Legal System Damaged by Illegal Arrests and Detentions
Illegal arrests and illegal detentions do not only harm individuals – they also cause irreparable damage to the legal system as a whole. The recent wave of arrests of those who participated…
Human Rights
To Survive, Even Thrive
My country will survive corruption in parliament, arbitrary arrests ordered by the executive, bodies washing up at Galle Face, at the Beira Lake. My country will survive farmers shooting elephants…
Economic Crisis Badly Impacting Most Vulnerable
Families in Sri Lanka are fast adopting negative coping strategies to deal with the economic crisis. A recently concluded Rapid Needs Assessment by Save the Children revealed that families are resorting to…
D-Day for the Aragalaya
Mahatma Gandhi said that civil disobedience became a sacred duty when the state became lawless and corrupt. To the diehard protesters left at the diminished GotaGoGama, Gandhi’s words are at the heart…
Father Jeewantha Peiris: A Warrior for Truth and Justice
Rediff Ever since the aragalaya began in April this year, Father Jeewantha Peiris has been a familiar figure in the forefront of the protesters, easily identifiable by his flowing black hair and…
Aragalaya: For Everybody
This is not only about sitting on the verandah with a scotch and a pig in a blanket. This is not only about picking up the beat and dancing the…
Aragalaya: A State of Mind
Wijewardene We are taught to be modest, circumspect, wrapped under covers, demurring, scuttling away like mice. We are educated to be peons, servile class members, ambitions tempered, molded to fit the…
Stabilising Sri Lanka, Learning from July 1983
Arrests, amidst a wider crackdown on protesters in Sri Lanka, threaten progress in tackling the economic crisis. Although a show of repressive force may be intended in part to promote stability, in…
Widespread Arrests Used to Intimidate the Population
From all parts of the country, there are reports of arrests of people who participated in the protests that erupted against the hardships caused by the economic meltdown. For months people made…
Government Harassment of Protesters and Journalists Intensifies
Despite widespread condemnation of the arrests, intimidation and harassment of peaceful protesters by the state, activists and journalists continued to be targeted for reprisals for their part in the aragalaya. The repressive…
July 1983 Pogrom: the Black Week that Impacted Sri Lanka Forever
The political leadership of Sri Lanka has yet again demonstrated that even in the midst of the worst socio economic and political crisis the country has faced since independence, they do not…
The Aragalaya Replies
Why keep knocking at the front door of that house? Let go. Go away. Go to sleep and wake up refreshed. Build your own door. Build your own house. Nobody…
Chandraguptha Thenuwara’s New Exhibition: Ecce Homo
The moment we live in is dire. It is a moment that has propelled citizens to fearlessly come forward to fight for sustainable and transformative solutions to systemic socio-political ills that have…
Golden or Black July? – the Month of Destiny
Brief It is in this month that Sri Lanka chose its people’s revolution, on July 9. The people’s revolution in its spirit carried by hope (and anger) was quickly followed by disillusionment;…
Out of the Shadows: Violence Against Women who Love Women
Human Rights Watch Earlier this month, a news report revealed that a 22 year old woman had filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the Welisara-Mahabage police. She alleged that…
