People Without Memory Can Lose Their Souls
Photo courtesy of Kumanan Kanapathippillai Over three decades of civil war has touched the lives of Sri Lankans of all ages, all races and all social classes. Fathers, sons, daughters and wives…
Reconciliation
Mullaivayakal and the Meaning of Justice, 12 Bitter Years On
Image Courtesy of Amalini de Sayrah The first five months of 2009 brought immense and unprecedented pain to the people of northern Sri Lanka, and to their many Tamil relatives outside the…
Why Language Matters
That we cannot exist meaningfully without language and communication is a simple concept. A look back at Sri Lanka’s history of language policy shows why our story is a little more complex…
Tamil Tigers: Unfulfilled Promises of Feminism and Liberation
Image courtesy Thuppahi’s Blog The Sri Lankan government’s Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) program has invested in bridging former fighters’ transition from wartime to peacetime, but many aspects of the DDR program…
Pressure on Government Mounts as Key UN Meeting Approaches
Photo courtesy of UNOPS Pressure on the government is growing in the run-up to a United Nations Human Rights Council session in February-March 2021. People in Sri Lanka, diaspora members, human rights…
Sowing the Seeds of Conflict: Statement by UN Officials and Independent Experts
Image courtesy of United Nations Former UN officials and independent experts call on the international community to take immediate steps towards justice and accountability to end Sri Lanka’s cycles of violence. The…
Sri Lanka: Government Suffocating Dissent and Obstructing Justice for Historic Crimes
Image courtesy of Amnesty International Amnesty International Press Release: The Sri Lankan Government has launched a renewed crackdown on dissent that is severely curtailing civil society freedom and obstructing efforts to deliver…
HRC46: Not for Reform But for Respite
Image Courtesy of AP News Why do Sri Lankan human rights advocates repeatedly place their trust in an imperfect and highly politicised inter-state human rights mechanism year after year? For many of…
Repairing the Past Through Gendered Reparations
Photo courtesy of We Effect The transitional justice process in Sri Lanka has come to a grinding halt. Reconciliation between the majority and minority communities has never before seemed such a distant…
Sri Lanka at 73 – Reaching Out to Liechtenstein!
Photo courtesy of Social News XYZ “I was fascinated with the theme that we must make it happen together, which was perhaps said a countless number of times during your presentation. But Sri…
Reconciliation in Practice
Image courtesy of CTV News Below is an excerpt from a presentation given by Shreen Saroor at the event Night of Ideas 2021 organized by the French Embassy on the topic “reconciliation in…
Inauguration
Photo courtesy of KLCC I put on a shirt today with red and blue stripes bordering a sea of white, and wrapping my legs a pair of blue jeans, my hair black…
Evoking the Undead Tiger, the Eternal Bogeyman: The Consequences of Forgetting the Past
Photo courtesy of Indian Express “If only they would respect Tamils as humans.” An alleged former combatant who was “rehabilitated”. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the armed group that the…
We Will Not Forget
Photo courtesy of Twitter We will not forget Mullivaikkal, the shot, the strafed, the scissored, and the cluster-bombed. We will not forget holes in roofs, holes in water tanks, holes in…
Too Polarized to Reconcile? The Struggle for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
Image Courtesy of Colombo Gazette In Sri Lanka, the challenge to achieve transitional justice lies not in the process alone but also in coming to terms with the ultimate goal. In a…
