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…
Human Rights
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…
Sri Lanka’s Uprising Forces Out a President but Leaves System in Crisis
Sri Lanka has been through a tumultuous ten days. What exactly has happened? In a stunning display of “people power”, massive crowds overcame large deployments of police and soldiers and other obstacles…
Building on the Success of People Power
There have been extraordinary scenes in Colombo and beyond as protesters calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit surged forward to take over his official residence, which he had fled. In the…
Ensuring the Rights and Protection of Women Migrant Workers
The cabinet decision last month to ease the Family Background Report (FBR) regulation imposed on all women who wish to work overseas has been received with elation and consternation in equal parts.…
The Tea is Cold: Cinema as Social Responsibility
A young man from Colombo, Randika, travels to Jaffna on an assignment to find out how the war has affected people there. At first he is more interested in sharing photographs on…
Bodily Harm: Abortion and the Rights of Women in Sri Lanka
The title of this article is taken from a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood who has attained celebrity cult status recently due to her dystopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which…
Arrests and Intimidation of Protesters Undermine Human Rights
The arrest of several protestors calling for Sri Lanka’s president and his associates to step down amid the ongoing economic crisis, has drawn attention to the grave human rights situation which persists…
Bringing Justice and Relief to Torture Victims
That Sri Lanka is a country where torture is rife has been well documented by several international organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and…
Wild Politics and Brutal Policing
Police brutality is very much a normal part of the abnormal way of life that exists in Sri Lanka just as attacks by wild elephants have become an usual part of life…