ANNUAL REPORT
2014
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
Published in August 2015
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
CONTENTS Profile
1
Board of Directors
2
Vision, Goal, Mission
3
Chairman‘s Message
4-5
Dialogues and Conferences
6-9
Documentaries
10
On-Going Research and Interventions
11-17
Publications
18-19
Lectures, Discussions and Workshops
20-21
Film Screenings
22
Visiting Interns/Scholars/Researchers
23
Website/Library & Documentation Centre
24
Staff
25
Finance Colombo/Kandy
26-27
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
PROFILE For 33 years the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) has contributed to the world of ideas and has informed policy and practice through research, dialogue, the creative arts and other interventions. The ICES vision is encapsulated in a desire for a world which celebrates diversity in all its multiple shades. The institution‘s goal is to contribute towards relevant rigorous intellectual traditions that recognise our common humanity, promote diverse identities, and generate ideas that inform and guide policies and institutions in order to promote justice, equity and peaceful coexistence. The unique mission of ICES is to deepen the understanding of ethnicity, identity politics, conflict and gender, and to foster conditions for an inclusive, just and peaceful society nationally, regionally and globally, through research, publication, dialogue, creative expression and knowledge transfer. The ICES has been an important player in the areas of peace, justice, gender and human rights and has been particularly influential in shaping policy and public imagination on issues of gender equality, ethnic diversity and constitutional reform in Sri Lanka. The institution has contributed to the development and promotion of minority and group rights and has previously worked closely with the United Nations‘ Special Rapporteurs, the several Working Groups and with the Treaty Bodies. In recent years ICES has carved a niche for itself as a centre for the study and promotion of diversity within a framework of democracy and human rights. The ICES has empowered national and local grass-root level organisations in over ten countries in Asia and Africa through the development of educational material using international human rights instruments and national mechanisms. ICES continues to work closely with a wide range of partners and civil society organisations to provide a space for dialogue, strengthen their capacity to collect information, channel their grievances, and question how claims for justice and rights may be advanced in post-war Sri Lanka. The ICES has played three broad roles: one of research, the other of policy advocacy and a third of providing space for dialogue. It has also used the creative arts to ignite the public imagination and promote truth, beauty and diversity. Following extensive academic, legal and political involvement in the constitutional and policy formulation process in Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 1990s, and strong advocacy in the areas of gender and human rights, ICES has established a strong reputation globally for its capacity to generate high quality research which is politically relevant nationally, regionally and globally. It has also provided a space for and encouraged creative expression as a vehicle for political and social change, through its support to documentary film making, seminars for writers and regular film and art festivals.
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
BOARD OF DIRECTORS S e p te mb er 2 0 1 3 / S e p te mb er 2 0 1 4
Daneshan Casie Chetty, Chairman (From 6 November 2014) Retired career diplomat Tissa Jayatilaka (7 September 2013 - 1 September 2014 & re-elected on 2 September 2014) Executive Director of the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission Rajan Asirwatham Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Corporate Director and former Senior Partner and Country Head of KPMG Ford Rhodes Thornton & Company K. M. de Silva Founder, former Chairman and Executive Director of ICES; Retired Professor of Sri Lanka History, University of Peradeniya John Gooneratne Retired Career Diplomat and former Secretary-General of the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat Michael Roberts (Till 1 September 2014) Retired Professor of the Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Australia Nira Wickramasinghe Professor of Modern South Asian Studies, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, School of Asian Studies, Netherlands Sudharshan Seneviratne (Till 1 September 2014) Professor of Archaeology, University of Peradeniya Fazeeha Azmi Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya Indrajit Coomaraswamy (From 2 September 2014) Economist and former Director, Economic Affairs, Commonwealth Secretariat
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VISION A world which celebrates diversity anchored in the fundamental unity of the human species.
GOAL To contribute towards relevant rigorous intellectual traditions that recognise our common humanity and promote our diverse identities, and to generate ideas that inform and guide policies and institutions in order to promote justice, equity and peaceful coexistence.
MISSION To deepen the understanding of ethnicity, identity politics and conflict, and to foster conditions for an inclusive, just and peaceful society nationally, regionally and globally, through research, publication, dialogue, creative expression and knowledge transfer.
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CHAIRMAN‘S MESSAGE
Celebrating Pluralism, Social Inclusion and Promoting Justice The visionary, the late Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam, and the doyen of Sri Lanka‘s historians Prof. Kingsley M. de Silva established the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES), 33 years ago, in 1982. The ICES had a baptism of fire, when the warp and woof of the social fabric was violently rent asunder in 1983. However, despite experiencing funding constraints, this institution has remained faithful to its founding principles and has helped influence policy-making by fostering a greater understanding of the values and practices of the richly diverse communities that comprise Sri Lanka. The year 2014 was a particularly difficult year. We had to exercise due caution in formulating research proposals and in conducting research or in organising workshops with foreign resource persons, lest one transgressed ‗sensitive‘ guidelines imposed by wielders of power. Extremist radical ‗religious‘ groups, professing to safeguard Buddhism and enjoying impunity, launched attacks on minority religious establishments, on a selective basis. Mosques, certain Hindu temples and Christian churches were targeted. The climactic conclusion of these dreadful acts was the attacks in Aluthgama and Beruwela, where consequently business establishments were razed and a few people killed. During the course of the year, the Finance Ministry issued a fiat, compelling all local nongovernmental organisations and limited liability companies that were recipients of foreign funding to register with designated bodies such as the NGO Secretariat or the External Resources Department, so as to ensure that they were not engaging in activities prejudicial to the national interest! Though not enforced, this regulation hung like the proverbial sword of Damocles over our head. Despite these constraints ICES organised a number of initiatives.
In January, a discussion was held in Jaffna on ‗Democratising the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development & Vulnerability‘;
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In February, a dialogue on ―Justice, Memory & Social Reconstruction‖ took place with the former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Albie Sachs and other academics participating; In June, an international conference was organised in Kandy on ―Ethnic Conflicts & Religious Harmony in South & Southeast Asia: Twenty Five Years in Retrospect‖. This was a sequel to the Workshop in 1998 ―Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies: Sri Lanka, Thailand & Burma‖.
Among our on-going projects are:
Building Resilient Communities (Sinhalese-Muslim Relations) Involuntary Resettlement: A Cross-country Study (Colombo, Jaffna & Cochin) on Urban Inequality & Poverty Fostering Pluralistic Memories & Collective Resilience in Fragile Transitional Justice Processes–partnered by Lausanne University The South Asia Regional Project on Justice Promoting Religious Harmony & Inter-Faith Dialogue Study on Adaptation Measures & Climate Change Identifying Post-War Growth & Economic Opportunities for Women in Sri Lanka
The ICES has been, since its inception, a magnet to which young talent has been drawn. By providing much desired space for intellectual ferment, we have stimulated and inspired exploration of alternative perspectives, not cabined and confined by arid officialdom. The range of projects, listed above, would lend credence to our ability to think imaginatively and unconventionally when the need arose for us to do so. Our programmes, while drawing inspiration from the objectives set out at its establishment, revolve around broad thematic ideas. Our peer-reviewed research has a bearing on national, regional and global priorities. We focus as well on policy advocacy and in providing space for the blossoming and cross-fertilisation of ideas. Towards the end of 2014, our country witnessed an unexpected development when the General Secretary of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was nominated as the Common Opposition Candidate to contest the incumbent President. Many were the expectations raised as a result of the decision to hold elections to the office of President on 8 January 2015. In conclusion, we take this opportunity to thank our colleagues on the Board, the Executive Director, our staff in Kandy and Colombo for their dynamism and dedication and our partners and funders for their reaffirmed faith in our vision and mission.
Tissa Jayatilaka
C.D. Casie Chetty
Chairman (7 September 2013 - 1 September 2014)
Chairman (From 6 November 2014)
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DIALOGUES and CONFERENCES During 2014, the ICES engaged with a multiplicity of issues relating to democracy, equality, gender, post-war reconciliation, displacement and disability. Dialogues and film screenings were expanded beyond Colombo to Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and Kantale. Leading scholars including Radhika Coomaraswamy, Tom Devine, Angela McCarthy, Neerja Gupta, Donald Horowitz and Sanjeev Kumar Sharma led workshops or gave lectures. The two international conferences the ICES organised, one on ―From Violent Conflict to Peaceful Co-Existence: A Dialogue on Justice, Memory and Social Reconstruction‖ and the other on ―Buddhism Ethnic Conflicts & Religious Harmony in South & Southeast Asia: Twenty Five Years in Retrospect‖ were among the year‘s highlights. Several new publications were released and some previous research translated into Sinhala.
Dialogues on Democracy, Governance and Equality The ―Dialogues on Democracy, Governance and Equality‖ sought to generate conversations among various stakeholders on deepening democratic politics and transitional justice mechanisms in Sri Lanka. It sought to create a space for democratic dialogue, dissent and pluralism and to engage in discussion and to respond to incidents and events which undermine ethnic cohesion, minority rights, democracy and the rule of law. These dialogues took the form of panel discussions, lectures and film screenings.
Conversations among various stakeholders were
generated on post-war development and reconciliation policies, processes and practices, higher education, electoral reform and the politics of the diaspora. The dialogues provided a space to critically discuss some of the challenges facing post-war Sri Lanka and fostered a stronger understanding of democratic values, equality, gender and justice among diverse stakeholders who normally do not have the opportunity to speak and exchange views at the same forum. In an environment where the public discourse is shaped very much by the state and its proxies, these dialogues sought to generate critical and ‗out of the box‘ perspectives on a number of key issues pertaining to post-war Sri Lanka.
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―Democratising the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability‖ 10 January 2014 Jaffna The aim of the initiative was to discuss issues of governance, development and vulnerability, to empower civil society groups in the North, and to enlarge the space that has emerged with the Northern Provincial Council elections held in September 2013. More than 80 participants representing a wide cross-section of people in the North including Northern provincial councillors, academics, the clergy, NGOs and civil society activists, members from the business community and journalists attended the event. The discussions highlighted the impact that militarisation and excessive control by the central government had had on the Provincial Council and created a deadlock between the Governor and the democratically-elected members of the Northern Provincial Council. The participants also discussed the dilemmas pertaining to resettlement, livelihood and infrastructure development in the North. The dialogue looked at issues of vulnerability faced by residents in Jaffna including the human rights violations, the sexual assaults on women and the challenges of responding to disability. The challenges in reinvigorating the education system which were affected by war were among the themes that were discussed. The need to rebuild schools and attend to the matters of disabled children was highlighted. The ICES has compiled a report on the Dialogue, so that it can be distributed to policy-makers and civil society activists. It is currently in the process of being reviewed by the speakers and will feed into follow-up initiatives. The report will identify a set of issues that can be addressed even within the current challenging macro-political environment by bringing together NGOs, academics, Provincial Council members and other stakeholders in the area. The ICES will take the lead by networking stakeholders, facilitating joint interventions and continuing to work on empowering civil society in the North.
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Dialogues on ―Federalism, Power-Sharing and Devolution‖
27 January 2014, Kandy (―Ethnic Power Sharing in Theory and Practice‖) 29 January 2014, Jaffna (―The Many Functions of Federalism and Devolution‖) 31 January 2014, Colombo (―The Many Functions of Federalism and Devolution‖) The ICES organised a series of discussions and events with Professor Donald Horowitz on the concepts of devolution, power sharing and federalism. Events were held in Kandy, Jaffna and Colombo. The University of Peradeniya and the University of Jaffna collaborated with ICES to organise these events. At a time when the government is not looking seriously at a political solution to the ethnic conflict, this series of lectures was an effort to revitalise and socialise the use of federal arrangements and power sharing as the most effective political solution for sustaining the peace in Sri Lanka. The ICES hoped to spread this message through academia and civil society. Participants shared important remarks of past devolution efforts and compared this with the present socio-political context where they discussed the comparative federal arrangements existing in other parts of the world.
International Conference on ―From Violent Conflict to Peaceful Coexistence: A Dialogue on Justice, Memory and Social Reconstruction‖
27-28 February and 1 March 2014 Colombo One of ICES‘ aims of this international conference was to generate a critical dialogue
Justice Albie Sachs speaking at the ICES conference in Colombo.
on transitional justice in the Asian region as well as in Sri Lanka. Thirteen presenters spoke on various topics related to transitional justice, including prosecutions, accountability, truth-telling, displacement, memory and reconciliation. Eight foreign participants, including Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa, with expertise from a range of countries including South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Uganda also attended the conference and contributed towards the discussion. The conference attracted scholars, activists, donors, journalists and other interested groups from diverse academic disciplines especially those who work in the fields of human rights, law reform, post-war reconciliation and democracy.
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International Conference on ―25 Years in Retrospect: Buddhism, Ethnic Conflicts and Religious Harmony in South and Southeast Asia‖
26-27 June 2014 Kandy The
ICES
organised
an
international conference on ―25
Years
in
Retrospect:
Buddhism, Ethnic Conflicts and Religious Harmony in South and Southeast Asia‖ which was held in Kandy on the 26 and 27 of June 2014. Fourteen international scholars from Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, USA, England, Luxemburg, and India and nearly 40 local participants, including representatives from diplomatic missions from Canada, UK and India, participated in the conference. Twelve papers which dealt with Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Japan were presented at the conference. The ICES hosted a similar conference in 1988 and the proceedings were published in London, titled ‗Ethnic Conflict in Buddhist Societies: Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma‘. The conference proceedings assessed scholarship on Buddhism and its links with conflicts with minorities in South and Southeast Asia within the last 25 years. Recent controversial developments in the political and religious conditions in the region show signs of deterioration of ethnic and religious relationships. The conference explored the resources within Buddhism, both scriptural and practical, that may enable creating harmony in pluralist societies. Highlighting ways in which both religious and ethnic conflicts could be transformed within Buddhist societies, this conference produced a wealth of knowledge that can be easily transmitted to other countries with similar ethnic and religious conflicts. The conference identified important ideas within Buddhism that can not only initiate inter-religious dialogue but can set forth personal and social transformations which could bring not just an absence of violence but holistic lifestyles that sustain lasting peace. The ICES is planning to publish its proceedings as a monograph in the coming months.
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies
DOCUMENTARIES Short Documentary ―Don‘t Think of Me as a Woman: An Election Story from the Margins‖
Scripted by Chulani Kodikara and Velayudan Jayachithra, produced by ICES, Women & Media Collective and the Organisation for Visual Progression (2014) In 2013, the ICES in partnership with a few other organisations launched several advocacy initiatives in order to increase nominations for women in local government (see annual report 2013). However, it was not possible to make a substantial impact in relation to increasing nominations. This was due to the fact that incumbency appears to be the most critical obstacle to increasing nominations for women, as all parties follow a policy for giving nominations to sitting members. Furthermore, the opportunities for women in nomination lists were in the youth quota rather than the adult quota. It was harder for local groups to mobilise young women who were willing and interested to contest these elections. There also appears to be little political will among political parties to nurture women‘s political leadership at the grassroots level. To raise awareness about these issues and the problems faced by women contesting at local government elections, a short film ―Don‘t think of me as a woman‖ which documents the electoral struggle of Aynoon Beebi, a 39-year-old Muslim woman from Kinniya in Trincomalee, at the local government elections was produced by ICES and screened in Colombo, Kandy, Kinniya and Batticaloa.
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies
ON-GOING RESEARCH AND INTERVENTIONS The research in 2014 focused on post-war reconciliation, development, state reform, democracy, justice and identity politics, involuntary settlement, inter-faith harmony, domestic violence and economic opportunities for women.
INVOLUNTARY RESETTLEMENT: A CROSS COUNTRY STUDY ON URBAN INEQUALITY AND POVERTY April 2013 – March 2016 Principal Researcher: Rajith Lakshman Research Team: Dhammika Herath, Michael Collyer, W. D. Lakshman, Irudaya Rajan, K. Amirthalingam, I. M. Lakshman, Danesh Jayatilaka, Asela Ekanayake Inequality and poverty are mutually reinforcing phenomena and processes. Poverty creating and reducing processes take place in interaction with markets and socio-economic conditions, and are marked by aspects such as inclusion and exclusion. This research, in Cochin, Colombo and Jaffna, will strive to comprehend and theorise the complex interlinks between inequality and poverty within the context of urban resettlement. It will examine the difference that displacement makes to the condition of urban IDPs (internally displaced persons) in contrast to the lives of urban nonIDPs. Among other things, it will look at medium and long term inequality, impoverishment, social and economic opportunities for the second generation (children), civic participation, and entrepreneurial behaviour. The research team will study low income communities in Cochin, Colombo and Jaffna where displacement and resettlement have taken place as a result of development and conflict. Economic and livelihood related data will be collected from samples of affected households along with data from government institutions, universities, research organisations, developmental agencies, and other actors. The academic research is being done over three years (April 2013 to March 2016) in three South Asian cities: Cochin, Colombo and Jaffna. The Centre for Development Studies (CDS) is leading the research in Kerala and ICES is spearheading the research in Colombo and Jaffna. The study will generate concrete recommendations to enhance the capacity of local, national and international actors to effectively integrate the perspectives of affected and vulnerable populations in urban development programmes and policy-making.
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies
BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES November 2013 – October 2016 Programme Coordinator: Kasun Pathiraja Programme Officers: Nadine Vanniasinkam, Faslan Mohamed, Vasantha Premaratne, Dinushka Jayawickreme ―Building Resilient Communities‖ commenced in November 2013 with the objective of promoting inter-religious harmony between Buddhists and Muslims in the districts of Galle and Ampara. The project involves creating a space for members of grassroots communities to share their experiences of inter-religious tensions and coexistence through the innovative use of comics and short films which will be used to generate dialogue between the Buddhist and Muslim communities of Sri Lanka. The project also entails research into Buddhist and Muslim extremism in Sri Lanka, both of which will feed into the design of intervention activities. The project seeks to facilitate inter-community dialogue through the use of innovative media, to contribute to dispelling prejudices held by both communities and to build resilience to external instigation to violence. The project commenced with mono-religious ‗context mapping workshops‘ in Colombo, Galle and Ampara with Buddhists and Muslims to map the grievances of grassroots communities in relation to the conflict. The research studies that are being conducted under this project analyse present conflicts that arose as a result of the political manipulation of religions, as well as a result of the deterioration of the respective religious societies in the modern liberal economic context. The first study focuses on the recent radicalisation of political Buddhism in the Sinhalese-Buddhist South of Sri Lanka. The second study attempts to analyse the conditions informing unprecedented levels of ethnoreligious tensions between the Sinhalese, predominantly Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority, in post-war Sri Lanka. Since a radical and ‗fundamentalist‘ orientation was becoming clearly evident within both the Sinhalese and Muslim communities, the research seeks to examine the dynamics shaping this radicalisation. The third study espouses the reasoning that the new ‗presence‘ of Muslims in Sri Lanka is due to an Islamic revival characterised by internal tensions regarding the practice of Islam among Muslims of Sri Lanka. Therefore, it examines and critiques the sectarian splitting and factionalism among Muslims of Sri Lanka and how these splits in the form of different ideologies, religious practices and customs create problems among and for the Muslim community in a multi-ethnic society. The project has also been involved in training a group of individuals in Galle on the use of grassroots comics to promote coexistence and inter-religious harmony. The advanced grassroots
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies comics workshops that were designed and conducted taking into account the findings of the mapping workshops and research studies provided insight into the attitude regarding the ‗other‘ of both Buddhist and Muslim individuals who participated. For most, this was the first time they had participated closely with each other on such a platform, being given the opportunity to work together regarding such a sensitive issue in which their two communities were the primary focus. Thus, they were made to understand the importance of coexistence and also impart the knowledge gained through pilot workshops in their respective villages.
During 2014, ICES
completed six context mapping workshops, and two trainers‘ workshops on grassroots comics.
THE SOUTH ASIA REGIONAL PROJECT ON JUSTICE
October 2012 to August 2015 Principal Researchers: Neloufer de Mel & Chulani Kodikara Neloufer de Mel and Chulani Kodikara completed the first draft of their chapter for the South Asia wide Justice Project entitled ―The Limits of ‗Doing‘ Justice: Compensation as Reparation in Post-War Sri Lanka‖. This chapter examines post-war justice in Sri Lanka not as a question of ‗justice simpliciter‘ – that is justice in and of itself which takes justice as a self-evident category but as a field of knowledge, power and practice that is, by definition, imperfect and limited by nature. By specifically examining the issue of financial reparation for forced disappearances within transitional justice to open up questions about sovereign practices, survivor expectations of justice and the gap between justice and the law, the chapter highlights the challenges involved in ‗dispensing‘ justice in a context which has witnessed systematic human rights abuses and where there is a predictable cost associated with compliance of the law. Drawing on interviews with female war survivors and bureaucrats, literature on critical legal theory, and a scrutiny of the death certificate as a documentary site on which contestations over justice takes place, the chapter asks in what circumstance can ‗limited and imperfect measures‘ be yet endowed with the ‗meaning of justice‘ for war survivors. The Justice Project brings together film-makers, researcher and activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to tease out the multiple dimensions of justice and conflict. The point of departure for these studies is that contests over practices of justice in constitutional systems and publics that are placed on the margins or outside of such systems have and continue to shape the history of the region. Especially in the last decade, the theme of justice in south Asia, has exploded as a major point of engagement and tension for governments, researchers and the several publics, with all three actors sorely unprepared for the speed with which the hydraheaded theme of justice and restitution keeps emerging in different sites. While livelihood, health, ecology, agriculture, etc. are some of the registers in which justice can be interrogated and its domains extended, violent conflicts are the express paradigm that overwrites and underscores all these registers. At the heart of the struggles, theorising and action on justice is the constitutive
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies power of Constitutional Law in South Asia, its silences and complicity with various power structures. In other words, the quest for justice in the South Asian context is marked by a peculiar lacuna: social groups and collective practices emerge from the operations of law, even as they set themselves against the ‗unjustness‘ of law. All country papers and films will be presented and discussed at seminars to be held in Delhi, Colombo, Kathmandu and Dhaka between April and July 2015.
PROMOTING RELIGIOUS HARMONY AND INTER-FAITH DIALOGUE
January 2014 – March 2016 Project and Research Team: Chamindry Saparamadu, Samitha Hettige, Gehan Gunatilleke and Thashiya Nauki Through research, dialogue, education and community interventions, the project aims to enhance understanding between and amongst different religious groups in Sri Lanka, promote social harmony, and foster inter-ethnic and inter-religious coexistence. The project aims, in the long term, to contribute to reducing inter-religious tensions in Sri Lanka to generate a spirit of tolerance and understanding, to contribute to a promotion of religious diversity, and to develop lessons for other societies experiencing similar conflicts. The objectives of the project are:
To capture and map the recent upsurge in inter-religious violence in Sri Lanka, identify good practices and document positive examples of coexistence and social harmony. To enhance the capacity of civil society organisations, including community-based organisations, to promote inter-faith dialogue and engage in social interventions that will foster inter-religious harmony and promote the human rights of all members of the community. To engage key stakeholders including policy-makers, parliamentarians, members of the clergy, the business sector and civil society leaders in a dialogue at the national and regional levels on strategies to foster religious harmony and promote peaceful coexistence.
Project activities will focus on communities representing the main faiths in Ampara, Colombo and Galle districts. The project has three main components: research, capacity-building and public education campaign. It is being implemented in collaboration with Equitas—International Centre for Human Rights Education in Montreal. Equitas has been engaged in human rights education for many years and is acknowledged as an innovator in the field. Its approaches are recognised as best practices globally. In November 2014, the first Training of Trainers (TOT) programme was held with 19 participants.
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies NARRATIVES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE IN THE COURTROOM AND COUNSELLING CENTRES IN TWO DISTRICTS IN SRI LANKA 15 October 2013 – 14 October 2014 Principal Researcher: Chulani Kodikara Research Team: Harshini Ranasinghe, Tharanga Gunasinha, Nadine Vanniasinkam, K. Kuhanithi, S.Tambiah Popular and dominant narratives about intimate partner violence against women ﴾IPVW) circulating in Sri Lanka tend to trivialise, normalise and legitimise such violence. There is ample evidence that such ideas are internalised by women themselves. In this context, this research sought to determine whether ‗counselling‘ provided by non-governmental organisations and ‗court complaints‘ filed under the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 2005 open up a discursive space to talk about a survivor‘s experience of violence in a way not possible or even imagined before. Can these institutional spaces be conceptualised as sites of resistance where dominant discourses around IPVW can be challenged, where alternative women-friendly (if not feminist﴿ understandings of violence can be shared, and where old experiences can be given new meanings? Or conversely, do the discourses about IPVW in counselling centres and court houses reflect, reinforce, reproduce and perpetuate dominant narratives of violence as well as gendered norms of power and control. The study which began in October 2013 and which was completed in January 2015 was based on 50 in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions in the two districts of Batticaloa and Anuradhapura. The following publications came out of this research: ―Balancing Acts: Counselling for Intimate Partner Violence against Women in the Two Districts of Anuradhapura and Batticaloa‖ by Chulani Kodikara, ICES Working Paper 6, November 2014.
―Battered Wives or Dependent Mothers? Negotiating Familial Ideology in Law‖ by Chulani Kodikara, Draft paper for discussion. December 2014, available as a soft copy on ICES website. See following link: http://www.ices.lk/narratives-of-intimate-partner-violenceamong-womens-organisations/
Summaries of these two papers were also translated into Sinhala and Tamil and have been published.
Articles in Journals Two short articles on the research study (one on the theme of counselling and the other on the theme of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act) in all three languages (English, Sinhala and Tamil) were published in the Women and Media Collective blog. See following links:
http://womenandmedia.org/ta/the-prevention-of-domestic-violence-act-andimplementation-problems/
http://womenandmedia.org/ta/counselling-for-intimate-partner-violence-against-women/
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Guidelines for Counselling The project also generated a set of guidelines for counselling from a woman-centred perspective in consultation with experts working on the issue of intimate partner violence and counselling. This is available in Sinhala, Tamil and English.
IDENTIFYING POST-WAR GROWTH AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN SRI LANKA October 2014 – September 2017 Principal Researcher: Mario Gomez Research Team: Danesh Jayatilaka, Ramani Gunatilaka, Suresh de Mel, Ranmini Vithanagama, Muttukrishna Sarvananthan and Shiyana Gunasekera The above research project commenced in October 2014 is part of the ―Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women‖ (GrOW) initiative and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Ottawa), the Department for International Development (DfID, UK), and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (USA). It aims to generate new evidence on the nexus between economic growth, gender equality, and economic empowerment for policy and advocacy. The research sets out to identify the barriers women in the North of the country (in the districts of Jaffna, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and Mannar) face when entering and participating in the labour market and when engaging in livelihood activities. The project aims to conduct a mapping of livelihood interventions provided by the state, the corporate sector, donors and nongovernmental organisations and use quantitative and qualitative surveys to gather data from women-headed households and those households where women co-exist with men. This will be supported by in-depth interviews with vulnerable groups of women, key person interviews, and focus group discussions. The findings of the study will inform policy and programming that are gender sensitive while helping draw up interventions to support women‘s recovery from the war. They will help trigger women‘s economic empowerment within Sri Lanka at the national, provincial and local levels. Representatives from ICES and Point Pedro Institute of Development PPID participated at the Inception Workshop for GrOW at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK on 7-9 October 2014. Following this event an Inception Workshop was held in Vavuniya on 25 October 2014. Quantitative and qualitative questionnaires are in the process of being developed, including a key informant discussion guide, by the respective research teams. The quantitative and qualitative research will commence in 2015. A dedicated literature review on dominant and emerging theories is also being done. The mapping of ‗women focused‘ livelihood projects is underway where information had been collected from Divisional Secretary Offices in the five districts.
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International Centre for Ethnic Studies Two main types of partnerships were planned for the project for civil, academic and policy engagement: the Project Advisory Group (PAG) and the Policy Engagement Committee (PEC). Two meetings of the PAG, consisting of eight eminent members, were held. As capacity-building is a key objective of the project, preparations are being made to provide training to the qualitative field researchers on theory and methodologies in social research related to economic empowerment of women by INTRAC from Oxford, UK during the months of March–May 2015. Training will be provided to the enumerators prior to the commencement of the quantitative survey.
CLIMATE CHANGE March – August 2014 Researcher: Kasun Pathiraja In 2014, ICES in partnership with Diakonia conducted a study on ―Climate Change Measures Lacking Funding in Sri Lanka‖. This report captures the present situation of climate change and its impact on the lives of the people in Sri Lanka. Primary and secondary data were collected to assess effectiveness of adaptation measures that different stakeholders have used so far in the fields of agriculture, water and infrastructure. The report gives estimated funding needs for the most urgent and critical adaptation interventions that have to be implemented by the government and international donor agencies. The objective of the study was to highlight that climate change is a critical problem that Sri Lanka is facing and highlight the need for additional funding to support further adaptation measures. A report was published based on this study and findings were disseminated during Geneva Climate Change Conference in February 2015.
RIGHT TO INFORMATION As part of an effort to build a civil society coalition around the ‗Right to Information‘, ICES organised several meetings and dialogues with civil society, the media and Members of Parliament. The objective of these meetings was to revive the debate around the Right to Information, to encourage Parliament to enact legislation on the subject, and to advocate for greater transparency at all levels of government. ICES also coordinated a joint civil society submission to the President of Sri Lanka requesting him to initiate a dialogue on Right to Information at the SAARC Summit and ensure the adoption of a Right to Information law in Sri Lanka. Fourteen civil society organisations signed the letter and this initiative was undertaken in partnership with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and other groups in South Asia who made similar interventions from their respective countries.
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PUBLICATIONS The ICES has published almost 160 books, monographs and reports, which make it an important source of information on contemporary ideas. This also includes monographs and reports of workshops the ICES has conducted on human rights, religion, anthropology, politics, women‘s studies, sociology, judiciary in plural societies, education and ethnicity, and periodicals, research papers, working papers and lectures.
Publications in 2014
War Making and State Building: The Politics of State Reform in Sri Lanka by Sanayi Marcelline, 2014 (pp. 119) This book traces the failure of democratic state reform in the past 30 years in Sri Lanka through a deep and well-articulated study of dominant discursive framings of the Sri Lanka Tamil insurrection as ‗terrorism‘ and political reform as illegitimate. Even more importantly this publication is an invitation to action as the end of the war and collapse of the Sri Lanka Tamil project has created an opportunity to think about alternative ways to democratise the state.
Human Rights Practice in Sri Lanka: Towards a Thick Description by Shermal Wijewardene & Vijay K. Nagaraj, 2014 (pp. 137) This monograph is a pioneering attempt to examine the practice of human rights through the eyes of the practitioners with critical responses from the researchers. The book brings out perspectives and evidence that are useful for developing a critical body of literature on the academically unexplored field of human rights politics in Sri Lanka. It makes an important contribution to the scholarship on human rights in Sri Lanka.
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Short Think Pieces With the objective of producing new knowledge on the post-war reconciliation and recovery processes, ICES commissioned a series of papers on the theme of ‗Post-War Reconciliation in Sri Lanka‘. The short think pieces seek to explore the complex and contested nature of building peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, taking into account the history of the conflict and the current socio-political and economic configurations. In 2014 the following research and working papers were published.
Research Papers
―Contextualizing Post-War Reconciliation Sri Lanka: The Political Economy of Territorial Control in Historical Perspective‖ by Charan Rainford, ICES Research Paper 12, June 2014.
―Competing for Victimhood Status:
Northern Muslims and the Ironies of Post-War
Reconciliation, Justice and Development‖ by Farzana Haniffa, ICES Research Paper 13, July 2014.
―Ethical Reconstruction? Primitive Accumulation in the Apparel Sector of Eastern Sri Lanka‖ by Annelies Goger and Kanchana N. Ruwanpura, ICES Research Paper 14, October 2014.
Working Papers
―A Quota for Women in Local Government in Sri Lanka: Questions of Equality, Modernity and Political Leverage‖ by Chulani Kodikara, ICES Working Paper 5, July 2014.
Dissemination of ICES Research Findings at International Conferences
Asela Ekanayake presented a paper titled ―Going to School from a Relocated Urban Community: Struggling for Education within Imposed Walls‖ at the annual conference on ‗How Do Education Systems Shape Inequalities‖ organised by Institute of Education and Society, University of Luxembourg in July 2014.
ICES researchers Mario Gomez, Danesh Jayathilaka, Avanti Kalansooriya and Kasun Pathiraja presented a panel on ―Framing Identities and Reclaiming Rights: Reconciliation in Post-War Sri Lanka‖ and presented their research at the 15th International Conference of International Association for the Study of Forced Migration held in Bogota, Colombia (July 2014). The ICES also made a bid to host the 2018 meeting in Sri Lanka.
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LECTURES, DISCUSSIONS and WORKSHOPS
―Rethinking Encounters: Cultural Flows and Hybridity in Sri Lanka‖ by Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London on 10 January 2014 (Kandy).
Jaffna Dialogue: ―Democratizing the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability Participants‖ by C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister, Northern Province and others on 10 January 2014.
Visit of seven East African Women Human Right Defenders and discussion on 29 January 2014 (Kandy).
―The Many Functions of Federalism and Devolution‖ by Donald L. Horowitz on 29 January 2014 (Colombo) and on 31 January 2014 (Jaffna).
―Recital of People‘s Poetry of the Nation‘s Past‖ by Gananath Obeyesekere on 6 February 2014 (Kandy).
Lecture and discussion on ―The Anglo-Scottish Union, Empire and the Referendum on the Independence of Scotland‖ by Tom Devine and Angela McCarthy on 6 February 2014.
―Forthcoming Indian General Election‖ by N. Ram, Chairman, Hindu Group of Newspapers on 24 February 2014.
Public Seminar, ―Accessing Information is Our Right‖ on 12 March 2014 (Kandy).
Book Launch: A Pot-pourri by Selvy Thiruchandran on 20 March 2014.
―Role of Ancient Indian Societies and Systems in Contemporary Polity‖ by Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Chaudhary Chavan Singh, University on Traditional Knowledge Systems in Contemporary Approaches and Neerja A. Gupta, Principal, Bhavan‘s Arts and Commerce College on 8 April 2014.
―From Sri Lanka to Faulkner to Florida and Back Again: Reading and Writing Novels Across Cultures‖ by Randy Boyagoda, Professor of American Studies, Ryerson University, Toronto on 9 May 2014.
―From Colombo to Sri Jayewardenepura: The Schizoid Subjectivities of Post-Colonial Capitals‖ by Anoma Pieris, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne on 21 May 2014.
A discussion on ―Time's Confluence and Other Poems‖ a collection of poems recently published by Godfrey Gunatilleke the Chairman Emeritus of Marga Institute on 28 May 2014 (Kandy).
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International Conference on ―Twenty-Five Years in Retrospect: Buddhism, Ethnic Conflicts and Religious Harmony in South and South East Asia‖ on 26 - 27 June 2014 (Kandy).
―Sri Lankans of African Descent: Heritage, Identity and Connectivity‖ by Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London on 10 July 2014.
Visit to ICES by third year Tamil medium students of the Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya facilitated by Faziha Azmi on 20 October 2014 (Kandy).
―Murder in the Cathedral: The Conspiracy to Assassinate Kirti Sri Rajasingha by Monks and Aristocrats in 1760 CE‖, a talk by Gananath Obeyesekere on 29 October (Kandy).
―Religious Violence in South Asia‖ by Ram Puniyani, former Professor of Biomedical Engineering and former Senior Medical Officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai on 2 December 2014.
Workshop by Chulani Kodikara, ―Narratives of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Counselling Centres in Batticaloa and Auradhapura‖ on 4 December 2014 (Kandy)
―The Doomed King: In Defense of Sri Vikrama Rajasingha‖, a talk by Gananath Obeyesekere on 17 December 2014 (Kandy).
Discussion on ―Priorities for the President: Civil Society Perspectives‖ with Radhika Coomaraswamy, Global Professor of Law, New York University, former UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict and former Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Udan Fernando, Senior Professional, Communications and Policy Programme, Centre for Poverty Analysis, and Feizal Samath, Editor, Business Times on 17 December 2014.
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FILM SCREENINGS The ICES has a monthly film screening and also screens documentaries and conducts regular film festivals. The following films were screened in 2014:
Blue Jasmine - 28 March
No (Chile) - 28 April
12 Years a Slave (USA) - 27 June The Past (Iran) - 31 July
Blue is the Warmest Color (France, Belgium, Spain) - 29 August
The Hunt (Denmark) - 29 September
The Past (Iran) - 1 October (Kandy)
Honk (Documentary) - 10 October Russia - 29 October
Omar (Palestine) - 28 November
Film Festivals
Documentary Film ―Don't Think of Me as a Woman: An Election Story from the Margins‖ by Chulani Kodikara and Velayudan Jayachithra on 6 March (Colombo), 20 May (Kandy)
International Women‘s Day Film Festival from 10–12 March. Films screened: Wadja (Saudi Arabia); Desert Flower (Germany); Twin Sisters (The Netherlands)
International Women‘s Day Film Festival from 13–14 March. Films screened: Barbara (German); About Elly (Iran) - Kandy
American Movie Classics – A Festival of Award Winning Films from 26–30 May: Films screened: Guess Who‘s Coming to Dinner (1967); Casablanca (1942); Witness for the Prosecution (1957); Who‘s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966); Rear Window (1954); The Great Escape (1963); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966); 12 Angry Men (1957); Roman Holiday (1953)
Human Rights Day Film Festival from 8–10 December: Films screened: The Act of Killing, Cry, the Beloved Country, Conviction
World Human Rights Day Film Festival from 10–11 December. Films screened: War Witch (Canada); Life is Beautiful (Italy) - Kandy
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VISITING INTERNS Shayani Jayasinghe (February 2014 – April 2014) Thashiya Nauki (October 2014 – December 2014)
VISITING SCHOLARS Donald Horowitz, Professor of Political Science and Law, Duke University, USA
VISITING RESEARCHERS Can Sezgin, Doctoral Student, University of Tuebingen, Germany Thea Peterson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Rianne Laan, University of Cape Town, South Africa Rebecka Rydberg, King‘s College, London Shiyana Gunasekara, Fulbright Scholar
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WEBSITE The ICES website contains information on the activities and research of the Centre. Full texts of some ICES research material are available for download. The current content of the website includes a 'Publication' section that lists all ICES publications, and a section on 'Research' that highlights all the research projects, past and on-going, undertaken by ICES. There is a video gallery that has video clips on short interviews and monologues on issues. The ICES web site was re-designed and re-launched in October2013 with a view to make it more appealing and to integrate social media sites. Security was also strengthened and monthly backups will be made to ensure data is not lost.
LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION CENTRE The two libraries in Colombo and Kandy constitute the central academic facility of the Centre, both in resources and standing as the repository of knowledge. The library specialises in social sciences and women's studies with strong collections on ethnicity, culture and history. It also has an excellent collection on law, religion, anthropology, transitional justice and fiction. It contains one of the best collections on ethnicity and identity politics in the country. The library holdings include material usually unavailable to scholars from the Asian region. The library plays an important role in all academic activities of ICES. It is not only used by the research staff of the Centre, but also serves scholars, academics, senior government officials, politicians, media people, universities and other research institutes. The catalogue is being computerised and will enable better access to the collection in the future. Readers can also make use of the wireless internet connection in the library.
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STAFF Executive Director Mario Gomez Administrative, Finance, IT and Library Ponnudurai Thambirajah – Chief Librarian B. M. Mowsil – PA to the Executive Director Gallage Ayoma Shyamalee – Finance Officer Bhagya Wijayasooriya – Accounts Executive Dimuth Geethananda – Assistant Librarian/IT Officer Lakmali Alwis – Assistant Librarian Anthony Christopher – Receptionist Kandiah Raveendran – Office Assistant Rengasamy Arumugam – Office Assistant Chalani Lokugamage – Finance and Administration Manager Iranga Silva – Publications Officer and Managing Editor, IJESS - Kandy Vasantha Premaratne – Programme Coordinator - Kandy Niranjala Sarojini – Librarian and Documentation Officer - Kandy Samarakoon Bandara – Administrative/Accounts Executive - Kandy Saleeka Peiris – Secretary and Receptionist - Kandy R. Wasantha Jayawathie – Office Assistant - Kandy
Research and Programme Staff Chulani Kodikara – Senior Researcher Kasun Pathiraja – Senior Project Coordinator Chamindry Saparamadu – Senior Programme Coordinator (Left 17 November 2014) Avanthi Kalansooriya – Programme Officer (Left 31 July 2014) Sumudhu Jayasinghe – Programme Officer (Left 31 July 2014) Asela Ekanayake – Programme Officer Harshini Ranasinghe – Programme Coordinator (Left 31 December 2014) Danesh Jayatilaka, Research Fellow – (Joined 1 October 2014) Samitha Hettige – Senior Programme Officer (Joined 15 August 2014) Faslan Mohamed – Programme Officer - 1 January 2014 Nadine Vanniasinkam – Programme Officer - 1 January 2014 Shayani Jayasinghe – Programme Officer (Joined 19 May 2014 - left 18 August 2014) Rishan Sathasivam – Programme Officer (Joined 19 May 2014 - left 31 August 2014) Ranmini Vithanagama – Programme Officer Emeritus Fellow Radhika Coomaraswamy - Joined 1 August 2014
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FINANCE: KANDY/COLOMBO
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COLOMBO OFFICE 2, Kynsey Terrace, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka Tel: +94 11 2679745; +94 11 2685085 Fax: +94 11 2698048
KANDY OFFICE 554/6A, Peradeniya Road, Kandy, Sri Lanka Tel: +94 81 2232381; +94 81 2234892 Fax: +94 81 2234892
web: www.ices.lk