Truth Beyond Commissions: A Reflection
Photo courtesy On the 31st of March a small gathering at the Bar Association Auditorium in Colombo, heard a wise and timely presentation on restorative justice and constitutionalism by a visiting lawyer…
Jaffna
Questions of Haste, Urgency and Consultations in Transitional Justice
On a recent visit to the United States, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera made a revealing series of comments in response to a question at a forum organized by the United States Institute…
Interview: Prospects for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
An interview with Howard Varney a few weeks ago held in Colombo attempted to demystify transitional justice and map out the challenges around reconciliation in Sri Lanka. As noted on the website…
The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy
Photo via The Killing of Rohana Wijeweera, BBC The impulsion towards nationalist sentiment in politics, has in our view, exceedingly profound roots in the life style of the modern man, which makes…
Right to Truth Day
Today, March 24th, is International Day for the Right to Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. It’s an opportune moment to recall an exhibition from 2015,…
S P Jeevanantham: Eminent teacher and social worker
Featured image courtesy johnians.org The Principal of St. Johns College, Jaffna, in appealing for contributions to a memorial fund in the name of the late S.P.Jeevanantham, has described him as a great…
Lingering Memories of Conflict in Postwar Jaffna
Recently, featured those who are trying to reshape Jaffna, post-war, using the arts. While there are spaces opening up for expression, the question remains: how far have the people of Jaffna progressed…
Tracking incremental progress on the Transitional Justice agenda
Photo courtesy Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice Last week, SACLS released a report titled “From Words to Action: A Road Map for Implementing Sri Lanka’s Transitional Justice Commitments”. This report unpacks the…
Sri Lanka’s Victims Demand and Deserve Credible Justice
Image courtesy IRIN “The regime has changed, but the system remains the same; how can we expect justice from them?,” asked a Tamil nun who survived the brutal conflict between the Sri…
Catharsis: How Jaffna is rebuilding itself using the arts
Since 2009, Jaffna has become host to hordes of curious tourists, visiting to see what a city ravaged by war looks like. For the residents, there are many bitter memories. It is…
Singing our National Anthem in our National Languages | Part 2
Read Part 1 here. There have been diverse responses to the singing of our National Anthem in both our national languages; some sensible, some stupid; some patriotic, some racist. Among the questions…
Where is journalist Subramanium Ramachandran 9 years after he disappeared?
Photo courtesy Sri Lanka Brief Subramanium Ramachandran, a Jaffna based Tamil journalist disappeared on 15th of February 2007 in Jaffna. Despite eyewitness accounts of being detained at an Army checkpoint and camps,…
Accountability and a Political Solution: A Response to Ram Manikkalingam
Photo courtesy Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice In a recent article, Ram Manikkalingam – a member of the Sri Lankan President’s Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) – argues that…
The High Commissioner for Human Rights visit to Sri Lanka raises hopes for victims
Photo courtesy Reuters, via CFR This week, the UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein – the High Commissioner for Human Rights – is visiting Sri Lanka. He will see…
Vetting our way to trust
AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena, via Al Jazeera The conversation on Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka has hitherto focused almost exclusively on the government’s stated commitments to establish an Office of Missing Persons, a…
