Kandaketiya Judgement and Continuing Deaths in State Custody
On the May 7, 2014 Sandun Malinga, a 17 year old boy and four others with him were beaten by police officers, arrested and detained at the Kandaketiya police in the Badulla…
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Office on Missing Persons and the Zero Policy on Justice
One of the issues that demonstrated the approach of the Sri Lankan authorities to the problem of enforced disappearances can be discovered in a study of the narrative of the Office on…
The Prevention of Terrorism Act: Whom Does It Keep Safe?
Does the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) keep us safe? How often is it misused? Does it cause unjust suffering to people? If it does cause suffering, how much suffering are we…
Extra-Judicial Killings – Dud Grenades and Smoking Guns
Last week brought the news of the deaths of two underworld figures – Melon Mabula alias Uru Jawa and Tharaka Perera Wijesekera, alias Kosgoda Tharaka. Both died in police custody, a day…
The Case of the Poet Without a Voice
Thaneer (Water) by Ahnaf Jazeem from the collection “Navarasam” (Nine Emotions) translated by Professor Sumathy Sivamohan and Dr. Mahendran Thiruvarangan Ahnaf Jazeem is a 26-year-old Muslim poet from the remote village of…
Won the “War” but Lost the Law
Calling a civil conflict or a civil war, a war itself, is very misleading. Wars are fought with external enemies. However, civil conflict or a civil war is a fight that takes…
Why States Must Not be Left to Their Own Devices
It is a curious thing to imagine the state of human rights around the world if national leaders were simply left to their own devices. Fortunately, a minimal standard of legal obligations…
Burqa Ban Undermines National Security and Human Rights
The Sri Lankan Cabinet has agreed a ban on wearing burqas and other full face veils in public, which is almost certain to be approved by Parliament. This follows other measures targeting…
Freedom of Expression: Where Do We Stand?
theme “Information as a Public Good” On April 30, when the Indian Supreme Court was hearing a case which it had initiated by itself (Suo Motto) to examine issues relating to the…
From Cradle to Grave, the LGBTIQ Community is Oppressed at Every Turn
Sri Lankan society is structured on strict gender roles and responsibilities where anything different to heteronormative and binary gender standards is considered abnormal, deviant and deserving of punishment and discrimination. Thanks to…
Bridging the Generational Divide to Prevent Future Conflict
The youth of a country are the forerunners of social progress; notwithstanding this historical fact, we cannot underestimate the role other social strata play in the social development of a nation. Youth…
RISEN: A Tribute to Bishop Rayappu Joseph
“You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church” “The poor broke his heart’, ‘and the wound never closed,’ No means a temperamental revolutionary; Christ Risen Crucified. For…
Protecting Human Rights and Ensuring Justice is the Duty of the State
On March 24, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador was saying mass in his church when he was brutally gunned down in front of a horrified congregation. The Archbishop of…
Where Journalists Self-abduct and Ecocide is Green
To mark the Global Climate Action Day, the youth wing of the Wild Life and Nature Protection Society put up a massive mural decrying ecocide. The President’s environmental-loving soul was lacerated by…
Human Rights and “Foreign Interference” in Sri Lanka and Beyond
In the 1970s, an idealistic young medical student was seized during a US-backed military coup. She and her parents were tortured, as a result of which her father died. Her boyfriend, also…