Rights Lawyers Under Fire in Sri Lanka
Last month (May 2020) a Magistrate in Jaffna had withdrawn quarantine orders against the organizers of end of war commemorations, based on appeals by lawyers.[1] At least three lawyers have faced reprisals…
Author: Ruki Fernando
May 18: A thousand lamps to remember a dark past and inspire a better future
The Catholic Church in the tiny village of Iranapalei in the Mullaitheevu district was lit up with 1000 lamps yesterday, 18th May. The thousand lamps were to remember the tens of thousands,…
Protecting Prisoners from Coronavirus
There have been no deaths due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sri Lanka. The number of confirmed cases per day went down the last two days (20th and 21st March)[1]. But tragically,…
Ekneligoda disappearance – 10 years struggle for truth and justice
Photo by Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP via Today, 10th January 2020, is 10 years since the disappearance of journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda. It also marks 10 years of struggle for truth and justice…
Sri Lanka resumes deportation of asylum seekers
Photograph courtesy “Please save my family, please” was the message I received from a Pakistani friend last weekend. It was about her family of seven, including 3 children, who had fled Pakistan…
Death Penalty: License for Judicial Killings
Last year, on October 2, Iran executed a 24-year-old woman, Zeinab Sekaanvand, who was a child at the time of her alleged offense. Under international law, she should have been excluded from…
World Refugee Day and Refugees in Sri Lanka
June 20 is World Refugee Day, coinciding with a time Sri Lanka faces its most serious refugee crisis since 2014. Though not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967…
Refugee crisis in Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings
Photo courtesy Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press via “Pakistanis a country where suicide bombings happen on a regular basis, mobs gather and kill minorities and people who think differently, houses and settlements are attacked,…
Keppapulavu: Land Struggle Reaches Boiling Point after 700 days of protest
700 days is a long time for a day and night protest outside an Army camp. Since March 1, 2017, the people of Keppapulavu, located in the Mullaitheevu district in Northern Sri…
The Struggle for Justice
Editor’s Note: Dear friends, I want to congratulate the Law and Human Rights Centre for organising this course. It is difficult but very important to do this in Jaffna, a place that…
Freedom of Expression on the decline in Sri Lanka
The last twelve months, since World Press Freedom day 2017, has not been a good year for freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. The war ravaged North bore the brunt of repression,…
Iranaitheevu: a community reclaims their island home from the Navy
On the morning of April 23, 2018, about 300 people from the Iranaitheevu twin islands decided to sail there in about 40 boats. They have been displaced since 1992, and the Navy…
Iranaitheevu; a year of continuous protests to regain Navy-occupied land
After the election of the new government in 2015, the people of Iranaitheevu, forcibly displaced since 1992, finally thought they would be able to return home. Yet a flurry of letters and…
Crippling civic organising, mobilising and resistance through Draft Amendment to the Act on NGOs
On February 20, 2018, the Cabinet decided to publish the repressive Draft Act to Amend the Voluntary Social Service Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act no. 31 of 1980 (LDO 32/2011) to a gazette and…
STF brutality against Muslims in Digana: March 5
As Sinhalese – Buddhist mobs were escalating violence against Muslims around Digana on March 5, the Hijrapura mosque in Digana had just finished afternoon prayers around 4 pm that day. As usual,…