Denying Justice While Dehumanizing a Community at Large
Thirty-one people died in the suicide attack on Zion evangelical church in Batticaloa on April 21, 2019, of which 14 were children. To date the church remains locked with a notice on…
Politics and Governance
Internal Dissent and Increasing Opposition to the Port City Bill
Aluth avurudu is generally a relaxed period in the country where most people spend time with family following various traditions. But the SLPP/Rajapaksa Administration upended this situation and in the pre-avurudu period…
The Port City Bill: Legislative Carving Out from a Constitutional Democracy?
What are the constitutional and legal implications of the proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission? I take the view that in terms of design and effect, this proposed Bill seeks to carve…
Birth Pangs of the Rajapaksa Satrapy
Days after the presidential election of 2010, the Rajapaksa siblings gathered to enjoy an evening of musical extravaganza. Organised by the state-owned ITN and titled (Victory Victorious), the show was billed as…
Romanticising Resilience: Why the Struggle to Survive Should not Become a Way of Life
Resilient is a word frequently used by human rights activists and the development sector, to describe persons affected by war and violence. In Sri Lanka, the mothers of the disappeared are…
Fear in the East: What Lies Beneath
They joke of being followed by intelligence officers and questioned on who visited them and what they spoke about but underneath lies a real fear of being intimidated, harassed and threatened when…
Rule By Gazettes Leads to Impoverishment and Insecurity
It is not for fun that the Government established processes for taking decisions and implementing them. It is the age old wisdom gained through various experiences throughout history that led to the…
12 Years Later, the War Affected in the East Struggle On Without Land and Housing
Thennamaravadi is an isolated rural village some 65 kilometres north of Trincomalee on the Pulmoddai Road. The inhabitants rely mostly on farming and fishing to make a livelihood. They have some livestock…
Saving Sinharaja: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Sinharaja Rainforest has been in the public eye for a few weeks now. Is it being threatened by encroachment and development? Will it lose its UNESCO World Heritage status? Are there…
Bridging the Generational Divide to Prevent Future Conflict
The youth of a country are the forerunners of social progress; notwithstanding this historical fact, we cannot underestimate the role other social strata play in the social development of a nation. Youth…
Bitter Sugar, Poisoned Oil
The recent scandals involving sugar and coconut oil should point the country to the dangers of private sector mafias and rent seekers. These are not your typical consumer goods: they are fast…
Rural Women Demand Relief from the Vicious Cycle of Debt
Saumya is a mother of two from Polonnaruwa who has taken a loan of Rs. 200,000 from a well-established microfinance company in the region to start a small apparel business to make…
SJB Charts a Clear Alternative National Security Policy
Subsequent to the recent release of the report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Attacks and after the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva had passed a resolution…
The Geneva Mess
The farcical arithmetic of the regime and its apparatchiks notwithstanding- that the abstentions should be counted as support for the regime and the majority of the world’s population is with it –…
Protecting Human Rights and Ensuring Justice is the Duty of the State
On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador was saying mass in his church when he was brutally gunned down in front of a horrified congregation. The Archbishop of…
