UPDATE:On January 9, 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced the execution of
Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker convicted of killing a baby in her care in 2005 when she was 17 years old.
Human Rights Watch strongly condemns the execution.
“Saudi Arabia is one of just three countries that executes people for crimes they committed […]

A Supreme Court that has, in Judge Weeramantry’s estimation, been “a great pride to the country and has been highly esteemed both Domestically and Internationally” is faced with the threatened ignominy of sudden extinction.
The character of “Braveheart” who dared to retrieve the irretrievable, if not fatal damage caused
to the esteem of the Supreme Court, has […]

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka strongly, unequivocally and with no reservations whatsoever condemns the decision to take up for debate the impeachment motion against her Ladyship the Chief Justice Dr. Shirani A. Bandaranayake based on the findings of the Parliamentary Select Committee which was quashed by the Court of Appeal and determined to be […]

“Please. How will we live if you steal from us?”
Dave Eggers (What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng)
Fuel up
The price of petrol went up, again, as Colombo was being geared up, on presidential orders, by the military for the Night Races – a pet project of Namal Rajapaksa.
Night races
Colombo, this weekend, is […]

“I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.” – Barack Obama
Declaration of assets
Among the charges mentioned in the Impeachment Motion against Chief Justice Shirani […]

At the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka in May 2009, many hoped that this would represent a sharp break with the past and usher in a new period of media freedom. However, as the BBC Tamil Service producer Swaminathan Natarajan shows, such hopes have proved ill-founded.
For his research paper,Media Freedom in post-war […]

Found guilty
The impeachment process launched by the government against Chief Justice Shirani
Bandaranayake has entered its most contentious and controversial phase. The Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to look into the charges against her has declared that she has been found guilty on three counts and innocent of two others.
Fourteen charges
There were a total of fourteen […]

“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Friday, 10th August
Divi Neguma Bill was published by gazette notification on the 10th of August and was included
in the Parliament order form. The Supreme […]

Some Thoughts on UN Anti-Corruption Day, 9th December 2012
Preamble
The inscription carved on the base of the Statue of Dr. K. Nkrumah outside the Law Courts in Accra, Ghana:
“Seek ye first the kingdom of politics and all else shall be added unto you ! ”
Citation from the Mahawamsa – ‘The Great Chronicle’ written in Pali recording […]

Women’s Action Network (WAN), as a collective of 11 women’s groups from the North and the
East, is deeply concerned by the recent efforts to recruit women into the military in the districts of Killinochchi and Mullaitheevu.
Post-war development has failed to provide the most basic needs for those who live in Killinochchi and Mullaitheevu, especially the […]