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Groundviews

Author: Ambika Satkunanathan

Year
Month
Colombo, Human Rights, justice, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Romanticising Resilience: Why the Struggle to Survive Should not Become a Way of Life

  Resilient is a word frequently used by human rights activists and the development sector, to describe persons affected by war and violence. In Sri Lanka, the mothers of the disappeared are…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 04/18/202104/18/2021
Colombo, Human Rights, justice, Politics and Governance, Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA)

Living in Hell: The Plight of Prisoners Held Under the PTA

The findings of the National Study of Prisons undertaken by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka have been discussed in numerous articles since its publication in December 2020. The study was…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 01/27/202110/11/2021
Colombo, Human Rights, justice, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA)

Not All Detainees Are Equal: Class, Ethnicity and the Prevention of Terrorism Act

Photo courtesy of InfoLanka Kanagasabai Thevathasan is a 64-year-old prisoner I met while I was at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. Twelve years have passed since he was arrested, more…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 01/17/202110/11/2021
Human Rights, Jaffna, Memorialisation, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Reconciliation, Transitional Justice

Evoking the Undead Tiger, the Eternal Bogeyman: The Consequences of Forgetting the Past

“An alleged former combatant who was “rehabilitated”. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the armed group that the Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa government claim they defeated in May 2009….

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 01/10/202101/10/2021
Colombo, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Precarity, Fear and the Death of Empathy

In our powerful yet fragile state, precarity defines our being. Precarious safety of dissenters and human rights defenders Precarious privacy invaded by drones Precarious plight of frontline workers Precarious lives of daily-wage…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 11/18/202011/18/2020
Colombo, Features, Human Rights, IDPs and Refugees, Longing and Belonging, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Remember the Riots

Black July: The Unspoken and the Unspeakable

July. Referred to as Black July to mark the pogrom against Tamils in 1983 carried out by Sinhala mobs. Pogrom is a Russian word meaning ‘to wreak havoc, to demolish violently’, that…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 07/29/202008/12/2020
Colombo, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Politics and Governance

Justice in the Time of a Pandemic

‘What physicians say about consumptive illness is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognised…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 03/29/202003/29/2020
Colombo, Jaffna, Politics and Governance, Reconciliation

‘What is represented and what is made invisible’: Women and Transitional Justice Processes in Sri Lanka

Photo via Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom During a recent conversation about campaigns to eliminate violence against women, and the participation and role of women working at the community level…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 06/03/201506/17/2015
Gender, Human Rights, Human Security, Jaffna, Politics and Governance

The rape and murder of Vidya: Do women really matter in Sri Lanka?

Editors note: Original image was taken from Icarus Wept. Rather than the issues noted in the article, or the incident of rape, many initial comments focussed on the use of the photo. Histrionics…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 05/26/201505/27/2015
Colombo, Development, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Post-war reconstruction and women: Has the Indian Housing Project become a debt trap?

Photo courtesy Red Cross Following the end of the armed conflict, people returned to their areas of origin in the conflict affected areas with limited, and in some cases no resources, to…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 03/13/201503/13/2015
Colombo, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Heroes, Traitors and Tamil Politics: Lessons (Un) Learnt

Photo by AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via Yahoo Following the deferral of the presentation of the report of the UN Human Rights Council mandated investigation on Sri Lanka (IOSL) conducted by the UN Office…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 03/08/201503/08/2015
Colombo, Politics and Governance, Presidential Election 2015

The deprivation of liberty under national security laws: What can be done to provide immediate relief?

Image courtesy Sri Lanka Brief During the past fortnight there have been many calls for the immediate repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Given the fluid and complex political context,…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 01/26/2015
Colombo, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Remembering Sithie Tiruchelvam

Photo courtesy The Hindu Writing a tribute to Sithie Tiruchelvam is not an easy task. Sithie was an intensely private person who was averse to public, over-the-top displays of emotion and sentimentality….

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 03/30/201403/30/2014
Colombo, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War

Rights, Return & Resettlement: A Critique of the TNA Report on Resettlement

The ‘Resettlement Report October- December 2011’, available on the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) temporary website, DBS Jeyraj’s blog and Sangam.org, is the second report of the Tamil National Alliance Research Series, and…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 03/11/2012
Colombo, Jaffna, Politics and Governance, Post-War

Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons: Plagiarism and the fate of LTTE surrendees

Photo courtesy When I first read Shamila’s piece posted on 24 February (, posted on 17 March 2011, without giving due acknowledgement. Although Groundviews is a citizen journalism website, and not an…

Ambika Satkunanathan Ambika Satkunanathan on 02/27/201202/28/2012

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