Vaddukoddai Resolution at 50: Remembering, Reflecting, Looking Forward

Fifty years after the Vaddukoddai Resolution was articulated, we brought together lawmakers, academics, religious leaders, and activists from across the British Tamil diaspora, alongside representative from the Homeland, at Westminster.

The initiative is grounded in three core principles; that the tamils constitute a nation, the Northern and Eastern provinces constitute the Tamil homeland, and international law affirms the right of the Tamil people to determine their own political future.

The renowned panellist and highlighted statements,

1. Professor Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah Emeritus Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, was also one of the key architects of the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) proposals presented by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the peace talks.

   "The effort to bring about a solution by non-violent means had been attempted throughout this period [1948-1977] and they had all failed. It was in the context of that failure , that we have the Vaddukoddai Resolution"

   - Professor Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah

   
   

2. Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT)

   "Homeland legislators, civil society voices and diaspora communities from across the world speaking under one framework, one mandate and one voice."

   -Siobhain McDonagh

   
   

3. Gagan Mohindra MP, the Conservative Party Deputy Chief Whip

   
   

4. Dr Madura Rasaratnam Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at City, University of London and Executive Director of PEARL

   " Vaddukoddai Resolution "belongs as much as in today's world as it did in the world in 1976".

   - Dr Madura Rasaratnam

5. Bishop Christian Noel Emmanuel of the Diocese of Trincomalee

   "Land belonging to Tamil families for generations, agriculture lands, ancestral homes and places of spiritual significance remain occupied or inaccessible for years. The consequences are not merely economic, they are deeply psychological"

   -Bishop Christian Noel Emmanuel 

   
   

6. Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East and the Vice Chair of the APPGT

   "It just makes common sense that devolution takes place and more power is put in the hands of people at a local level"

   -Bob Blackman

   
   

7. Uma Kumaran, MP for Stratford and Bow, serves as Parliamentary under secretary of state for overseas and territories and caribbean, and Vice Chair of the APPGT

   
   

8. Gajan Raj, a core member of Tamil political Framework Initiative.

"Too often, discussions considering Tamil people are reduced to statistics, but behind every statistic, there is a human life, a family, and a wound that has not healed."