Five Years On: Still Seeking Justice for Easter Sunday Bombings
The churches have been restored for congregations to worship and the luxury hotels have been repaired for the elite to dine in but the families of victims are still seeking justice for…
Author: Groundviews
Protecting Protesters is the Duty of the State
During 30 protests between March 2022 and June 2023, Sri Lanka’s law enforcement personnel did not adhere to international law and standards, using excessive force against peaceful protesters in at least 17…
V. V. Ganeshananthan: Powerful Stories From a Civil War
V. V. Ganeshananthan, also known as Sugi, is the author of the novels , which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and named one of the best books of the year by…
Greenpeace: Giving Voice to the Earth for 53 Years
In 1971, a group of activists set sail from Canada in an old fishing boat to protest against the underground nuclear testing by the US military at Amchitka, an island off Alaska….
The Reluctant Activists: Being the Change They Want to See
They gather every Sunday at 4.30 opposite the Healthguard pharmacy on Thimbirigasyaya Road come rain or shine, a band of diehards who have bonded since April 7, 2022 by coming out of…
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…
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…