On August 20, 2006, Father Jim Brown, a Catholic Priest, and Wenceslaus Vimalathas, his associate, disappeared. They were last seen at a Navy check point in Allaipiddy in the Jaffna district while…
In October 2020, Bimshani Jasin Arachchi was appointed as Sri Lanka’s first female Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG). Six months later, she was removed from her duties by a three-bench panel…
Their playground is a graveyard; their toys are sticks and stones. They run in the sand and dirt, flying kites and joking, fighting and laughing. They are Tamil children living on the…
This article is a summary of my report Broken System: Drug Control, Detention and Treatment of People who Use Drugs in Sri Lanka published by Harm Reduction International, which discusses both the…
Sri Lankan student activists have been arrested for protesting against militarisation and privatisation in higher education. This is yet another example of misuse of laws supposedly aimed at stopping the spread of…
A few months ago, the author had the misfortune of being introduced to a video of a YouTuber and apparently a “psychiatrist” by the name of Ama Dissanayake. Having never heard of…
In one of the most heinous crimes committed against humanitarian personnel, 17 Sri Lankan workers of Action contre la Faim (ACF), a French aid organisation, were murdered in their office in Muttur…
The Covid-19 pandemic that has been impacting Sri Lanka for the past one and a half years has had wide ranging economic and social repercussions for people from all walks of life…
The recent incidents of sexual and economic exploitation of children have sparked many protests and a public outcry targeting the failure of the State to ensure justice to children and their families.…
A prisoner goes to the jail’s library to borrow a book. The librarian says, “I am sorry, we don’t have this book, but we have its author.” It’s a Turkish joke, much…
Sri Lanka has lost a fearless and compassionate human rights defender in Manouri Muttetuwegama, who devoted her life to ease the suffering of those in pain. Born into a political family as…
Tharindu Jayawardhana is one of Sri Lanka’s most outstanding and promising young journalists. His writings and MediaLK, the news website he founded in 2019, are noted for highlighting some of the most critical…
An amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure allowing the Magistrates to visit places of detention has been turned into a political issue by a section of the government and by some…
For decades human rights activists have highlighted the draconian nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which promises safety and security, yet in practice makes each citizen vulnerable to being arbitrarily…
When Sri Lanka was ruled by kings and queens, they used 32 types of torture to keep their subjects in line. These included being trampled by an elephant and being impaled on…
