Selvakumar Nilanthan
Selvakumar Nilanthan is a human rights defender and a freelance regional journalist based in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. He is the secretary of the Batti Press Club and was a member of the Batticaloa District Youth Club. He has been actively reporting on social, political and environmental injustices in the Eastern province. He has been supportive of issues concerning human rights and has written several news articles to Tamil news papers. Due to his legitimate human rights activism and journalism he has been targeted by the Batticaloa police, summoned for interrogation, received several court orders restricting his right to protest Nilanthan has also suffered online attacks and had several visits by state intelligence officers to his residence.
The situation for human Rights Defenders has significantly improved since Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015, with improved conditions for freedom of expression, civil society and judicial independence. The Sirisena administration has ushered in a broad reversal of the country’s authoritarian drift under Mahinda Rajapaksa, but human rights defenders fighting against corruption, enforced disappearances or defending environmental rights remain at great risk.
