Journalism, activism, political mobilization, and memorialization remain at risk in the Northern and Eastern Provinces (North-East), and civic space continues to be under threat. In 2025, the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) released a report detailing the climate of surveillance in the North-East and intimidation of activists, journalists, and civil society members. Hopes were…
October 16, 2025 The full briefing in English is available for download hereThe full briefing in Tamil is available here The Discovery of Chemmani Mass-grave and Its Significance In February 2025, skeletal remains were discovered during construction at Chemmani, Jaffna. During 54 days of excavation, 240 remains were recovered, including those of children, toddlers, and…
May 16, 2022 The full briefing in English is available for download here. The world’s attention is now on Sri Lanka as it confronts its worst economic crisis ever. As the island sees record numbers of Sinhalese protesting in recent weeks, the excessive force used by police and security forces has rightly sparked international outrage….
March 1, 2021 The full PDF of this briefing can be downloaded here. Since the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019, Sri Lanka has seen an alarming regression in respect of human rights, the rule of law, and democracy. As noted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in her report on…
January 12, 2021 The full briefing can be downloaded in English here. On Friday January 8, Jaffna university authorities on direction of the government destroyed a memorial commemorating Tamil civilians killed in the final phase of the war in Mullivaikkal on the Jaffna university campus. Their actions were a brazen attempt by the government to…
Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) Situation Brief No. 3 COVID-19: Sri Lanka’s militarised response poses grave threats to human rights April 30, 2020 Available for download in English here. Tamil translation coming soon. As the world struggles to deal with an unprecedented global pandemic, it is imperative that states choose an approach that respects…
Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) Situation Brief No.2 Surveillance, Harassment and Intimidation of Disappearances’ Activists in the North-East August 30, 2018 Full brief available for download in English with footnotes here. I. Background Over the last two years, the issue of enforced disappearances has become an increasingly central topic in the conversation around human…
Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) Issue Brief No. 3 Tamil Political Prisoners: Suggestions for a Comprehensive Legal Policy Approach May 7, 2018 Full brief with footnotes available for download in English as a PDF here. I. Introduction Mr. Satchithanantham Ananthasuthakaran, sentenced to life under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in 2017, was given three…
Issue Brief No. 2: Families of the Disappeared and the OMP: Is there a path forward? May 9, 2017 Over eight months ago, the Sri Lankan parliament passed the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Act, designed to create an investigatory mechanism to provide answers to the over 100,000 families of disappeared who still do not…
Issue Brief No. 1: December 2, 2016 The Sub-Committee on Centre-Periphery Relations and the Unitary State On November 19, 2016, the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Constitutional Steering Committee, Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe, tabled the reports of the six sub-committees of the Steering Committee in the Constitutional Assembly. Formally, these reports combined were presented as…
