Tamil National People’s Front Opposes 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution

11-01-2022 

Judit Kolbe 

Sri Lanka and Human Rights Researcher. 

Global Human Rights Defence,

On the 9th of January 2022, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), a Sri Lankan Tamil political party, issued a public statement opposing the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution and asserting the Tamil’s right to self-determination and ‘nationhood’ (TNPF, 2022). The 13th Amendment was established in 1987 as part of the Indo-Lanka Accord in an effort to ease tensions in Sri Lanka during the civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan armed forces (Srinivasan, M., 2020). The 13th Amendment is the only constitutional provision concerning the so-called ‘Tamil question’; it created a system of Provincial Councils and promised an arrangement of power division based on which the countries’ provinces could self-govern (Srinivasan, M., 2020). Additionally, a greater delegation of land and police powers were promised to the North-East of Sri Lanka, a historically Tamil populated region. Despite the law's establishment, as well as Tamil and Indian political pressure, Sri Lanka has failed to implement the 13th Amendment (Tamil Guardian, 2022).

In their public statement, the TNPF criticised the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), another Sri Lankan Tamil political party, for the latters’ support of the amendment (Tamil Guardian, 2022). The TNPF asserted, that ‘the Provincial Councils were widely pilloried, rejected and boycotted by Tamil people, and considered not even a starting point to Tamil political aspirations of nationhood and self-determination’ (TNPF, 2022; Tamil Guardian, 2022). Furthermore, the TNPF expressed their intention to warn the Tamil community of the dangers of the Provincial Councils and to engage in a campaign to ‘defeat the move to implement’ the 13th Amendment (TNPF, 2022; Tamil Guardian, 2022). 

Sources and further reading:

Srinivasa, M. (2020, September 05). What is the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, and why is it contentious? The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/the-hindu-explains-what-is-the-13th-amendment-to-the-sri-lankan-constitution-and-why-is-it-contentious/article32531844.ece 

Tamil Guardian (2022, January 10). TNPF demands self.determination and opposes 13th Amendment. Tamil Guardian. https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/tnpf-demands-self-determination-and-opposes-13th-amendment 

Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) (2022, January 09). Twitter. https://twitter.com/tnpforg/status/1480203952939483140?s=24