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Anojitha Sivaskaran, who works as a project officer at NPC, was one of the winners of the prestigious Diana Award for 2021 that honours young people for their social action or humanitarian work. The award commemorates the life of Britain’s Princess Diana who dedicated her time to improve the lives of others. Congratulating Anojitha on her achievement, NPC’s Executive Director Dr. Jehan Perera said that he was glad that NPC had provided a platform for her success. He said that Anojitha had shown herself as a good team player and contributed to the NPC’s outreach along with other committed staff members in difficult circumstances.

Colombo District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) is holding a series of online meetings to educate the public and create awareness on issues facing the country under NPC’s project Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT). Various experts are delivering lectures and facilitating discussions and debates that encourage community engagement meetings. Three meetings have been held so far with about 60 participants for each.

Thirty participants attended two online training sessions held under NPC’s Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) project from the districts of Kandy, Kurunegala, Mannar, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Ampara where the project is being implemented jointly with Helvitas Sri Lanka and funded by the EU.

Four online discussions were conducted Trincomalee, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya under NPC’s Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) activity with the participation of Co-Existence Society (CES) members, District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) members and Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members.

An online training programme on facilitation skills development was held under NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project for 61 representatives of 12 regional partners. An online poll identified facilitation as the primary requirement for training as it would benefit them as community level change agents.

An online workshop on countering hate speech for youth in Polonnaruwa was conducted by NPC’s Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka project. Project coordinator Nirosha Anthony spoke on the social background of hate speech and the objectives of the workshop. She explained that hate speech is often used in society to create an enemy of the other while consolidating one’s own group. Modern technology and social media made this task easier and more harmful.

With the rising Covid-19 cases and the government imposing travel restrictions to control the pandemic, NPC has halted field activities and has shifted events online via Zoom. The Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project organized six project orientation meetings via Zoom in Polonnaruwa, Galle, Matara, Kandy, Puttalam and Kegalle.

In order to engage communities with the reconciliation process in the country, NPC carried out assessments to determine the needs of the communities that the Social Cohesion and
Reconciliation (SCORE) activity has already worked with. Coexistence Society (CES) members, District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) members and Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members are assisting SCORE at the grassroots level.

NPC’s Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka project held an online training programme on researching perceptions of hate speech for district coordinators and master trainers
from 12 districts.

Two online sessions on the findings of the survey on religious freedom were conducted under NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project for the Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Panduwasnuwara and Kuliyapitiya Local Inter Religious Committees (LIRCs) with the participation of more than 50 members.

The global spread of the COVID-19 has been affecting and challenging the lives of millions of people around the world. While the focus of nations is on the economy and healthcare, NPC has been engaging communities at the grassroots level through online platforms.

Guidelines for Full Papers

• The International Conference on “Plural Sri Lanka: Exploration of paths to Reconciliation” accepts full papers from the authors.
• Full papers must contain the title of the paper, name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), abstract and keywords (3-5 keywords organized alphabetically).
• The main text of the paper must include the introduction, statement of the research problem, objectives of the study, scope and significance of the study, review of the relevant literature, research methodology, results and discussion, and conclusions.
• Full paper must be consisted of a minimum of 4000 - 6000 words (excluding references and appendices) with a brief abstract of less than 300 words.
• The paper must be typed using as follows
  English - Microsoft Word: Times New Roman; font size 12; double-spaced.
  Sinhala – Microsoft Word: FM Abaya; font size 12; double-spaced.
  Tamil – Microsoft Word: Bamini / Baamini; font size 12; double-spaced.
• Use letters for numbers from one to ten and numerals from 11 onwards; but use numerals or letters consistently in range or series of numbers, e.g. 5 to 10. Use British (labour) spelling consistently.
• The titles of figures or tables should make bold, and should be placed on the top. The notes and sources should be mentioned below each figure or table. The figures and tables should be numbered consecutively and separately.
• Column headings should clearly define the data presented.
• Table borders should be 3⁄4 point and simple.
• Figures or photos should be incorporated into the text in jpg files with concise information about titles, notes and sources.
• Use either footnotes or endnotes; these should be in a standard MS Word format.
• All quoted and paraphrased intellectual property of other authors as well as other work of the contributing author(s) must be properly referenced.
• The work cited in the text should be indicated as follows: (Ratnayake, 2005:12) or (Richards & Carol, 1990: 10-15) i.e. author(s), year of publication: page number(s).
• Use ‘et al’ when citing a work by more than two authors, but include all the authors under References. To distinguish citations of different work published in the same year by a same author, use letters, i.e. (Muller, 2005a; 2005b).
• All work cited in the text, including sources for tables and figures must be listed alphabetically under References.
  Use the APA (6th Edition) style for references and citations.
• Titles and headings should be brief and clear, and made bold.
• Longer quotations should be indented and single-spaced without quotation marks.
• Non-English terms should be in italics, e.g. kurakkan or sine qua non.
• Date format used in text should be as 6 April 2021.
• In text, use either ‘percent’ or % consistently.
• Use letters for numbers from one to ten and numerals from 11 onwards; but use numerals or letters consistently in range or series of numbers, e.g. 5 to 10. Use British (labour) spelling consistently.
• The titles of figures or tables should make bold, and should be placed on the top. The notes and sources should be mentioned below each figure or table. The figures and tables should be numbered consecutively and separately.
• Column headings should clearly define the data presented.
• Table borders should be 3⁄4 point and simple.
• Figures or photos should be incorporated into the text in jpg files with concise information about titles, notes and sources.
• Use either footnotes or endnotes; these should be in a standard MS Word format.
• All quoted and paraphrased intellectual property of other authors as well as other work of the contributing author(s) must be properly referenced.
• The work cited in the text should be indicated as follows: (Ratnayake, 2005:12) or (Richards & Carol, 1990: 10-15) i.e. author(s), year of publication: page number(s).
• Use ‘et al’ when citing a work by more than two authors, but include all the authors under References. To distinguish citations of different work published in the same year by a same author, use letters, i.e. (Muller, 2005a; 2005b).
• All work cited in the text, including sources for tables and figures must be listed alphabetically under References.
• Use the APA (6th Edition) style for references and citations.

• The hasty process adopted failed to uphold the right to information of the people.
• Parliamentarians were not given adequate time to review the revised version of the Bill.
• Establishment and inadequate oversight of offshore banks and companies could lead to Port City attracting money laundering and illicit financial flows.
• Lack of public access to beneficial ownership information could lead to Port City becoming a secrecy jurisdiction that provides a safe haven for proceeds of crime.
• Sri Lanka faces the risk of being downgraded by the FATF due to the Port City.

A campaign to spread awareness about hate speech among university students, lecturers and professors at Peradeniya University was conducted by NPC’s Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka project.

A progress review meeting to discuss the results of a capacity assessment of NPC’s 17 district partner organizations was held in Colombo under the Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project, which is funded by Misereor and Cafod. Participants discussed their ideas for the way forward as civil society organizations amid new challenges.

NPC conducted out a training programme on research for 31 students from the Eastern, Sabaragamuwa and Jaffna universities under its Creative Youth Engagement for Pluralism (C-YEP) project. Participants chose research as the tool to raise awareness and influence the public discourse on pluralism and inter community relations.