News

The thousands of people, mostly youth, protesting peacefully at Galle Face in front of the presidential secretariat has captured the national imagination. Now all over the country similar protests are taking place. There have been a few incidents of violence reported, in which the protestors either got violent or the security forces used violence to intimidate the protestors.

Under its Prevention of Violent Extremism Capacity Building in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh project, NPC held meetings in Vavuniya, Kandy, Kurunegala, Ampara and Batticaloa with 120 members of District Inter Religious Committees, Local Inter Religious Committees, civil society trainers, government officials and Community Police Officers on Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) training in the district.

Youth wings have been formed in Mannar, Batticaloa, and Addalachenai to advocate for pluralism and religious freedom under NPC’s project intervention, Action for Religious Coexistence (ARC). The project team identified and selected the youth from targeted localities. As the youth wings and Local Inter Religious Committees (LIRCs) will be involved in the project, three orientation sessions were carried out to inform them of the three year action plan.

NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project was initiated in 2017 to promote and strengthen religious freedom in the country within the framework of pluralism and rule of law. To achieve this objective, NPC established 12 inter religious platforms with the participation of the government officers, religious leaders, civil society members and community leaders representing 12 divisional secretariats. These committees share the values of religious freedom while acting as community leaders within their localities to establish religious coexistence.

NPC has launched a new project to uplift socio economic conditions in the plantation sector and neighbouring village youths in collaboration with its partner organization PDF-Kegalle, funded by Freedom House.

Under its project Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE), NPC held training programmes in Mannar, Vavuniya, Kandy and Kurunegala for 160 Divisional level youth including National Youth Council members, university students, youth parliamentarians and youth club members.

Fourteen workshops on hate speech, prevention of violent extremism and non-violent communication were conducted for 543 youths representing several organizations in Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Monaragala, Jaffna, Vavuniya, Batticaloa, Badulla, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Kandy, Kegalle, Anuradhapura, and Kandy districts under NPC’s Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project.

An exchange visit for 23 Sinhala and Tamil Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members was organized to Beruwala and Trincomalee under NPC’s National Languages Equality Advancement Project (NLEAP).

NPC is assisting resettled communities in the Jaffna district to obtain legal documents through its project Sustaining Peace Through Inclusive Service Delivery funded by Freedom House in collaboration with its partner, Organisation for Elangai Refugees Rehabilitation Ceylon (OfERR).

NPC held four training programmes for 152 state officers in Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Kandy and Kurunegala including Grama Niladaris, development officers and social services officers directly involved with the community on Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) concepts and skills for PVE implementation.

NPC’s Social Cohesion and Reconciliation Activity (SCORE) conducted two symposiums at the end of its three year project.

Language was a key dividing factor in the early years of Sri Lanka’s independence and it continues to be a source of tension between communities, especially now when there is an economic downturn where resources are scarce and there is competition between people and communities for survival. Differences in linguistic, ethnic and religious identity can become focal points for mobilising conflict.

A three day exposure visit to Negombo was conducted under NPC’s project Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) for 110 Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members from Negombo, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Weligama, beginning with an inter religious dialogue to share participants’ experiences as LIRC members and their expectations of the visit.

Two training programmes and a campaign on the prevention of hate speech for local government authorities and religious leaders were conducted by master trainers under NPC’s project Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka in Kandy and Ratnapura.

A partner capacity assessment was carried out in the districts of Vavuniya, Galle, Hambantota, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Kegalle and Ratnapura for partner organizations implementing NPC’s Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project.

To increase the level of knowledge of state officers on Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) concepts and skills for PVE implementation, NPC held two one day training programmes in Ampara and Mannar for 86 District and Divisional level state officers including Grama Niladaris, development officers and social services officers who were directly involved with the community under NPC’s project Prevention of Violent Extremism - Capacity Building in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.