Features

Image Courtesy fo  IANS. When globalisation was the dominant concept for looking at the world, pandemics were discussed as a global security issue. The objective was to see how pandemics have an impact on global security, and how to prepare for them. Now that one is happening, it is interesting to look at the response. […]

BACKGROUND Sri Lanka is slowly emerging from the lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and heading towards the General Elections that is scheduled to be held on the 2nd August. At this moment, three factors dominate Sri Lanka’s social and political landscape. The first is the militarization of government and governance. The second is […]

During the last few weeks, the media has paid a great deal of attention to fundamental rights cases filed in our Supreme Court. The electronic media, typically expressed half-truths or incorrect information on what these cases were about. Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, opposition parties who should have been concerned with the matter, failed to contradict the […]

The Rule of Law and Democratic Governance. At the Annual National law Conference 2020 organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapakse in the course of his address said “the time has come for all stakeholders including the judiciary, government, legal fraternity, and all other citizens concerned, to work together and […]

In the first few days, as America burned, the world looked on amazed and bewildered, wondering what this would mean for the immediate and long-term future. As the protests settled down and drew larger crowds with an overwhelming number of young people, one began to think of other movements in Hong Kong, in India, with […]

Sri Lanka Brief Fact Sheet: Militarisation and Securitization of Government and Governance in Sri Lanka. June 2020. Here is the list of military appointments made by president Gotabhaya Rajapaksa outside the military establishments. 1. Major General (Rtd) Kamal Gunaratne: -Secretary of Defence (November 2020)i -TRCSL- Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka – The Regulator of […]

The distinguishing feature of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and indeed, at the same time the cause for concern with regard to him, is that he was never elected to any office until he won the presidency. He was a military man first and then the all-powerful bureaucrat as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence – a soldier […]

Sri Lanka Brief Up Date/ 03 June 2020 Rights of the migrant workers in the Middle East during the pandemic 1. The estimated number of overseas Sri Lankan workers is 1.5 million and 1.2 million of these are in the Middle East. The majority of the 1.2 million Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East […]

Executive Summary. This report [by INFORM, Colombo,Sri Lanka] records 95 incidents that had been reported during the 90 days period. The average number of incidents per day reported prior to the covid-19 curfew is slightly higher than the number of incidents reported during the curfew. There were a high number of incidents related to legal, […]

1. President Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament on 2nd March 2020– six months before the due date, amidst the growing danger of COVID-19 pandemic. By this time, the uncertainty relating to the possibility of holding elections during the outbreak had already surfaced. However, the President chose to disregard the looming threat and called an election without […]

My article, ‘Necessity: Doctrine That Destroyed Pakistani Democracy’ published in The Island on 08 May has evoked interest in the subject and I have been asked for my views on its implications for Sri Lanka, including on whether it can be invoked in the present circumstances. For the benefit of readers who have not read […]

Image: Pakistani-military-ditators-Gen.Ayub-Khan-Gen.Yahya-Khan-Gen.Zia-ul-Haq-Gen.Pervez-Musharraf (NewsinAsia) The doctrine of necessity was first expounded in the 13th century by English jurist Bracton, who stated ‘that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity’. Glanville Williams described the defence of necessity as involving ‘a choice of the lesser evil. ‘ The doctrine is recognized in criminal law. For […]

Image: Hijaaz Hizbulla, November 2018 at a protest against President Sirisena’s constitutional coup. On 16 April, I heard that my former classmate Hejaaz Hisbullah had been arrested by the CID. As I learnt more about the questionable circumstances of his arrest, I have been struck by how little these questions seem to matter in various […]

Image: The President could perhaps respond positively to the joint opposition statement offering ‘responsible cooperation’. The threefold crisis The threefold crisis that our country faces— public health, the constitutional, and political—is exacerbating day by day. In the latest development, a number of soldiers of the naval and special task forces of the Welisara and Seeduwa […]

(Image courtesy of www.dw.com) It is no coincidence that the increasingly not-so-insidious growth of Sri Lanka’s anti-democracy virus, first reflected on in these column spaces last month, has kept apace with the exponential rise of coronavirus infected individuals in the last ten days. As transparency diminishes, so does accountability. This is so in relation to […]

Image courtesy of slideplayer.com. Statement on the Arrest and Detention of Attorney-at-law Hejaaz Hizbullah. We are writing with deep concern about aspects of the arrest and detention of attorney-at-law Hejaaz Hizbullah. According to media reports on the habeas corpus application filed by Mr. Hizbullah’s father Naina Hizbullah, Mr. Hizbullah had received a phone call, purportedly, […]

Image (edited) courtesy of www.demdigest.org. The anti-democracy virus infecting law enforcement officials in Sri Lanka today appears to have proceeded belligerently to the point that an attorney-at-law was arrested this week in circumstances so outrageous that it has drawn the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) out of hibernation to express its ‘concern.’ Pointing out […]

Sri Lanka has been under an unofficial health emergency, since mid March 2020. State of emergency if declared it needs to be endorsed by the parliament within a month. As the parliament stands dissolved and parliamentary elections postponed, the government has declared the “Police Curfew” to impose Covid-19 related restrictions. Read as a PDF: SLB […]

Image courtesy of  the Economy Next/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP. By Asanga Welikala and Suren Fernando. When a grave crisis like the coronavirus pandemic occurs, citizens expect the Government to respond swiftly, effectively, and efficiently to protect the public and mitigate the consequences. For this, they also readily recognise that the Government will need greater powers […]

Image courtesy of Amnesty International. On March 26, 2020, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon and released convicted death row prisoner and mass murderer, former Army Staff Sergeant R. M. Sunil Rathnayake. While the country is on lockdown due to COVID-19, the President has seized this opportunity to deal a lethal blow to the […]

WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 16 March 2020 16 March 2020 Good afternoon everyone. In the past week, we have seen a rapid escalation of cases of COVID-19. More cases and deaths have now been reported in the rest of the world than in China. We have also seen […]

As of 7th March 2020, the global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has surpassed 100 000. As we mark this sombre moment, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds all countries and communities that the spread of this virus can be significantly slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities. […]

There is a dreadfully fractured logic in what the Government of Sri Lanka articulated before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as it withdrew from UNHRC Resolution 30/1 this week. This is playing to the nationalist gallery with an eye to the impending General Elections. It has disastrous consequences for the country, make no […]

Image: The 19th Amendment had nothing to do with the removal of an IGP. The escalating clash of words (hopefully, not arms) between the Attorney General (AG) and the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) over the failure to ‘immediately’ file charges against an interdicted High Court judge on the basis of allegedly attempting to […]

Image: File photo of beautiful  Austrian countryside © Sunanda Deshapriya. ‘Come for Christmas, this invitation is in my heart’, Oma said on a day when I was wondering how to spend the December holidays. It was her grandson who explained to me to get off at the small railway station where she lives, climb the stairs, […]

Sri Lanka Brief. – Post Presidential Election Update No 03/16 December 2019. Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa presented a cabinet paper in the first week of December for the establishment of a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry (SPCOI), under the SPCOI Law (1978) to investigate government officials who had conducted ‘witch hunts’ […]

Image: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s newly elected president, center, greeting supporters after his swearing-in ceremony in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, this month.Credit…Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press. A Swiss Embassy employee is abducted and asked about asylum applications an.d investigators are banned from leaving just days after Gotabaya Rajapaksa is elected. By Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir. Fears of a potential crackdown on […]

Sri Lanka Brief Presidential Election Update No 02. Polarised vote The president elect Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) of SLPP and Sajith Premadasa (SP) of NDF respectively received 52.25% & 41.99 of the total votes polled in the presidential election held on 16 November 2019.  This numbers could be misleading. The result shows unprecedented level of polarisation […]

Sri Lanka’s eighth presidential election held last Sunday has produced an outcome that has surprised the winners, the losers as well as the observers. The most obvious, and arguably disquieting, and utterly unanticipated trend that became immediately visible is the re-sharpening of the majority-minority divide in the citizens’ electoral choices across the country. Mr Gotabhaya […]

FILE- In this May 23, 2008 file photo, Sri Lankan journalists shout slogans during a protest demanding the government investigate into abduction and assault of fellow journalist Keith Noyahr in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Forced to flee their country a decade ago to escape allegedly state-sponsored killer squads, Sri Lankan journalists living in exile doubt they’ll […]