Lockdown at Last: Too Little, Too Late?
“The most sacred laws of justice are the laws which guard the life and person of our neighbor.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments After nearly ten months of refusing a lockdown,…
Politics and Governance
It’s Time to Free Muslim Women from Their Shackles
At two meetings held on March 8 and April 29 the Cabinet approved reforms to the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA). The reforms will make 18 years the minimum age for…
Remembering Victims of Religious Intolerance and Violence
August 22 is the International Day Commemorating Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief established by the United Nations. In Sri Lanka, there is continuous persecution of religious minorities….
A Country To Die In
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa addressed the nation on the day Sri Lanka became South Asia’s first in average Covid-19 deaths. One hundred and ninety five people died on that day, according to official…
Development or Survival? Why We Need Trees
Sri Lanka’s country statement to the 21st Conference of the Parties (known as COP21) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris in 2015 stated, “We are aware that…
15 Years Later, No Truth or Justice for Missing Priest and Aide
On August 20, 2006, Father Jim Brown, a Catholic Priest, and Wenceslaus Vimalathas, his associate, disappeared. They were last seen at a Navy check point in Allaipiddy in the Jaffna district while…
Development or Survival? The Lessons Not Learnt
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of madness. So I venture again into the realm of madness and once more try to…
A Diseased State of Affairs
About 10 days ago, a video surfaced online of an unmasked and ungloved policeman stopping and arresting some men in a trishaw on a road in the dead of night. Among these…
A Cabinet Reshuffle for a Much Needed Course Correction
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, approximately a third of the way into his term of office, carried out the most significant mid term cabinet reshuffle in recent Sri Lankan political history. The closest in…
Handling the Human-Elephant Conflict with New Techniques and Technology
African and Asian elephants are facing grave threats with an increase in poaching, the human-elephant conflict (HEC), habitat losses and mistreatment in captivity. Sri Lankan elephants are no exception to the devastation…
COVID-19 Resurgence: Let’s Not Lose Hope but Let’s Not Tolerate Inadequate Solutions
Sri Lanka is facing a resurgence of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant that mirrors the devastating surge in India in April. In the last 24 hours government sources have reported 3,435…
Structural Sexism in the Police Force
In October 2020, Bimshani Jasin Arachchi was appointed as Sri Lanka’s first female Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG). Six months later, she was removed from her duties by a three-bench panel…
Vaccine Politics
Public health crises by definition are not going to grant much personal choice to individuals. It’s been 18 months now since the inception of the coronavirus pandemic and there’s just enough data…
Living on the Edge: Children of Cemetery Dwellers
Their playground is a graveyard; their toys are sticks and stones. They run in the sand and dirt, flying kites and joking, fighting and laughing. They are Tamil children living on the…
Fighting the War on Drugs the Wrong Way
This article is a summary of my report Broken System: Drug Control, Detention and Treatment of People who Use Drugs in Sri Lanka published by Harm Reduction International, which discusses both the…
