The Perpetual Marginalization of People with Disabilities
Article 12 (1) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka 1978 recognizes that people are entitled to equal protection of the law. Therefore, the state is under an obligation to ensure through law…
Politics and Governance
The Television President: Visuals and Symbols of Two Years of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa marked the completion of his second year in office much like how he started his term in November 2019, playing one of his greatest hits for the Sinhala Buddhist…
COVID-19 and Structural Inequalities Impede AIDS Battle
World AIDS Day is an annual event commemorated worldwide since 1988 on December 1. It is an opportunity to refocus and reinforce the global efforts to prevent new HIV infections, increase HIV…
Is There a Credible Political Alternative for Sri Lanka?
Why do Sri Lankan voters elect and re-elect corrupt and discredited politicians? This topic has been much talked about and commented on in newspapers and social media ever since Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in…
Public Awareness Key to Ending Gender Based Violence
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women I want to take a look at what progress has been made in raising our awareness as a community about the…
The Constitutional Roots of the Problem of Disappearances
There is a bagful of tricks that Sri Lankan governments have been using when it comes to the issue of revealing the truth and providing justice to the families of the disappeared….
Boys Cry Too
Boys are often under represented or even ignored in the fight against child sexual exploitation due to the stereotyping of gender traits with males being considered strong and invulnerable and less likely…
Smashing Fertilizer Myths
About a decade ago, a statement by a medical doctor in the United States made overnight headlines. He was a popular television personality too. When he learned about the presence of arsenic…
PTA ++: Learning the Wrong International Lessons
In the name of counter-terrorism countries enact repressive laws that restrict human rights. They claim these laws will make us safer. Yet, contrary to claims of increasing national security, the tendency of…
The Growing Dangers of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
It was a horrifying and sickening case. A 15 year old child was groomed online and sexually abused by dozens of men including a local government politician, a Buddhist monk, a Navy…
Protecting Every Child in Sri Lanka
On November 20 every year, the world celebrates World Children’s Day; it is the same day on which the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) was established, leading the…
The Case for Acquittal – Justice or Impunity?
Since mid 2020, there has been a key feature emerging from the justice system in Sri Lanka – a trend that people with political affiliation have been either acquitted by courts, cleared…
Budget 2022: What’s in Store?
The Minister of Finance and Treasury officials have been busy putting the final touches to the 2022 budget. Numerous organizations, associations, chambers, critics and cheer leaders are even busier organizing pre-budget and…
Going Organic in a Planned, Sustainable Way
The new fertilizer policy introduced by the government has attracted heavy criticism from all sections of society; it has also received attention from the intellectual community. There is a good response from…
Scotland, Diaspora Campaigning and Human Rights
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to Scotland for an international environmental summit put the regime’s grim human rights track record in the spotlight. Failure to care for the environment has already been noted….
