PTA Must Be Repealed
Another year, another pre-Geneva scramble. At the brink of economic collapse and desperate to maintain GSP+ trade status with the EU, the Sri Lankan government finally feels the heat. Enough, that is,…
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Taking the Military to Task with International Sanctions
While Sri Lanka grapples with an inevitable economic meltdown, the international community has not forgotten the country’s obligations to move towards a reconciled society through the process of transitional justice. One of…
Desmond Tutu – An Inspiration and Challenge for Sri Lanka
Desmond Tutu was a black, South African, Christian male but in a world where colour, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, sexuality and gender matter, he transcended all of that to be a…
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…
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…
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…
The Constitutional Roots of the Problem of Disappearances
There is a bagful of tricks that Sri Lankan governments have been using when it comes to the issue of revealing the truth and providing justice to the families of the disappeared.…
The Growing Dangers of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
It was a horrifying and sickening case. A 15 year old child was groomed online and sexually abused by dozens of men including a local government politician, a Buddhist monk, a Navy…
Scotland, Diaspora Campaigning and Human Rights
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to Scotland for an international environmental summit put the regime’s grim human rights track record in the spotlight. Failure to care for the environment has already been noted.…
Challenging Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists
November 2 is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2020 at least 22 journalists were murdered in retaliation for…
Creating a Safer World for the Truth
Every week a journalist is killed. Killing the truth is the world’s safest crime; in eight out of ten cases the killers go free. Since 1992, more than 1,400 journalists have been killed around…
When Impunity Becomes the Norm
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September this year contained several ambitious statements. In particular, the following lines in his speech raised the hopes of…
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…
Proposed Amendment to Criminal Code is a Grave Setback for Human Rights
The proposed Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure Act No. 15 of 1979 will open up a Pandora’s box of serious abuses. In essence what…
PTA – A License for Prolonged Detention of Innocents
Mr. Nadesu Kuganathan surrendered to the army in the last phase of the war in 2009 and released after rehabilitation in 2013 after four years. But after three months, he was re-arrested…
