The Saviour
Photography courtesy Tamils in Sri Lanka are having important conversations every day, in person and through social media and the blogosphere. In some instances, the impact is swift. For example, on 25th…
Year: 2016
Transparency Key as Rights Commission Deadline Looms
Photo courtesy January 2015 saw a momentous change in Sri Lanka. After nearly 10 years of increasingly authoritarian rule, a new government promising change was voted into office. The new government immediately…
Truth Beyond Commissions: A Reflection
Photo courtesy On the 31st of March a small gathering at the Bar Association Auditorium in Colombo, heard a wise and timely presentation on restorative justice and constitutionalism by a visiting lawyer…
Questions of Haste, Urgency and Consultations in Transitional Justice
On a recent visit to the United States, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera made a revealing series of comments in response to a question at a forum organized by the United States Institute…
Getting Ahead of the World by Leaving it Behind: Megapolis and the Myth of Progress
Image courtesy Steve Cutts The question remains. For Sri Lanka, in terms of its list of priorities, is Megapolis an absolute necessity or just another luxury that we can’t afford? or worse,…
Interview: Prospects for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
An interview with Howard Varney a few weeks ago held in Colombo attempted to demystify transitional justice and map out the challenges around reconciliation in Sri Lanka. As noted on the website…
From Panama Papers to Child Marriage: Food for Thought, Battles to Wage
Image courtesy CNN “To walk our way and keep our eyes fixed on it Is mankind’s first and foremost obligation.” Iphigenia in Tauris (Goethe) It is a lie, beloved by the powerful,…
Will Sri Lanka Wake Up To The Realities of The ‘Panama Papers’ Exposure?
Featured image courtesy AFP/GETTY – Rodrigo Arangua On April 3, 2016, , Germany’s largest daily newspaper leaked 11.5 million files from the database of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm headquartered in Panama City, Panama.…
Art and Truth Telling: The Singularity of Truth
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), and the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts (VAFA) exhibition of 14 artists from different parts of Sri Lanka imagining transitional justice which recently exhibited at the…
Faculty of Law Submits ‘Bill of Rights’ Proposal to PRC
Featured image courtesy Tamil Guardian Undergraduates of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo presented their proposals on Constitutional Reforms on Wednesday, 30 March 2016. Among the proposals was the draft Bill…
The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy
Photo via The Killing of Rohana Wijeweera, BBC The impulsion towards nationalist sentiment in politics, has in our view, exceedingly profound roots in the life style of the modern man, which makes…
Contending with Rejection and Exclusion: Take Two on the Kuliyapitiya Debacle
Featured image courtesy BBC I preface this piece by acknowledging my own discomfort as an educator in addressing sticky issues of equity and justice in education. I was motivated to write this piece…
The Other Side
A glimpse of the streets we would have called home, I’m laughing in the park, climbing the coconut trees, Cycling through the dusty lanes, playing at the local spots. It’s a strange…
SAMPUR: Documentary trailer
Thousands of individuals from across Sri Lanka have been displaced for years, some multiple times. For over a decade, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (the institutional home of ) has documented issues…
Screening of ‘Our Brand is Crisis’
The film ‘Our Brand is Crisis‘ is deeply resonant in Sri Lanka. How it deals with the party political fabric and culture, electioneering, the propaganda campaigns of candidates and their respective parties,…