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Basil Fernando The interview of the Defense Secretary Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse with the editor of the Sunday Leader on the airlifting of a dog deserves comment not because of anything surprising contained in the interview. Its importance lies in its banality. It reveals something that has come to be quite common and ordinary in the […]

For many decades since 1978 there has been talk about many reforms. The basic justification for 17th Amendment to the Constitution was that it promised basic reforms with the view to enable working of the democratic process. There had also been suggestions for reforms to ensure the rights of minorities, particularly the Tamils. The 13th […]

Education is certainly an undeniable right of every child, as enshrined in all UN and International Conventions and Protocols.  Similarly, getting education in a clean and healthy environment in school is also a fundamental child right; however, thousands of children are being denied to their basic right as they have no or very limited access […]

One of the reactions to the earlier article, SRI LANKA: Defending the nation’s internal security, is “What’s wrong? The military has come to stay.” What is chilling is that it appears to be a frank statement happily proclaiming a fait accompli. Earlier generations of Sri Lankans used to proudly say that democracy had come to stay […]

In the previous article we discussed about the Ministry of Defense as the most important social institution of the country, next to the executive presidency and that the justification for this in times when no insurgencies are taking place, is to maintain internal security. This in turn means strict control of Trade Unions, political parties, freedom of […]

Basil Fernando In a previous article, SRI LANKA: The Supremacy of the national security apparatus, we discussed the issue of the Ministry of Defence being the most important institution in Sri Lanka, after the institution of the Executive President. This implies that the ministry is more important than the parliament and the judiciary within the new […]

In the previous article SRI LANKA: Can the idea of nationalism be separated from the idea of justice? I discussed the idea that the state that exists in Sri Lanka now is a national security state. The national security state is the result of the operation of the 1978 Constitution. What are the basic assumptions on which […]

I was amazed at how quickly the pieces of Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives fell into place, turning an idea for a magazine into a quality, finished product. When Nilantha Ilangamuwa, whom I’d previously worked with at the Sri Lanka Guardian, asked me to launch a magazine with him for the Asian Human Rights Commission, I knew […]

Perhaps one of the words that is most misused in the 20th Century is the word ‘nationalism’. Sri Lanka is no exception to this. Can the idea of a nation be separated from the idea of the social contract that the people of that nation have amongst themselves? The idea of the social contract is […]

Full text of the speech delivered by Nilantha Ilangamuwa at the event jointly organised by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the University of Hong Kong on Freedom of Expression and torture prevention at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club (FCC), Hong Kong. June 25, 2012 Understanding the role of journalists on preventing torture and protection of […]

A few decades ago, Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system was organised on the basis of the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the departmental orders of the police. The Penal Code defines crime and lays down penalties for each particular crime. New crimes were identified or defined either through amendment to the Penal Code […]

In the public discussions recently, particularly on the occasion of erecting a statue for Baratha Lakshman Premachandra, there has been several references to the need for electoral reforms. Even the Leader of the House, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, Nimal Siripala de Silva, was talking about ending the politics of violence. However, ending […]

The entire globe is experiencing a water crisis and Asia in general and South Asia in particular are no exception to this phenomenon. These regions are marred with complex and multidimensional aspects of water crises. Not only has the availability of water declined but also its quality has been badly affected. A deep probe into […]

The power of a community depends not only upon its numbers and its economic resources and its technical capacity, but also upon its beliefs. (Bertrand Russell – Power – P. 99) The problem is not rising from outside but rather from within themselves. As long as the world about them does not change, the regime will […]

Life like hell in the place like heaven — Mountainous region As a right to food activist for the last five years, I had a dream to travel to the Karnali region, a mountainous area while doing field work. Mugu in the Karnali region is surrounded by nature. Out of the 75 districts in Nepal, […]

Life like hell in the place like heaven — Mountainous region As a right to food activist for the last five years, I had a dream to travel to the Karnali region, a mountainous area while doing field work. Mugu in the Karnali region is surrounded by nature. Out of the 75 districts in Nepal, […]

A Governance Analysis of Frequency Allocation & TV Rights in Present Sri Lanka Frequency Allocation — A Grand Corruption? Understanding the State capture by Kleptocrats does not require a dedicated study; it is easily recognizable.  For the benefit of keen students of governance, let me begin this article with the definition of Kleptocracy: “A form […]

On 12th June 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) initiated the World Day against Child Labour. The day is celebrated with a view to focus on efforts to minimize and eventually eliminate the abhorrent practice of child labor, prevailed all around the world in all imaginable forms. The estimates of International Labor Organization (ILO) informed […]

Upon arriving in Germany, I saw that the roads are very clean, quiet with very little traffic jam. At that moment, my expression was, “Wow!” This is a developed country, and everything is so organized and clean. On the streets, there were few people walking and during my first week there, I did not see […]

Like every other activity, the impact of human rights works is bound in space and time. As in every other social activity, human rights works is bound to historical circumstances. From these factors there is no escape. To ignore these factors in impact assessment is to lose the very core of meaning in such an […]