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Groundviews

Author: Minoli de Soysa

Year
Month
Batticaloa, Easter Sunday Terrorist Attacks, Peace and Conflict

Two Years On, They Are Still Asking For Answers

When new faces are seen at the Zion evangelical church in Batticaloa, it is customary for the pastor to welcome them. As a healing church, it is open to non-Christians. Two years…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/21/202104/21/2021
Colombo, Disabilities, Human Rights

Disabled Rights as Human Rights – Fighting for Recognition and Acceptance

Not so long ago, to be a person with disabilities meant stigma, exclusion and isolation because people are disabled by society and not just by their bodies. But as the number of…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/19/202104/19/2021
Batticaloa, Human Rights, justice, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Trincomalee

Fear in the East: What Lies Beneath

They joke of being followed by intelligence officers and questioned on who visited them and what they spoke about but underneath lies a real fear of being intimidated, harassed and threatened when…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/16/202104/16/2021
Human Rights, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Trincomalee

12 Years Later, the War Affected in the East Struggle On Without Land and Housing

Thennamaravadi is an isolated rural village some 65 kilometres north of Trincomalee on the Pulmoddai Road. The inhabitants rely mostly on farming and fishing to make a livelihood. They have some livestock…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/15/202104/19/2021
Development, Economy, Polonnaruwa

Drowning in Debt, Women Farmers Take a Firm Stand

Trapped between unscrupulous microfinance companies and duplicitous governments, Sri Lanka’s rural women farmers are drowning in debt. Over 200 have committed suicide, some with their young children; families have been wrecked and…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/06/202104/12/2021
Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Vavuniya

On the Road to a Mine Free Sri Lanka

A protracted war leaves behind many legacies – grieving families, shattered limbs, destroyed homes, disrupted education, lost livelihoods and psychological trauma. One of the lesser known legacies is land blanketed with landmines…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 04/04/202104/04/2021
Culture, Jaffna

The Gradual Renaissance of Arts and Crafts in the North

A destructive civil war, social upheaval, market forces and plastic have all played a part in the gradual erosion of Jaffna’s rich legacy of arts and crafts. A major dyeing and weaving…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 03/12/202102/18/2022
Human Rights, Mannar, Politics and Governance, Post-War

Waiting for Godot: A Story of 600 Acres in Mullikulam

Three years ago, the villagers of Mullikulam in the Mannar district left behind their brick homes with water, toilets and beds to camp out in tents on the land they called home.…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 03/02/202103/02/2021
Human Rights, Mullaitivu, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

For Families of the Disappeared, the International Community is Their Last Hope

It is a small shed with cement brick walls and an asbestos roof facing a dusty street. Car horns blare and trucks rattle past. Outside on a weedy patch of grass three…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 02/27/202106/17/2021
Human Rights, Jaffna, justice, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance

Braving Harsh Repression, Human Rights Defenders in the North Soldier On

The sentiments are unanimous. Under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency and government, Sri Lanka’s human rights defenders in the north are being threatened, harassed and intimidated on a scale never experienced before. Interviews…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 02/25/202102/26/2021
Colombo, Development, Environment, Human Security, Politics and Governance

Committing Ecocide: The Desecration of a Green and Pleasant Land

Whenever President Gotabaya Rajapaksa embarks on a “discussion with the villagers” visit, Sri Lanka’s environmental defenders shudder in anticipation of yet another verbal executive order resulting in the destruction of more trees,…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 02/13/202102/23/2021
Colombo, Gender, Human Rights, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Reconciliation, Transitional Justice

Repairing the Past Through Gendered Reparations

The transitional justice process in Sri Lanka has come to a grinding halt. Reconciliation between the majority and minority communities has never before seemed such a distant dream as the government goes…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 02/09/202102/12/2021
Colombo, Culture, Gender, Human Rights, Politics and Governance, Religion and faith

Eradicating the Barbaric Practice of Female Genital Mutilation

In a tribal region of Afghanistan, a sad 10 year old girl, heavily made up and veiled, sits silently at her wedding ceremony to a 70 year old man. In a rural…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 02/06/202102/20/2021
Colombo, Human Rights, justice, Pandemic, Politics and Governance

Bringing Them Home – The Need of the Hour For Migrant Workers

From Lithuania, Italy, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other many countries the plea is the same: bring us home. From cities and villages across Sri Lanka the plea is the same: bring…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 01/29/202102/02/2021
Colombo, Education

Sri Lanka’s Education System Needs an Overhaul

Achieving a 92 per cent literacy rate, universal primary education, gender parity and free education including at the tertiary level, Sri Lanka should have literate, numerate and confident young people ready to…

Minoli de Soysa Minoli de Soysa on 01/24/202101/24/2021

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