News

An important finding with regard to religious freedom and inter religious tolerance that came out of NPC’s research into the state of religious freedom in the country is that it already exists in substantial measure within the community. What is needed is to protect it from politically motivated intrusions from both within and more so from outside the community.

As part of its on going intervention on inter religious coexistence, NPC commissioned a survey, conducted in the 25 districts of the country, to capture the level of freedom each community enjoys to practice its religion.

Students of the Sabaragamuwa University organized a Transitional Justice (TJ) campaign to educate other students about TJ and make them a part of the process of building durable peace in Sri Lanka.

Several project orientation meetings and town hall meetings were held in districts across the country under NPC’s project, Consolidating Ongoing Multi-Level Partnership Actions for Conflict Transformation (COMPACT).

A National Symposium attended by more than 250 members of District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs), NGOs and civil society and trade union representatives was conducted in Colombo to discuss current political issues. It was supported by the Civil Society and Trade Unions Collective under NPC’s project, Consolidating Ongoing Multi-level Partnership Actions for Conflict Transformation (COMPACT).

NPC organized a seven day training on Community-based Social Cohesion and Reconciliation for Community Facilitators under its project Social Cohesion and Reconciliation (SCORE) for 34 participants from the Jaffna, Trincomalee, Vavuniya and Moneragala districts.

About 42 participants, including religious leaders, took part in a two day training on the rule of law in Negombo under NPC’s project Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF).

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya praised civil society members, including three NPC staff members, for opposing the Constitutional coup of October last year when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and appointed former president Mahinda Rajapakse in his place, at a felicitation ceremony organized by the Puttalam District Development Foundation.

NPC’s District Inter Religious Committees (DIRCs) have conducted several seminars and awareness raising activities around the country since October in the wake of the Constitutional crisis triggered by President Maithripala Sirisena’s sacking of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe.

Village level officials and DIRC members in Trincomalee and Batticaloa attended meetings to discuss early warning and early response practices to avoid ethnic and religious conflict in their areas under NPC’s project, Inter-faith and Inter-ethnic dialogue in Sri Lanka.

Three orientation meetings were carried out under NPC’s new project Consolidating Ongoing Multi-level Partnership Actions for Conflict Transformation (COMPACT) funded by Misereor and CAFOD.

Over 200 religious leaders, community leaders, persons with disabilities, local politicians, women, youth and journalists attended a National Inter Religious Symposium in Colombo under NPC’s project Religions to Reconcile.

National Inter Religious Symposium of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka (NPC) is being held at the Lotus Room of the BMICH today (January 28, 2019) from 9 am to 3 pm. This is part of the project "Religions to Reconcile" (R2R), an ongoing initiative supported by USAID.

This symposium is the culmination of a major initiative that will see the launch of a Pluralism Charter embodying the distillation of three years of consultations with multi religious and multi ethnic communities mobilized through our work at the ground level.

Father Benjamin Henry Miller passed away on December 31 as the year 2018 came to its close. This was the end of a long chapter in a single individual’s defense of human rights.

Forty five students from the University of Ruhuna participated in a training programme on Transitional Justice (TJ) with team building activities, lectures, film screenings and participatory discussions under NPC’s project Youth Engagement with Transitional Justice for Long-lasting Peace in Sri Lanka.

Members of the Beruwala Local Inter Religious Committee (LIRC) visited Ampara and shared their experiences with the LIRC members of Addalachenai under NPC’s project Collective Engagement for Religious Freedom (CERF), in a bid to promote inter religious and inter ethnic harmony.