Based on this press release, we have sent a formal letter to the United Nations requesting that Tamil Eelam be identified on relevant maps. We encourage Tamil organizations, civil-society groups, academics, and individuals worldwide to send similar letters to the UN.
UN’s New Map Initiative Must Also Address the Cartographic Erasure of Tamil Eelam
The United Nations General Assembly recently adopted a resolution encouraging the use of the Equal Earth map projection, which more accurately represents the relative sizes of continents and corrects distortions created by the traditional Mercator projection.
The United Nations has correctly recognized that maps are not neutral: they influence education, public understanding, and collective perceptions. Correcting geographical distortion is an important act of truth. However, cartographic justice must also address the historical and political erasure of peoples whose homelands are not identified on international maps.
In this spirit, we call upon the United Nations to acknowledge and appropriately identify Tamil Eelam—the traditional homeland of the Tamil people in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka—on relevant historical, cultural, humanitarian, and thematic maps.
Such maps could use a clearly defined dashed boundary and the designation:
“Tamil Eelam — Claimed Traditional Homeland of the Tamil People”
This designation would not, by itself, constitute diplomatic recognition of an independent state. It would acknowledge the Tamil people’s distinct territorial, linguistic, cultural, and political identity without prejudging a final political settlement.
If the United Nations is prepared to correct maps that have historically diminished Africa and other regions, it should also examine maps that erase traditional homelands, indigenous place names, demographic displacement, land appropriation, militarization, and state-sponsored settlement.
Accurate maps must represent not only existing state boundaries but also the histories and identities of peoples whose national claims remain unresolved. The Tamil people and their homeland must no longer remain invisible.