Ramadan with a Ban: Face Masks On, Niqabs Off
Ramadan for many of us Muslims is a month of peace and spirituality, a month of tolerance, speaking good words, sharing good thoughts and connecting with God and religion. There’s much I…
Ramadan for many of us Muslims is a month of peace and spirituality, a month of tolerance, speaking good words, sharing good thoughts and connecting with God and religion. There’s much I…
Several initiatives have already been taken to implement the recommendations of the final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into political victimization (the CoI) including the obtaining of Cabinet approval, the…
Sri Lankan society is structured on strict gender roles and responsibilities where anything different to heteronormative and binary gender standards is considered abnormal, deviant and deserving of punishment and discrimination. Thanks to…
In Sri Lanka, both mainstream and social media often portray Muslims in a negative light. This portrayal draws from pre-existing prejudices towards Muslims. These prejudices relate to some of the majority’s perceptions…
Thirty-one people died in the suicide attack on Zion evangelical church in Batticaloa on April 21, 2019, of which 14 were children. To date the church remains locked with a notice on…
Not so long ago, to be a person with disabilities meant stigma, exclusion and isolation because people are disabled by society and not just by their bodies. But as the number of…
Resilient is a word frequently used by human rights activists and the development sector, to describe persons affected by war and violence. In Sri Lanka, the mothers of the disappeared are…
They joke of being followed by intelligence officers and questioned on who visited them and what they spoke about but underneath lies a real fear of being intimidated, harassed and threatened when…
Thennamaravadi is an isolated rural village some 65 kilometres north of Trincomalee on the Pulmoddai Road. The inhabitants rely mostly on farming and fishing to make a livelihood. They have some livestock…
“You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church” “The poor broke his heart’, ‘and the wound never closed,’ No means a temperamental revolutionary; Christ Risen Crucified. For…
The farcical arithmetic of the regime and its apparatchiks notwithstanding- that the abstentions should be counted as support for the regime and the majority of the world’s population is with it –…
Sri Lanka’s post-colonial language policy was neither fair not desirable. A largely non-English speaking population was governed by a small class of English-speaking elite. Weary of being excluded from governance and public…
On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador was saying mass in his church when he was brutally gunned down in front of a horrified congregation. The Archbishop of…
The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) passed a resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka despite government opposition. This will allow ongoing monitoring of a situation that…
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” was adopted with 22 members of the council voting in favour of the resolution, 11 members…