News

Providing inclusive service delivery is necessary to ensure the quality of the public service sector. Discrimination in the service sector based on gender, ethnicity, language or any other factor can hamper strengthening social cohesion and reconciliation.

District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) conducted several actualisation activities promoting the message of pluralism to support the peacebuilding and reconciliation process for selected target groups under NPC’s Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project. Anuradhapura DIRC organized a Deepavali celebration at a kovil for children to experience the traditions associated with the festival. The Chief Priest explained the practices of Hinduism to the children.

GOVERNMENT COMMENCES ENGAGEMENT WITH CIVIL SOCIETY ON PTA REFORM

The Ministerial Subcommittee on amending the Prevention of Terrorism Act met with members of the Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus (SLCC) on to discuss the current state of their proposals. SLCC consists of individuals drawn from civil society organisations that have reconciliation, human rights and peace building aims in their work.

NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project conducted a programme to share lessons and values of living peacefully in a small village named Sigram in Batticaloa, which has a multi religious and multi ethnic background. The village was selected considering the unity and harmony among the villagers who are from different ethnic, social and religious communities. The programme was conducted to explore their experiences while sharing their way of living peacefully.

A series of debating competitions, Yarl Wageesara 2021, was organized by University of Jaffna under NPC's Creative Youth Engagement of Pluralism project. There were first rounds, quarter finals and semi finals. Before the contest, training programmes were conducted on pluralism and debate practices for the participants. There were 23 teams representing different faculties and different years.

Under the project Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka funded by Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), eight training programmes on prevention of hate speech were conducted for government officers, religious leaders and local government authorities in Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Kandy, Kurunegala and Kegalle. The resource persons were master trainers who have been trained by NPC.

Matara, Galle and Colombo District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) organized activities to commemorate World Children’s Day and Elders’ Day via zoom under NPC’s Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project.

To address the need for non-discriminatory customer service, NPC’s Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) Activity conducted a training programme to enable government officers and local government authority representatives to provide better service delivery.

NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project conducted three webinars to increase awareness of the Community Policing Service to strengthen the civil society and police collaboration to resolve local issues. One webinar was conducted for 115 Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members in Trincomalee, Kuliyapitiya, Paduwasnuwara and Rakwana and two other webinars were conducted for 170 Community Police officers in Trincomalee and Batticaloa, facilitated by SSP Priyankara De Silva, former Director of Community Police Service.

To celebrate International Day of Peace, NPC’s Plural Action for Conflict Transformation (PACT) project organized a webinar on the theme of recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world for 400 participants including religious leaders, youth, community leaders and civil society activists.

NPC’s Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF) project conducted three webinars to increase awareness of the Community Policing Service to strengthen the civil society and police collaboration to resolve local issues. One webinar was conducted for 115 Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) members in Trincomalee, Kuliyapitiya, Paduwasnuwara and Rakwana and two other webinars were conducted for 170 Community Police officers in Trincomalee and Batticaloa, facilitated by SSP Priyankara De Silva, former Director of Community Police Service.

Training sessions for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on preventing violent extremist were held under NPC’s project Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) conducted with Helvetas Sri Lanka and funded by the European Union.

Under NPC’s Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka project, 14 training programmes on the prevention of hate speech were conducted by master trainers for government officers, journalists, religious leaders and local government authorities in Matara, Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Kandy, Ratnapura, Kalutara, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura and Kegalle.

Young people are often seen as passive beneficiaries rather than active leaders. Around the world, countless young people are eager to shape their communities but governance structures, poverty and a lack of education and employment can muffle their voices. To strengthen youth leadership in building pluralistic values in the post war context, NPC has provided youth with a platform to demonstrate leadership skills and create a positive impact within in their communities under its project, Creative Youth Engagement for Pluralism (C-YEP).

Several care homes and institutions affected by travel restrictions received food and equipment through NPC’s Covid-19 relief programme funded by the German embassy. Members of the 17 District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) with the support of government officers selected institutions that were facing many shortages while trying to look after their residents.

With the approach of the September session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, there has been an increase in interest on the part of the government in obtaining the views of civil society in regard to human rights issues. A delegation of civil society members, many of them drawn from NPC and functioning as a loose grouping going by the name of the Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus met with a number of government leaders, including former Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Justice Minister Ali Sabry, Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa. The group also met with former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.