News Without Terror
The reporter gives us news and despite the agony in details: shrapnel killing kids, hospitals, schools and mosques bombed with two thousand pound projectiles, almost two million people displaced, hounded, on…
Human Rights
TRC – A Sophisticated Get Out of Jail Free Card?
Sri Lanka has published a bill to establish a Commission for Truth, Unity and Reconciliation. Although the bill superficially appears to tick several boxes for the international community, a close examination reveals…
A Note to (and on) the West
As the International Court of Justice prepares to deliver its verdict on South Africa’s case against Israel, now is an opportune moment to reflect on what it means for the West, the…
South Africa Challenges Israel’s Final Solution for Palestine
“Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state after taking Palestine from the Arabs who had lived there for a thousand years.” (Hendrik Verwoerd) “The people of South Africa will never forget…
The Commission For Truth, Unity and Reconciliation: A Damp Squib for Human Rights Archives and Records
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, October 21, 2003 The Bill on the Commission for Truth, Unity and Reconciliation (CTUR) in Sri Lanka was finally issued in the Gazette on January 1, 2024 after months…
Protecting the Rights of the Adivasi Community
It has been 16 years since the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in September 2007. However, Sri Lanka has not formulated a legal or…
Emigration or Death: US-Israeli Offer to Gazans
“ Chaim Weizman After 75 years of the founding of Israel, Weizman’s camel is well and truly inside the tent and in the process of chasing out its original occupants. US Republican…
Fate of Refugees and Asylum Seekers Hangs in the Balance
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC) and UN country team in Sri Lanka must do their utmost to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers don’t end up being stateless or compelled…
Responsible Reporting Required
Sexual and reproductive awareness is essential for the health of all human beings but it is often neglected or stigmatized in Sri Lanka. The recent Covid pandemic and economic crisis have shown…
2023: A Year of Struggle for Survival
In 2023 Sri Lanka was struggling to come out of the economic meltdown with aid from the IMF, which required many austerity measures that impacted severely much of the population. People had…
Murder for Money: The Case of the Forcibly Disappeared Navy 11
Brief Successive government have promised that none of Sri Lanka’s “war heroes” would be tried for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went as far as pardoning…
Elegy for the Extended Family
Mosab, reading your post today of the dead from an airstrike in Khan Younis, cousins, uncles, aunts, six members of your extended family, six degrees that separate us, I felt at…
Justice Undone in the Mirusuvil Massacre Case
It was one of the rare cases of justice being served – Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake was tried and convicted for the murder of eight civilians in Mirusuvil in Jaffna in 2000. Witnesses…
Zionism Plus Impunity: The Mathematics of Israel
When the Secretary General of the UN condemned the Hamas attack of October 7 and cautioned the world to see it in context, he came under harsh criticism from Israel. But he…
Why Deshabandu Tennakoon Must Not Continue as Acting Police Chief
On December 14, 2023, the Supreme Court delivered a historic judgement, holding Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon personally responsible for torture. Before this judgement, there have been reports of…