HRC46: Not for Reform But for Respite
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 us working in the domain…
Transitional Justice
Repairing the Past Through Gendered Reparations
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 dream as the government goes…
Human Rights Advocates Urge Strong Resolution on Sri Lanka at Human Rights Council
Photo courtesy of Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect International and local human rights advocates urged the UN Human Rights Council’s Core Group for Sri Lanka not to be fooled into presenting a…
Reconciliation in Practice
Our country is ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse and our survival depends on equal treatment. Discrimination and violence against Tamils led to civil war and displacement. After the 2019 terrorist attacks, the…
Evoking the Undead Tiger, the Eternal Bogeyman: The Consequences of Forgetting the Past
“An alleged former combatant who was “rehabilitated”. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the armed group that the Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa government claim they defeated in May 2009.…
Too Polarized to Reconcile? The Struggle for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka
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 post-war context, what is the…
One Man’s Hero is Another Man’s Enemy
Maaveerar Naal, otherwise known as Heroes day, is celebrated on November 27 to remember those who lost their lives fighting for the LTTE. While this day has come to be a highly…
“Where, where, where?” They Ask
It was a dramatic moment: a tall, well-built young man dressed in white with a black band tied across his forehead pushed his way through the closed gates of the church premises…
Disappearances in Sri Lanka: Struggles by Families and Reprisals
In different parts of Sri Lanka, families of the disappeared came together to hold events to commemorate the UN Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30. In Digana (Central province), families held…
Search for the Missing: A Testament to the Enduring Power of Grief
Until recently, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) was housed in a magnificent colonial building in a leafy Colombo suburb that used to house members of parliament; now it has been relegated…
A Betrayal of Trust: On Gotabhaya’s Candidacy and Shavendra’s Promotion
The International Day of the Disappeared is on August 30, and I was in Mannar when a group of mothers were preparing to show their collective resistance at Omanthai in the North…
Justice Denied for Trinco 5
The ‘Trinco 5 case’, involving the murder of 5 students on a beach in Trincomalee on 2 January 2006, is an emblematic case of impunity in Sri Lanka. The case became well-known…
Prioritising vetting in Sri Lanka’s Transitional Justice process
Major General Shavendra Silva faces credible allegations of violating international humanitarian law and human rights. During the last stages of the war in 2009, he was the Commanding Officer of the 58th…
The Subaltern in Search of Speech
Professor Gayatri Spivak Chakravarti, I would like to thank you, Mr. Mawng Zarni and his enthusiasm for bringing me here today to discuss one of the most important issues of our lifetime.…
Why the Office on Missing Persons Must Think Outside the Box
One of the greatest challenges facing Sri Lanka today is to restore its image in the realm of human rights. There’s not a day that goes by without the media highlighting war…
