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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka , Oct 5 (AP) \u2014 International creditors should provide debt relief to Sri Lanka to alleviate suffering as its people endure hunger, worsening poverty and shortages of basic supplies, Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday.<\/p>\n
For months, Sri Lanka has been in the grip of a dire economic crisis and the country has defaulted on its foreign loans. The government is in talks with its creditors on restructuring its more than $51 billion total foreign debt. A preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $2.9 billion relief package hinges on other creditors giving assurances on loan restructuring.<\/p>\n
Lenders should ensure that \u201ctheir human rights responsibilities and Sri Lanka\u2019s human rights obligations are central to any future commitments around Sri Lanka\u2019s debt, including restructuring and changes to the terms of repayment,\u201d London-based Amnesty International said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor months now, the people of Sri Lanka have been suffering from severe shortages of food and have struggled to access healthcare, while sky-high inflation has exacerbated already existing patterns of inequality,\u201d the group said in releasing it\u2019s latest report on the Indian Ocean nation.<\/p>\n
Its title is \u201cWe are near total breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign exchange reserves dwindled, shortages of essentials such as fuel, medicine and cooking gas deepened. Cooking gas supplies were restored through World Bank support, but shortfalls of fuel, critical medicines and some food items persist.<\/p>\n
Amnesty urged Sri Lanka\u2019s leaders and the international community to safeguard human rights in handling the crisis by increasing international assistance, ensuring comprehensive social protections and considering \u201call options for debt relief, including debt cancellation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sri Lankan authorities and the international community must act quickly to mitigate the widespread human rights cost of the crisis, which has cruelly stripped away people\u2019s access to their rights,\u201d said Sanhita Ambast, group\u2019s Researcher on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.<\/p>\n
The island\u2019s economic crisis triggered extraordinary protests and unprecedented public rage that ultimately forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, the former prime minister, to step down.<\/p>\n
The pandemic and rising prices due to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine have deepened Sri Lanka\u2019s woes. But many in the country hold the once-powerful Rajapaksa family responsible for severely mismanaging the economy and tipping it into crisis.<\/p>\n
The Amnesty report said that as of June, about 11% of households reported receiving no income while 62% said their incomes had fallen.<\/p>\n
Consumer inflation surged to a record of nearly 70% in September while food prices nearly doubled, according to the government\u2019s latest statistics.<\/p>\n
Agricultural yields dropped by more than half in the past two growing seasons because of a suspension of imports of chemical fertilizers, ostensibly to promote organic farming.<\/p>\n
According to the World Food Program, more than 6 million people \u2014 nearly 30% of Sri Lanka\u2019s population \u2014 are currently facing food insecurity and require humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka , Oct 5 (AP) \u2014 International creditors should provide debt relief to Sri Lanka to alleviate suffering as its people endure hunger, worsening poverty and shortages of basic supplies, Amnesty International said in a statement Wednesday. For months, Sri Lanka has been in the grip of a dire economic crisis and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}