Rethinking the Idea of State Security
This article questions how we understand what is meant by state security. Rethinking what we mean by state security has to start with how we understand the state. The state is usually…
Year: 2024
Strong Laws, Weak Enforcement: Torture Persists Despite Legal Protections
Torture refers to the act of deliberately inflicting severe physical or psychological pain and suffering on someone, usually to extract information, coerce a confession, punish, intimidate or as an act of cruelty….
Constitutional Governance and the Independence of the Judiciary
The president’s speech in parliament last week raises serious concerns about his own understanding of the workings of the Constitution and his own commitment to constitutional governance and the independence of the…
The War Against Words
Had writer V.V. Ganeshananthan lived in Jaffna instead of New York, she would have been summoned by Sri Lanka’s Counter Terrorism Investigative Division (CTID) and grilled for a couple of hours over…
After the Blaze: Review of Venthu Thaninthathu Kaadu
I went to watch (Dark Days of Heaven) with some trepidation as I had no prior knowledge of the film or its director and no recommendations to go by. I feared it…
Postponing Elections and Voting Dilemmas
The recent suggestion by United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Range Bandara to hold a referendum to postpone elections by two years caused an outcry and was quickly denied by senior UNP…
Sri Lanka Falls Short in its Responsibilities Towards Refugees and Asylum Seekers
In 2023, the number of refugees and asylum seekers (those with pending refugee applications) in the world increased about 8.75% from 45.9 million to 50.3 million, according to statistics of the UN…
The Impact of the Gig Economy After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The tides of work in Sri Lanka are shifting and Gen-Z is at the forefront of this change. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyzing factor to throw young adults into this…
Searching for Pride: Learning to Unlearn
June is the #Pride month where we commemorate, celebrate and recognize Two-Spirit (North American specific term to recognize two-spirit Indigenous folks), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual and additional sexual…
The Utility of Tears
These tears fall into buckets, run to streams and rivers. These tears, shed weight from the body, leave a light patina like drops on the windowpane. How to go on…
Lending Sri Lanka’s Voice to the Palestinian Cause
Although Sri Lanka is a world away from Palestine local activists, motivated by the slaughter and suffering that the Palestinian people are undergoing in their own land each day, are carrying out…
New Strategies Needed to Fight Rising Online Child Abuse
The increasing prevalence of online child abuse has emerged as a pressing issue not only in Sri Lanka but globally as well and demands urgent and multidimensional responses. The digital age has…
The Unmet Mental Health Needs of the North
The ramifications of Sri Lanka’s civil war live on in the north, especially in the matter of mental health where the lack of human, physical and financial resources to address complex trauma…
Spring
Where do these words come from? From the bleeding River Jordan. From the Gaza sea bobbing with bodies and food packages. From the mosque in Rafah in the gunsights of…
Former Female LTTE Cadres Face Challenges with Reintegration
With the end of the war 15 years ago, thousands LTTE fighters surrendered to the government and were sent to rehabilitation camps, which they refer to as detention camps. The government considers…