Under NPC’s Reconciling Inter Religious and Inter Ethnic Differences (RIID) project Phase II, an orientation meeting was conducted at NPC for its partners and District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) leaders.

Twenty two representatives from DIRCs and partners from Jaffna, NuwaraEliya, Galle, Mannar, Puttalam, Batticaloa, Ampara, Kandy and Matara participated in the meeting.

The objective of the orientation was to brief the participants on the elements of the project and to raise awareness about the Geneva resolution on Sri Lanka and the Transitional Justice (TJ) process. Speakers included NPC Chairman Dr. Joe William, Executive Director Dr.Jehan Perera, Programme Manager Thushara Ranasinghe and Project Coordinator Saman Seneviratne.

“The Sri Lankan government has promised to follow the Transitional Justice(TJ) process to reconcile post war Sri Lanka according to international standards. There are many misrepresentations about TJ. For example, when it comes to accountability, people think it’s about taking members of the armed forces to the electric chair,” said Dr. William.

“Therefore we have a responsibility to educate people about TJ since we need their support to implement TJ mechanisms to bring about reconciliation in our country. That is what we have been doing,” he added.