Further Rights Violations Draw International Scrutiny
People suspected of using illegal drugs are among the latest Sri Lankans to find their rights under attack from the regime. So are those sharing news and views online that might suddenly…
Peace and Conflict
Anti-War Protests: A Missing Dimension
“Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids you killed today?” was a line from a popular song written by Bill Fredericks and sung by a group of school children in US, soon after…
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…
Merchants of Faith
The Tripitaka is silent on the subject but the Buddha’s three visits to the isle of Lanka constitute an article of faith for most Sinhala-Buddhists. Kelaniya is believed to have been the…
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…
State Formation, the Politics of Capitalist Transition and Conflicts
Given the wars and conflicts that engulfed the world at the end of 2023, peace and conflict studies have become even more important as we welcome 2024. This article is based on…
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…
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…
Prof. Neil DeVotta on the Executive Presidency, Majoritarianism and the State of Democracy
The next two years will be crucial for Sri Lanka; a presidential election will be held in the latter part of 2024 and parliamentary elections will be held in 2025. If the…
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…
A Maha Sanga-led Reconciliation Initiative
The last few weeks witnessed a flurry of activity that brought to light a quiet initiative which has been progressing during the past year in terms of the post-war reconciliation process in…
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…
