2021: The Year in Review
2020 flowed into 2021 with a continued air of uncertainty due to the unrelenting spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The third wave saw cases and deaths rise exponentially, taking the country’s healthcare…
Reconciliation
Desmond Tutu: The Man Who Revived the Moral Universe
Archbishop Desmond Tutu who passed away this week will be counted among the great human beings who contributed to the political transformation of his own country and a person who revolutionised the…
Shaping a Single Narrative, Courtesy the Clergy and Task Forces
The recent appointment of a task force mandated with law reform headed by a controversial Buddhist monk has raised concerns from multiple fronts. Yet, considering recent trends in Sri Lanka, this should…
Healing Trauma Through Art: A Personal Journey
When Ajantha Ranaweera was ten years old, his brother who was in the army went missing in action. Several years later, he was declared dead. There were no remains. On that day in…
Failing to Defend the Indefensible in Geneva
Currently as the UN General Assembly (UNGA) sessions proceed in New York, the real action is at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, where the conduct of the Sri Lankan…
Adhering to Human Rights – The Time for Words is Over
When a government contravenes the rule of law, crushes human rights, reneges on its responsibility of protecting its own citizens and begins attacking them instead, the international community will step in. It…
New Mechanisms Required to Ensure Justice for the Disappeared
Today of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances “Sri Lanka has the world’s second-highest number of cases registered with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances….
Exploring Tamil-Muslim Relations in The Single Tumbler
Sunday Times In October 1990, The LTTE ordered some 75,000 Muslims in the Jaffna peninsula to leave their homes within 48 hours; they were allowed to take Rs. 300 and some clothes….
A Life Well Lived with Courage and Compassion
Sri Lanka has lost a fearless and compassionate human rights defender in Manouri Muttetuwegama, who devoted her life to ease the suffering of those in pain. Born into a political family as…
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…
Mullaivayakal and the Meaning of Justice, 12 Bitter Years On
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 country who looked on and received…
Why Language Matters
Sri Lanka’s post-colonial language policy was neither fair not desirable. A largely non-English speaking population was governed by a small class of English-speaking elite. Weary of being excluded from governance and public…
Tamil Tigers: Unfulfilled Promises of Feminism and Liberation
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 continued to pose problems…
Pressure on Government Mounts as Key UN Meeting Approaches
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 activists and officials and…
Sowing the Seeds of Conflict: Statement by UN Officials and Independent Experts
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 recently released report on Sri…