The Utility of Tears
These tears fall into buckets, run to streams and rivers. These tears, shed weight from the body, leave a light patina like drops on the windowpane. How to go on…
Human Rights
Lending Sri Lanka’s Voice to the Palestinian Cause
Although Sri Lanka is a world away from Palestine local activists, motivated by the slaughter and suffering that the Palestinian people are undergoing in their own land each day, are carrying out…
New Strategies Needed to Fight Rising Online Child Abuse
The increasing prevalence of online child abuse has emerged as a pressing issue not only in Sri Lanka but globally as well and demands urgent and multidimensional responses. The digital age has…
The Unmet Mental Health Needs of the North
The ramifications of Sri Lanka’s civil war live on in the north, especially in the matter of mental health where the lack of human, physical and financial resources to address complex trauma…
Former Female LTTE Cadres Face Challenges with Reintegration
With the end of the war 15 years ago, thousands LTTE fighters surrendered to the government and were sent to rehabilitation camps, which they refer to as detention camps. The government considers…
Praying for Rain
A school in Nuseirat. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir-al Balah. These are the most recent places in Gaza to be memorialized later on a wailing wall. Here fourteen civilian women…
Under Threat: Minority Journalists in South Asia
In 2021 Ajay Lalwani, a local news correspondent for an Urdu language newspaper, was sitting in a barber shop in Sukkur, Pakistan. Some gunmen drove by and opened fire, striking Lalwani in…
Reconsidering the De-gazetting of Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve
As both a developing nation and a biodiversity hotspot, Sri Lanka has to tread a delicate balance between conservation and development. The recent decision to degazette portions of the Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve…
Target
I don’t want to be a pessimist, to darken your day, to add a fresh pack of stones to the load you carry. But I cannot help myself, not now,…
After Rafah
When CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe asked White House spokesman John Kirby how many more charred corpses it would take for the US President to change his policy on Israel, Kirby’s reply was…
ICC Warrants and ICJ’s Order: Do They Matter?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan has requested a panel of three ICC judges to issue arrest warrants on five people, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant of Israel and Yahya…
On Burial and Punishment
I note the moral equivalence, one punishment for another although I don’t think we can fix history in a flash. Go back to days before October 7th or 8th. But…
Addressing Sri Lanka’s Complex Human Rights Issues
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard made an impassioned plea to the Sri Lankan authorities to meet their national and international obligations and find answers as to what happened to the thousands…
The Bitter Legacy of a Blood Stained Civil War
Thousands of people gathered in a hot, dusty field in Mullavaikkal in the Mullaitivu district to mark the end of the bloody civil war on May 19, 2009. The area was dotted…
Shades of an Undead Past
In Sri Lanka of 2024, kanji is a four letter word. During the long Eelam war, all sides committed horrendous atrocities. Sri Lankan forces, the LTTE and anti-Tiger Tamil groups all were…
