Kill the Families
When I set off for Columbia University to become a foreign correspondent, to cover wars and peacemaking, famine, floods, murders, kidnappings, larceny on a global scale, I never imagined that…
Human Rights
Remembering the Dead
As a Catholic, I start November with All Souls Day remembering our departed loved ones; as a Tamil, November ends with remembering the Tamil militants who sacrificed their lives for a Tamil…
Three Poems for Palestine
APOCALYPSE The thunder of horses’ hooves No longer evokes terror This comes from the skies Life limps amidst the craters, The suffocating smoke, Brimstone would be a welcome manna from heaven…
“Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence”
The title of the article comes from a comment made by Donald Rumsfeld when he was US Defence Secretary for President George Bush and when they learnt that the UN Monitoring, Verification…
Sri Lanka’s Journey on Universal Children’s Day
Universal Children’s Day is an important global event that focuses on the rights and welfare of children worldwide. It is celebrated on the 20th of November in commemoration of two significant milestones…
Still, the Mirage
The Supreme Court judgement about the Rajapaksa culpability for Sri Lanka’s economic ruin couldn’t have come at a better time. The sense of hope generated by the ending of chronic shortages and…
German Artist Otto Dix Depicts the Horrors and Futility of War
Artists and writers throughout the ages have depicted the horrors of war in graphic detail in their work. From Wilfred Owen’s poems about World War I to Picasso’s painting Guernica on the…
Nathasha Edirisooriya, Ramzy Razeek, Shakthika Sathkumara and the ICCPR Act
Nathasha Edirisooriya, a young female standup comedian, was arrested under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act no. 56 of 2007 on May 27, 2023 for comments during a…
Impact of Internet Intermediaries on Digital Spaces and Human Rights
Since September 2023, the discourses on online safety and digital spaces in Sri Lanka have been dominated by the implications of the proposed Online Safety Bill. The Bill has attracted criticism for…
Indefinite Security Responsibility or Infinite Control Over Gaza?
“Those who want to thwart the possibility of a Palestine State should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy” (Benjamin Netanyahu…
Palestine and Israel, International Law and Sri Lanka’s Grim Experience
Recent events in the Middle East have left people throughout the world horrified, especially since so many of the injured and killed have been children. Those with widely varying backgrounds and beliefs…
Women’s Access to Decent Work in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, only 7.7% of working age females are engaged in formal employment with decent wages and decent working hours. The country’s persistent challenge of low female labour force participation is…
Tamilian in Paris
Weekly The restaurant served idly and dosai around the corner from Notre Dame, before the fire, in a perfect union of India and Europe, while at my table a waitress asked…
Challenges in Addressing Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists in Sri Lanka
In a report on Sri Lanka presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had stated, “lack of accountability at all levels remains…
Refugees in Their Own Land: The Shared Plight of Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims
I was 10 years old when Muslims were forced to move out of their homes in the North in October 1990. I never again saw or heard about the two Muslim students…