As the 2024 elections approach in Sri Lanka, the National People’s Power (NPP) is positioning itself as a major contender. However, the JVP, the dominant party within the NPP, carries a legacy…
In Institute for Health Policy (IHP) SLOTS polling in July 2024, the net favourability rating of NPP/JVP leader A.K. Dissanayake rose 29 points from June to reach +3, and President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s…
Last month, I studied over 4,000 tweets linked to the three main presidential candidates – Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), Sajith Premedasa (SP), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) – in order to study how…
During the final stages of the 30 year war in Sri Lanka there was a perception held by the West and its allies, and reiterated like a mantra ever since, that it…
Despite ongoing pressure from the international community, reforms to advance human rights and reconciliation, especially in institutional and security sectors, have not occurred. On the contrary, there are renewed threats to fundamental…
Sri Lankans overwhelmingly cite the economy and inflation as their biggest concerns going into the September presidential election in the latest Institute for Health Policy (IHP) Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS)…
The law criminalizing sexual harassment could change very soon. A bill, which proposes to amend S. 345 of the Penal Code, has been gazetted. This is a welcome development. Yet amendments to…
Ray Wijewardene (1924-2010) often quoted these words by the English poet Robert Browning, embedded in the poem Andrea del Sarto. An engineer, aviator, inventor, farmer and a public intellectual of the highest…
With nominations for the September 21 presidential elections now completed, a survey of the political landscape provides an interesting picture. A record 39 candidates are in the fray but most of them…
The most iconic moment at Nelson Mandela’s star studded memorial service was a handshake. As US President Barack Obama ran up to the podium under a light drizzle, a CNN reporter was…
Look up “schoolgirl” and “rape” and “Sri Lanka”. There are many stories which are posted by Google Search with those taglines. We have to refine the search for the most recent atrocity…
The root causes of Sri Lanka’s 26 year civil war have yet to be addressed resulting in many consequences including exacerbating the issue of land conflicts and contestation related to places of…
Sri Lanka’s attempts to build an inclusive society through legislative moves that could result in greater equality for the minority LGBTIQ community have been met with opposition by the country’s religious leaders.…
The latest SLOTS polling for July 2024 shows that 72% of Sri Lankans continue to say that the country is heading in the wrong direction while only 8% believe it is on…
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, Groundviews conducted an in depth interview with Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, a distinguished human rights lawyer and former UN Under-Secretary-General. Dr. Coomaraswamy, renowned…
