Why Language Matters
Sri Lanka’s post-colonial language policy was neither fair not desirable. A largely non-English speaking population was governed by a small class of English-speaking elite. Weary of being excluded from governance and public…
Advocacy
Celebrating Inspiring Women: A Message from Jayathma Wickramanayake
There is a social experiment that has been doing rounds close to Women’s Day this year. To help understand the human mind, participants are asked to solve a riddle and their responses…
The Strength of Disability
To mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities, Groundviews interviewed Dharini de Mel, a friend and philanthropist for persons with disabilities. Dharini’s introduction to supporting the disabled came quite by chance. Although…
Eliminating Violence Against Women with Community Support
There have been a lot of politicians all over the world telling us that a nation’s security and economic prosperity are the most important factors in making a country great. Freedom from…
Stemming the Tide of Child Sexual Abuse
World Children’s Day falls on November 20. Sri Lanka commemorated Children’s Day on October 1 and September 2 marked 30 years since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child…
Do We Understand Mental Health?
Mental illness is not uncommon in Sri Lanka. Most often, mental illness and disorders go undetected due to social and cultural taboos, severely damaging a person’s level of happiness, productivity, and his…
The Colombo Declaration
Image Samya Arif/Medium Read the full article on The Hindu. Click here to access the full text of the Colombo Declaration, an excerpt of which is below: Whereas on the occasion of…
Mental Health and Stigma in Sri Lanka
“I was taken to hospital without my consent. They restrained me when I refused to be medicated, and gave me an injection to sedate me. I had a full-time job, supporting my…
Let Women Decide: Some Feminist Perspectives on the ‘Abortion Debate’
At this moment in Sri Lanka, ‘the abortion debate’ has sprung up once again; with the cabinet purportedly attempting to pass a bill which would legalize abortions for women under two circumstances[1]…
The Abortion Debate: Mismatched and Misplaced?
Image courtesy Asia Society I once came into contact with a woman on account of a professional relationship we had. We had met to discuss her prolonged absence from work. With a…
In support of religious minorities, rule of law and Lakshan Dias
Image from Religious minorities in Sri Lanka – particularly Muslims and Evangelical Christians – faced serious persecution under the Rajapakse Government, which has continued even under the Sirisena-Ranil Government. The Catholic Archbishop…
[VIDEO] RTI In Practice
The Right to Information Act officially came into effect on February 3, 2017. We compiled a short video on the process involved in filing a request for information. The information was compiled…
Submission to Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms
Photo Amantha Perera/IRIN @groundviews making a submission before CTF at today's consultation with media orgs #srilanka #lka #pubconsl pic.twitter.com/MKhkfMzhre — (Former) CTF on Reconciliation Mechanisms (@ctfsl) June 28, 2016 , were invited…
Time out on tusk trade
Photo courtesy A Voice for Wildlife Over 25 million elephants in Africa have succumbed to the now illegal ivory trade that has spanned across the last 200 years. To put that into…
Exploring International and Domestic Modalities for Truth and Justice in Sri Lanka
AFP PHOTO/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHILAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP/Getty Images via FT blog The ‘Declaration of Peace’ by the Government of Sri Lanka at the 67th Independence Day Celebrations held on 4th February 2015 is a notable…
