Documenting and Understanding a People’s Uprising
During four months in 2022, from March to July, Sri Lanka witnessed events unprecedented in its history. Driven to despair at the state of their nation, hundreds of thousands of citizens converged…
Author: Groundviews
Breaking the Glass Ceiling for Women in Politics
Women in Sri Lanka face serious barriers to political representation and the country ranks among the lowest in the world for the percentage of women in national legislatures. After the parliamentary elections…
Firi Rahman Explores Migration, Belonging and the Meaning of Home
Firi Rahman grew up with parrots so he is familiar with their looks and understands their habits. On a visit to Paris, it seemed as if the parrots from Colombo had followed…
Protecting the Rights of the Adivasi Community
It has been 16 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in September 2007. However, Sri Lanka has not formulated a legal or…
2023: A Year of Struggle for Survival
In 2023 Sri Lanka was struggling to come out of the economic meltdown with aid from the IMF, which required many austerity measures that impacted severely much of the population. People had…
Murder for Money: The Case of the Forcibly Disappeared Navy 11
Brief Successive government have promised that none of Sri Lanka’s “war heroes” would be tried for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went as far as pardoning…
Prof. Neil DeVotta on the Executive Presidency, Majoritarianism and the State of Democracy
The next two years will be crucial for Sri Lanka; a presidential election will be held in the latter part of 2024 and parliamentary elections will be held in 2025. If the…
Justice Undone in the Mirusuvil Massacre Case
It was one of the rare cases of justice being served – Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake was tried and convicted for the murder of eight civilians in Mirusuvil in Jaffna in 2000. Witnesses…
Downgraded to Repressed: Assessing Sri Lanka’s Ever Shrinking Civic Space
The CIVICUS Monitor, an organization that tracks the status of civic space around the world, has downgraded Sri Lanka’s civic space in 2023 to repressed from obstructed due to authorities attacking protesters,…
The Mylanthanai Massacre: A Continuing Cycle of Impunity
Nallasera Nallamma was cooking lunch when the soldiers stormed into her remote village of Mylanthanai, one hour northwest of Batticaloa town, on August 9, 1992. They rounded up the villagers, separating the…
Kanesh Thabendran: Remembering the Past and Uncovering the Truth
For most of his life, 35 year old artist Kanesh Thabendran has lived in a war zone where every day was a struggle for survival amid exploding bombs and falling artillery shells….
Human Rights Watch Questions Credibility of Proposed Truth Commission
The government’s proposed National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC) has come in for criticism from a leading international human rights organisation, which also condemns the ongoing persecution of victims’ families, human rights…
Jagath Weerasinghe: I Have No Art That Will Make You Comfortable
Between August 1989 and January 1990, 48 school children in Embilipitiya were abducted and murdered. Several of their bodies were found in a mass grave nearby. Some of the perpetrators, including military…
Poetry and Photography Reveal the North’s War Trauma
Sarath Chandrajeewa’s first impressions of Jaffna came from his father’s stories about the north where he was stationed as a police officer. His father spoke of the friendliness of Jaffna people, their…
Ambika Satkunanathan on How Black July Influenced Her Activism
An expert in Transitional Justice, accountability and reconciliation, former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Ambika Satkunanathan shares a powerful story of loss and perseverance during Black July and its impact…