Public Awareness Key to Ending Gender Based Violence
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women I want to take a look at what progress has been made in raising our awareness as a community about the…
Human Rights
The Scourge of Intimate Partner Violence
Mala is a survivor of intimate partner violence. She kept it a secret until her husband passed away. After 25 years of daily abuse, she finally found the strength and courage to…
The Constitutional Roots of the Problem of Disappearances
There is a bagful of tricks that Sri Lankan governments have been using when it comes to the issue of revealing the truth and providing justice to the families of the disappeared.…
Boys Cry Too
Boys are often under represented or even ignored in the fight against child sexual exploitation due to the stereotyping of gender traits with males being considered strong and invulnerable and less likely…
PTA ++: Learning the Wrong International Lessons
In the name of counter-terrorism countries enact repressive laws that restrict human rights. They claim these laws will make us safer. Yet, contrary to claims of increasing national security, the tendency of…
Gotabaya Rajapaksa: A Two Year Timeline
To coincide with the end of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s second year in office, the Centre for Policy Alternatives produced a video timeline detailing some of the defining moments of the President’s past…
Scotland, Diaspora Campaigning and Human Rights
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to Scotland for an international environmental summit put the regime’s grim human rights track record in the spotlight. Failure to care for the environment has already been noted.…
Shaping a Single Narrative, courtesy the Clergy and Task Forces
The recent appointment of a task force mandated with law reform headed by a controversial Buddhist monk has raised concerns from multiple fronts. Yet, considering recent trends in Sri Lanka, this should…
Pursuing Justice and Accountability for the Navy 11
There is an air of weariness around the small protest at Hulftsdorp outside of the Supreme Court. They silently unfold the banners as they have done countless times before, lining up in…
Challenging Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists
November 2 is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2020 at least 22 journalists were murdered in retaliation for…
Creating a Safer World for the Truth
Every week a journalist is killed. Killing the truth is the world’s safest crime; in eight out of ten cases the killers go free. Since 1992, more than 1,400 journalists have been killed around…
Unleashing Legal Hegemony with One Country, One Law
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has embarked upon yet another journey to marginalise minority communities in post-colonial Sri Lanka. The decision to establish the Presidential Task Force is one that depends upon the overarching…
One Country, One Law; No Law Enforcement, No Law
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s appointment of Presidential Task Force mandated to implement the One Country, One Law concept, headed by radical monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, is a clear indication that another period of…
When Impunity Becomes the Norm
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September this year contained several ambitious statements. In particular, the following lines in his speech raised the hopes of…
Healing Trauma Through Art: A Personal Journey
When Ajantha Ranaweera was ten years old, his brother who was in the army went missing in action. Several years later, he was declared dead. There were no remains. On that day in…