Postponing Elections and Voting Dilemmas
The recent suggestion by United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Range Bandara to hold a referendum to postpone elections by two years caused an outcry and was quickly denied by senior UNP…
Colombo
Sri Lanka Falls Short in its Responsibilities Towards Refugees and Asylum Seekers
In 2023, the number of refugees and asylum seekers (those with pending refugee applications) in the world increased about 8.75% from 45.9 million to 50.3 million, according to statistics of the UN…
The Impact of the Gig Economy After the COVID-19 Pandemic
The tides of work in Sri Lanka are shifting and Gen-Z is at the forefront of this change. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyzing factor to throw young adults into this…
Searching for Pride: Learning to Unlearn
June is the #Pride month where we commemorate, celebrate and recognize Two-Spirit (North American specific term to recognize two-spirit Indigenous folks), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual and additional sexual…
Lending Sri Lanka’s Voice to the Palestinian Cause
Although Sri Lanka is a world away from Palestine local activists, motivated by the slaughter and suffering that the Palestinian people are undergoing in their own land each day, are carrying out…
New Strategies Needed to Fight Rising Online Child Abuse
The increasing prevalence of online child abuse has emerged as a pressing issue not only in Sri Lanka but globally as well and demands urgent and multidimensional responses. The digital age has…
Climate Change: How Serious is Sri Lanka?
Climate change is one subject that has consistently dominated the world headlines over the past decade. Increasing consumerism fuels large scale fossil fuel usage and damages the natural environment. This results in…
The Folly of Delaying Elections
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, unlike his predecessors, was not elected by the people of Sri Lanka. He was appointed by SLPP MPs to replace the ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Mr Wickremesinghe is working…
Reconsidering the De-gazetting of Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve
As both a developing nation and a biodiversity hotspot, Sri Lanka has to tread a delicate balance between conservation and development. The recent decision to degazette portions of the Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve…
Sajith Premadasa and A.K. Dissanayake Tied in Voter Poll
The Institute for Health Policy’s (IHP) Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) MRP provisional estimates of presidential election voting intent in April 2024 show support for NPP/JVP leader A.K. Dissanayake dropped to…
Sri Lanka and India’s Regional Dominance
When the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was hosted by India a couple of months ago everybody sat up and took notice, especially those old enough to recall that once-revolutionary movement’s strident, even…
Sri Lanka in the Current Global Context
The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of the major characteristics of the global context today and to point out a key implication for the Sri Lankan state. A…
Most Sri Lankans Think the Country is Going in the Wrong Direction
Three out of four Sri Lankan adults (75%) said that the country is heading in the wrong in April 2024 while almost none (3%) said it was on the right track. The…
Addressing Sri Lanka’s Complex Human Rights Issues
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard made an impassioned plea to the Sri Lankan authorities to meet their national and international obligations and find answers as to what happened to the thousands…
The VFS Controversy: Making Sense of What Happened
On May 1, 2024 video footage shared on social media showed a Sri Lankan lawyer berating officials for outsourcing the issuance of visas to VFS Global at a congested Bandaranaike airport with…
