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…
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Making Cash from Trash
The organic fertilizer ship from China was one of the hotly debated topics in Sri Lanka. The quality of the fertilizer shipment, which resulted heated exchanges between the stakeholders, almost sparked a…
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…
An Unjust Justice System Needs to Be Changed
Two prisoners in Sri Lanka were recently released after being detained for many years, a harsh reminder of the ease with which people can be locked up on flimsy grounds. This has…
The Need for People’s Participation in Constitution Making
A fake constitution alters the rules of logic that are the basic foundations of a good constitution. The change of logic leads to irrationality. The spread of irrationality into public institutions creates…
Weaponising Buddhism: Will the Third Wave Be the Last?
Independent Sri Lanka experienced three waves of weaponsation of Buddhism. The first was when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike embraced the Buddhist Commission Report. D.S. Senanayake had refused, on Constitutional grounds, a request by the…
Families of Prisoners are Human Beings
In December 2008, Human Rights Office Kandy (HROK) had started to present human rights awards during the celebration of International Human Rights Day. I was among those who received an award and…
A Migrant’s View
I was born in 1990, a time when Sri Lanka was still going through its 30-year civil war which ultimately ended in 2009. I lived in greater Colombo, and I went to…
The 2022 Budget As I See It
The second budget of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government was presented on November 12 by his younger brother Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Cheer leaders and image builders claim the budget is extra ordinarily…
The Plight of Up Country Tamils in the North
Ever since they were brought to Sri Lanka from South India by the British colonists to work on the coffee, tea and rubber plantations Malayaha Tamils, more commonly known as Hill Country Tamils, Up…
Downgrading Human Rights Commission No Remedy for Victims
The recommendation to downgrade Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) from Grade A to Grade B by the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,…
Historic Court Win for LGBTIQ Community
Thanks to archaic, Victorian-era laws that are still present in Sri Lanka, the country’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTIQ) community has been marginalised and discriminated against for over a…
Farmers Bear the Deadly Cost of Going Instantly Organic
The biggest gamble of a lifetime is being played out in the fields of Sri Lanka by over a million people today. Paddy sowing for the rain fed Maha season is almost…
Proving Minister Keheliya Rambukwella Wrong About LGBT+ Rights
The Court of Appeal on December 8, 2021 ordered issuance of notices in a writ application by which several activists sought an order against Sri Lanka Police to prevent discrimination and vilification…
Time is Running Out to Stop Sri Lanka’s Slide into Mayhem
As the world marks Human Rights Day, two years of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency and over one year of his government have seen Sri Lanka slide rapidly down the slippery slope to…
