The Tamils for Labour was formed in 2006 as an independent party support group working to promote the Labour Party to the 400,000 British Tamil Community in the UK for the Party’s principles and policies.
Aims and objectives
Tamils for Labour as the Labour Party support group shall work to achieve the support of the Tamil Community in the UK for the party’s principles and policies, and work to recruit Tamils living in the UK into membership of the party.
Tamils for Labour shall encourage the Tamil Community and Tamil Business to support the Party’s Constituency Parties, MPs, Councillors, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates and facilitate their engagement and interaction with the Tamil Community.
Tamils for Labour shall seek to influence and participate in policymaking at all levels of the party. Further, it shall ensure that issues of concern to Tamils for Labour members are raised at the highest appropriate levels.
Tamils for Labour shall advocate to the party on Human Rights, Humanitarian and ongoing political problems faced by the Tamils in Sri Lanka and their concerns to the Tamil Community in the UK.
Executive Committee
Lakshan Chitrakumaran
Chair
Key Issues
The Tamils for Labour as a Labour Party support group requests our party to adopt the following four tier policies on Sri Lanka
The Tamils for Labour as a Labour Party support group requests our party to adopt the following four tier policies on Sri Lanka:
A) Accountability and Justice in Sri Lanka: 146, 679 people are unaccounted for in 2009
i. Set up an International Criminal Justice mechanism for Sri Lanka
ii. Stop the Cycles of Violence, Militarisation and Land grab in the North and East of Sri Lanka
iii. Recognise the Genocide of Tamil people in Sri Lanka
B) The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime: Apply Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime Act and list the perpetrators of serious atrocity crimes in Sri Lanka against
C) Stop unethical trade with Sri Lanka: Apply phased out calibrated sanctions as effective leverage and develop a time bound implementation plan of actions. (These actions are carefully considered to minimise hurting the civilian population. Food, medical and other essential supplies are excluded from this list of sanctions.)
D) Political Solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka:
i. Recognise the Tamils as a Nation, their Traditional homeland in the North and East of Sri Lanka and the Right to Self Determination
ii. Political solution based on the legitimate aspirations of Tamils with International arbitration for the successful conclusion.
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Working with the community
The Tamils for Labour is working with all grassroots community organisations including Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Charities, Religious Organisations representing our communities.
As a membership organisation supporting the Labour Party’s policies and principles, we are looking to grow within our community to bring in younger members into the organisation and provide training and skill development for young people to become our party activists, Councillors, and our future Members of Parliament.
In parliament
The Tamils for Labour is working with the Labour Members of Parliament and the shadow cabinet on the issue affecting the Tamils Community in the UK.
In particular, the British Tamil Community are concerned about the UK’s foreign policy on Sri Lanka which is affecting our kith and kin in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka.
In the recent fringe event held at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, the Leader of the Opposition, Rt Hon Keir Stammer MP and the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Lisa Nandy MP have jointly sent a message of solidarity through the shadow minister for Asia and Pacific, Stephen Kinnock MP for Aberavon. The message assures that “the shadow Labour front bench team stands shoulder to shoulder with Tamils’ cause.”
The Labour MPs in the Parliament recognise the critical role played by the UK with regard to Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and would continue to publicly call for the Sri Lankan government to improve its record on human rights and accountability. However, they expressed concerns for the UK government sending mixed messages with some of its bilateral engagements with the Sri Lankan government and security forces.
Labour’s Shadow Cabinet made it clear, “The Labour Party believes that there is a “very clear case” for referring senior Sri Lankan military figures to the ICC”. He called on the government and the international community “to apply so-called red notice on them” who were guilty of perpetrating these atrocities against the Tamil people. UK government should be pushing much harder for that and expressed his disappointment that it was not in the UNHRC resolution.
The shadow minister for Asia and Pacific, Stephen Kinnock MP for Aberavon called on the British Ministry of Defence to withdraw its military attaché in Colombo unless a reasonable explanation was given.