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…
Healthcare
Human Rights and Democracy: Lessons from COVID-19
The pandemic is not the great equalizer that many claims it to be. In fact, COVID-19 has exacerbated social, economic and class divisions affecting the vulnerable communities the most. It has widened…
COVID-19: The Need to Choose Lives Over Politics in Sri Lanka
Although Sri Lanka managed to control the initial COVID-19 outbreak, the country is now at a critical juncture where political and public health priorities are at odds. There is an election scheduled…
The fight against Covid-19 should not weaken the rule of law
Photo courtesy The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant shutdown of social and community life has meant that the political debate and dialogue in Sri Lanka, has moved from more traditional forms of…
Scapegoating the Muslims: From Aluthgama to Post-Easter Sunday to COVID-19
Photo via To date in Sri Lanka 9 persons are said to have died of Covid-19 and out of these 4 are Muslims. At least 02 of these victims’ families believe their…
The need to deploy modern Technology in the COVID War
More than half a century ago, mankind placed a man on the moon, using giant Saturn-V rockets to propel spaceships. If we were to go back there now, we would undoubtedly use…
Election against Democracy
Photo by Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images from It is a modern morality tale about the dangers of misusing the military, of militarising civilian tasks, of expecting generals to handle pandemics. By…
Why understanding the constitution and elections law matters
Photo credit AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via The postponement of the General Elections 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic has led to different viewpoints being expressed on the legal position. The focus…
A constitutional solution to the impending constitutional crisis
Photo by AP via ABC News The threefold crisis that our country faces— public health, the constitutional, and political—is exacerbating day by day. In the latest development, a number of soldiers of the…
Parliamentary Elections 2020: A Point of View
Photo credit AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena via The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of people in Sri Lanka and across the globe. The President and the Minister of Health have given leadership…
Free Expression, Hunger and Racism in context of COVID19
Image by Nicolas Ortega via On 9th April, hundreds of people in Doluwa, in the Kandy district, came to the road demanding food and relief in the context of the three-week-long indefinite…
Dignity in death, as in life: For everyone including Muslims
Image courtesy Quartz India It is with heavy hearts that we have listened to and observed the debates on whether or not burials should be permitted for Muslims who succumb to COVID-19…
The Rights of Minorities under Extraordinary Circumstances
Image courtesy Quartz India The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been engaged with the government in a debate to allow persons who died after contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19) to be buried…
A looming constitutional crisis, courtesy Covid-19
Sri Lanka is fighting hard, to the best of all its citizens’ abilities, to deal with the current global pandemic caused by the coronavirus. To its credit, Sri Lanka seems to…
Emerging Governance Issues amid COVID-19
Image courtesy EY As Sri Lanka heads towards completing nearly a month of lockdown, with first the special public holiday route adopted from 16th March and then curfew from 20th March onwards,…