dictated governmental behaviour. By doing so, the book seeks to combine and analyse international human rights law, post-colonial critique, studies on biopower, and critical approaches to international law. It will be a useful resource not only for scholars of international law, but also for practitioners and activists working in this area. Review “It is not an exaggeration to describe this work more as a socio-legal analysis … . Ananthavinayagan’s contribution deserves to be admired as a compelling work written on Sri Lanka’s engagement with international human rights since its independence.” (Punsara Amarasinghe, Israel Law Review, Vol. 54 (3), 2021) From the Back Cover This book examines the engagement between the United Nations’ human rights machinery and the respective governments since Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) joined the United Nations. Sri Lanka has a long and rich history of engagement with international human rights instruments. However, despite its active membership in the UN, the country’s post-colonial trials and tribulations are emblematic of the limited influence the international organisation has exerted on this country in the Global South. Assessing the impact of this international engagement on the country’s human rights infrastructure and situation, the book outlines Sri Lanka’s colonial and post-colonial development. It then considers the development of a domestic human rights infrastructure in the country. It also examines and analyzes Sri Lanka’s engagement with the UN’s treaty-based and charter-based human rights bodies, before offering conclusions concerning the impact of said engagement.  The book offers an innovative approach to gauging the impact of international human rights engagement, while also taking into account the colonial and post-colonial imperatives that have partly dictated governmental behaviour. By doing so, the book seeks to combine and analyse international human rights law, post-colonial critique, studies on biopower, and critical approaches to international law. It will be a useful resource not only for scholars of international law, but also for practitioners and activists working in this area. About the Author Dr. Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan is currently teaching international law at Griffith College Dublin, Ireland.  He studied law in Bonn and Marburg, and following several years in the policy and research sector (e.g. for the German Labour Party, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation), he went on to work as a junior lawyer for the German Tenants’ Association. Subsequently, he resumed his law studies, which were supported by the German Tenant’s Association and the Scholarship “Deutschlandstiftung Integration”, and completed his postgraduate degree at the University