Sri Lanka's case highlights the central weakness of the ICC’s complementarity principle. The Rome Statute grants jurisdiction only where states are unwilling or unable genuinely to carry out the investigation or prosecution. Sri Lanka maintains functioning judicial institutions, conducts some prosecutions, and has established reparations frameworks, thereby technically satisfying the ability threshold while systematically failing to deliver accountability for conflict-related crimes.
If Davos had a clear centre of gravity this year, it was technology—not geopolitics. The tech industry arrived in force, underscored by high-profile appearances from Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The message was unmistakable: this is where attention, ambition, and capital are converging. With extraordinary sums being poured into artificial intelligence, unease among lenders and investors is understandable. Yet many executives were keen to reassure markets that fears of an AI bubble were overstated.
Strategically, these developments underscore the importance of regional counterterrorism cooperation and rigorous monitoring of cross-border arms flows. The proliferation of foreign-supplied weapons into Pakistan not only strengthens terrorist organizations but also threatens regional stability. Each attack executed with U.S.-origin rifles or advanced tactical gear reinforces the need for Pakistan’s zero-tolerance policy against militancy while exposing the organized external support networks that continue to embolden groups like the TTP.
It is not easy for a country faced with heavy debt payments to find resources to accelerate domestic growth, exports and infrastructure development. It has to carefully balance infrastructure priorities, social spending, and ongoing economic reforms. Next two years will be crucial for the government to at least complete the ongoing projects to fulfil major promises while taking up the remaining ones that were temporarily shelved for early implementation.
Barring India, no other supposed ally has so far come forward to help assist Colombo in a big way. New Delhi, with its obvious strategic stakes and interests in keeping the country afloat, has so far extended assistance worth around $4 billion -- something China has also acknowledged, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor
The chars formed as the Brahmaputra, Ganga and other rivers brought silt down from the Himalayas. The river islands are so fertile that they have been fought over for centuries
Today, while a large section of the Muslim community lives in intimidation and fear, at the same time there are elements like Riyaz Ansari and Ghouse Mohammad whose insanity is not only a blot on Indian Muslims but also is totally contrary to the sayings in Koran that if you kill a single innocent person, it is like killing the whole humanity, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Solar roofed buses may be handy in providing mobile primary healthcare, primary and adult education, agricultural extension services and training, even telecom and TV connectivity in rural and far-flung areas across South Asia and Africa, writes Amb Sarvajit Chakravarti (retd) for South Asia Monitor
This year, an early and hotter start to the summer has forced a change in the crop cycle in Gilgit-Baltistan, high up in the Hindu Kush Himalayas
Despite public statements by a few senior Taliban leaders supporting girls' education, there has been little indication of any progress. The group's core leadership, dominated by hardline clerics, seems bent on pushing through gender discriminatory policies, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor
Over 54 major watercourses draining excess water from South Asia into the Bay of Bengal flows through Bangladesh, to which is added its own share of rainfall, writes Ambassador Sarvajit Chakravarti (retd) for South Asia Monitor
For Sri Lanka's tourism industry, the worst is yet to come. Experts say the downfall will continue as the energy crisis is unlikely to ease for months, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor
It’s a win-win situation for the BJP in the Presidential election. It now evidently hopes to fully enlist the Adivasis in its expansionist plans while the Congress flounders without a sense of direction, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor
India-bashing is a preferred pasttime for opposition politicians in countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, not to mention Pakistan and Afghanistan, writes N. Sathiya Moorthy for South Asia Monitor
Only adequate remuneration and commensurate punishment for infringement can the practice of illegal gratification be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, writes Amb Sarvajit Chakravarti (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Bangladesh has proved its capacity by building a 6.15 km bridge over the country's second toughest river using its own money, writes Fumiko Yamada for South Asia Monitor
Those who were not part of the anti-British struggle had roots in the ideologies of landlord-clergy combine. They articulated nationalism in the name of religion, called it cultural nationalism, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor
Myanmar and Bangladesh must cooperate in a neighbourly manner. Resolving the regional humanitarian problem will benefit the entire region of South Asia and Southeast Asia, writes Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan for South Asia Monitor
In view of the growing trade and cultural ties between India and the Arab world, it will be disastrous if differences aggravate and no remedial and timely actions are taken, writes Asif Rameez Daudi for South Asia Monitor
