Sunday, 10 Sep 2023
- Follow Us:
By Ruki Fernando
August 30 was the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Despite Government figures indicating more than 65,000 complaints of disappearances in Sri Lanka, for most Sri Lankans, most media and the Government, it was just another day.
The Office on Missing Persons (OMP), the state institution responsible for tracing the fate and the whereabouts of...
From February 3 to April 14 this year, across Sri Lanka, there has been some sort of disruption against a Christian worship service every Sunday - on 11 successive Sundays to be specific.
Christians in Sri Lanka suffer violations of their right to religion and belief regularly, but most incidents do not make it to the news – or even to the Twittersphere. But the attack on...
The biggest protest I had ever participated in or seen in Kilinochchi took place last week. It was organised by the Tamil families of the disappeared, to mark two years of roadside protests and demanding information about loved ones who had disappeared. It was a gruelling march of more than six km that took over two hours, through the sprawling A9 road in Kilinochchi,...
With the second reading of the Counter Terrorism Bill scheduled for Tuesday (23), rights activists are still raising grave concerns about the proposed legislation.
For about 40 years, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) served as a license for torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and prolonged detention. Three years have passed since the governmental...
On 17th July 2018 about 80 families, including children and elderly left behind the brick houses they have been living in, with water, toilets, furniture, kitchen and other household goods, and moved to live in tents in a forest like area. The move was to resettle in their beloved, traditional village, Mullikulam, after nearly 11 years of displacement due to Navy...
By Ruki Fernando
Last week, at an election rally, the United National Party (UNP)/New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa referred...
Last year, on October 2, Iran executed a 24-year-old woman, Zeinab Sekaanvand[. Born into a poor and conservative family, she was...
May 18, 2019 marked the 10th anniversary of the end of the Sri Lanka civil war.This year, perhaps due to tragedy of the Easter...
The Negombo Police was a strange sight last week with children, women and men camped out in the garage, on rough floor with no...
Iranaitivu is also a story of resilient community consolidating their claim of the land by reinvigorating their traditional...
On 14th September, eight Tamil detainees in the Anuradhapura prison, detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) since...
Ever since Sunila passed away five years ago, I have wanted to write about her, but found it difficult to articulate my...
Earlier this month female activists in the North and the East were subject to assault and other intimidation, which allegedly...
On the night of February 26 and early hours of February 27, the Jumma Masjid Mosque in Ampara and a few nearby eateries run by...
Travelling back to the final theatre of battle nine years later, where tens of thousands of civilians were trapped in the...
In a daring move on Monday, April 23, 300 people boarded some 40 boats, and set sail to reclaim their traditional lands in two...
After the election of the new Government in 2015, the people of Iranaitheevu, forcibly displaced since 1992, finally thought they...
A year after a group of families of the disappeared began a roadside protest in the North, a human rights activist writes about...