News

A peace march to promote religious freedom and pluralism was organized by the Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) in Weligama and NPC’s local partner Voice of South under the NPC’s project Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF). The message of the march was creating coexistence through multi religious values, teachings and celebrations.

Under NPC’s project Inter-faith and Inter-ethnic dialogue in Sri Lanka, members of the District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) in Batticaloa and Trincomalee discussed several issues that were contributing to religious and ethnic tension in their districts, and planned activities to alleviate the tension.

In a citizens’ response to the riots that took place in Kandy in March this year, a Citizens’ Truth Commission was set up by the Kandy District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) to find the root causes of the violence.

A joint three day meeting was held in Habarana between the Trincomalee and Batticaloa DIRCs under NPC’s project Inter-faith and Inter-ethnic Dialogue in Sri Lanka, facilitated by the Asia Foundation (TAF) and NPC. The meeting gave an opportunity for the two DIRCs to exchange experiences and learn from each other.

A workshop on the Local Authorities Act and the Transitional Justiceprocess was held for 38 local politicians in Matara. Thirty eight local level politicians, including opposition leaders and members of local authorities, attended the workshop.

The first workshop for community youth leaders under the UN Peace Building Fund supported “Youth Engagement with Transitional Justice for Long Lasting Peace in Sri Lanka” was held in Kalutara.

A training workshop on Transitional Justice (TJ) for 40 religious leaders from all faiths from the Kandy, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura districts was held in Kandy.

A training workshop on Non-Violent Communication (NVC) was conducted for 26 members of Local Inter Religious Committees (LIRCs) in Vavuniya to provide a conceptual overview of NVC, as well as hands on skills.

Eighty members of DIRCs, sub groups and local partner organizations have formulated a draft Charter on Pluralism based on their understanding of pluralism and building a Sri Lankan identity.

In the wake of the anti-Muslim violence that erupted in Digana and earlier in Ampara, District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) in several districts took immediate steps to ease the conflict situation.

Matara DIRC hosted DIRC members and others from Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi during as exchange visit to build empathy and understanding among communities in different districts under NPC’s Religions to Reconcile project. The 89 participants included DIRC members, religious leaders, youth, the differently abled, media, local politicians and community leaders.

An orientation meeting for NPC’s partners from 21 districts was held under the project Youth Engagement with Transitional Justice for Long Lasting Peace in Sri Lanka. The project is funded by United Nations Peace Building Fund and implemented with the support of Legal Action World Wide and Harvard Law School.

A workshop for community leaders on Training of Trainers on Transitional Justice (TJ) was held in Colombo in cooperation with Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) under the project Technical Assistance to Justice Institutions in Sri Lanka.

Leaders from all religions attended an almsgiving ceremony at the Sri Nagavihara Temple in Jaffna in memory of Ven. Meegahajandure Gnanaratane Thero, the former Chief Incumbent of the temple.

Six days after the local government elections of February 10, civil society activists from several districts around the country involved in promoting inter religious cooperation for peace took part in a meeting organized by the National Peace Council in Colombo. They saw the government’s poor electoral performance as a result of its failure to honour the mandate it had received in 2015 for good governance, anti-corruption, strong state institutions, economic development and inter ethnic justice and reconciliation.

Young people of different religions and ethnicities were trained in peace building and conflict analysis at a five day residential training programme on Conflict Transformation in Colombo.