Juwairiya Mohideen: A Portrait in Courage
Thirty years ago, Juwairiya Mohideen was one of the 75,000 Muslims driven out of the North by the LTTE. She and her family were forced to settle as refugees in Puttalam, where…
Author: Groundviews
The Perspective of Law Students on the Proposed 20th Amendment (Video)
The proposed 20th Amendment to the constitution seeks to repeal/amend all changes introduced by the 19th Amendment save three. They are the retention of five-year terms for the President and Parliament, the…
Thé Kahata Exhibitions: Discovering the Creative Expression of Plantation Youth
Despite their contribution to the lucrative tea industry of Sri Lanka, the voices of plantation workers often go unheard and their potential unrecognised. is a series of photographic exhibitions organised by the…
Documenting the Environmental Degradation of Sri Lanka
A road is cut through the Sinharaja World Heritage Site forest with the approval of the president, illegal trawling in Puttalam is destroying fish stocks, elephants die painful deaths eating garbage dumped…
Decades on, Southern Mothers of the Disappeared Look for Truth, Justice and Relief
“I am the luckiest mother in Sri Lanka. I got my son’s body back. There are thousands of mothers who never get their children’s bodies back.” Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu was speaking after…
Remembering Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Looking Back at Thenuwara’s Exhibition
Ten years ago, activist and contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara created an exhibition called The Vigil and Other Works, dedicated to remembering the disappeared and to the families who are forced to live…
Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism
Today is the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism. In Sri Lanka, the word terrorism embodies an experience that stretches over 30 years, the most recent being the…
How Much is Too Much Power?
Sri Lanka’s August 5 parliamentary elections saw the Sri Lanka People’s Front (SLPP) sweep into power with 145 seats by winning 6.8 million (59%) of the valid votes cast. A two-thirds majority,…
Thenuwara’s At/Most/Fear: A Virtual Testament in Times of a Pandemic
For the past 22 years, activist and renowned contemporary artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara has been memorialising the horrific period of July 1983 through paintings, drawings, sculpture and installation. This year, undeterred by the…
New Editor and Co-Editor of Groundviews
I am pleased to announce that Minoli de Soysa will from 1st July 2020 be the new Editor of . She will be assisted by Ayudhya Gajanayake as Co-Editor. As they take…
Pardoning Sunil – A response
Two significant incidents took place on 26 March 2020. Sri Lanka recorded 102 confirmed Covid-19 patients; and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon to Sunil Rathnayake, former Army Staff Sergeant and…
Releasing Prisoners to prevent spread of COVID-19 in prisons
26th March 2020 To: H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Hon. Jayantha Jayasuriya, Chairman of the Judicial Services Commission, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of…
The Colombo Declaration
Image Samya Arif/Medium Read the full article on The Hindu. Click here to access the full text of the Colombo Declaration, an excerpt of which is below: Whereas on the occasion of…
Digana: Two years later
5th of March 2018 marked the beginning of a series of violent mob attacks against the Muslims in the central parts of the country, perpetrated by the ethno-nationalist Sinhala Buddhists. A personal…
Launch of Frames of Power: Citizen modelling perceptions of Sri Lanka’s constitution
Building on the critically acclaimed Corridors of Power project, Frames of Power is a pioneering & unique web platform for citizens to visually model & compare perceptions of constitutional power. Democratic by design,…