Failing to Defend the Indefensible in Geneva
Currently as the UN General Assembly (UNGA) sessions proceed in New York, the real action is at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, where the conduct of the Sri Lankan…
Author: Harim Peiris
A Cabinet Reshuffle for a Much Needed Course Correction
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, approximately a third of the way into his term of office, carried out the most significant mid term cabinet reshuffle in recent Sri Lankan political history. The closest in…
Internal Dissent and Increasing Opposition to the Port City Bill
Aluth avurudu is generally a relaxed period in the country where most people spend time with family following various traditions. But the SLPP/Rajapaksa Administration upended this situation and in the pre-avurudu period…
SJB Charts a Clear Alternative National Security Policy
Subsequent to the recent release of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Attacks and after the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva had passed a resolution…
Changing the Human Rights Discourse
As the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) winds its way in Geneva, it is now almost certain that the country specific resolution on Sri Lanka, presented by the…
Mike Pompeo Seeks to Stop Sri Lanka’s Slide to China
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was in Sri Lanka last week as part of his Asian tour that included regional power India as well as the Maldives. Coincidently his visit came…
The Continuing October Revolutions in Sri Lanka
“October Revolution” is a term that used to gladden the hearts of Communist stalwarts the world over, our own left parties included. It was the occasion, more than a century ago, when…
Judges, Civil Society and Opposition Push Back Against 20th Amendment
Photo courtesy of Sri Lanka Brief The Rajapakse Administration, by Government gazette, published its proposed 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s Constitution and subsequently the Secretary General of Parliament announced that it would…
Election 2020 – An Analysis and Trends
The general election to parliament is concluded and the official results are out. The anticipated landslide victory to the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has materialised with the SLPP winning a…
An Agenda to Centralise Power
The ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) handsomely won November’s presidential election with 52% of the popular vote and is accordingly the clear favourite and front runner to secure victory at the…
Black Lives Matter: Sri Lankan Style
Photo courtesy A single death, triggers a worldwide conflict. In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire was assassinated in Serbia and his death triggered the…
The challenge of the second decade of post war reconciliation
Photograph courtesy ‘The Brother’s Grip‘, Global & Mail, by Ishara Kodikara, AFP May 19th 2020, marked the eleventh year of the end of the fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war. A protracted…
The fight against Covid-19 should not weaken the rule of law
Photo courtesy The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant shutdown of social and community life has meant that the political debate and dialogue in Sri Lanka, has moved from more traditional forms of…
Reconvening Parliament as polls postponed
Image courtesy Even for a country that coped with and ended a near thirty year long civil war, the Covid-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge, not merely in the area of…
Emerging Governance Issues amid COVID-19
Image courtesy EY As Sri Lanka heads towards completing nearly a month of lockdown, with first the special public holiday route adopted from 16th March and then curfew from 20th March onwards,…