Batticaloa District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) worked with religious leaders and government officials to end a conflict over burial grounds in the Vaharai area. Pressure and advocacy of the members resulted in government land being allocated for a new graveyard for non Catholics.

Hambantota town in a multi religious and multi ethnic place; although the majority are Sinhalese, there is a sizeable Muslim and Tamil population. For many years people of different ethnicities and religions have lived in harmony without disputes or conflicts.

NPC’s project, Post Conflict Healing: A Women’s Manifesto, was implemented with the support of FOKUS from April 2014 to December 2016 in nine districts across the country that were both directly and indirectly affected by the war: Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Ampara, Galle, Hambantota, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, and Puttalam.

At its monthly meeting, Jaffna DIRC discussed ways of persuading Buddhist monks and other Sinhala people to join the committee and decided to make a plan to achieve this. Members agreed that activities could not be effective without the participation of all religious leaders and ethnic communities.

Around 50 people including representatives of Community Based Organizations, Kattankudy community leaders and DIRC members took part in an Ifthar organized by the Batticaloa DIRC under NPC’s Promoting Inter-faith and Inter-ethnic Dialogue project.

The NPC carried out training on Transitional Justice (TJ) for a group of local level politicians and community leaders from the Galle and Matara Districts under its USAID-funded Religions to Reconcile project, which is implemented with a Jordan based partner organization, Generations For Peace.

Members of Batticaloa’s District Inter Religious Committee (DIRC) decided to make it a Vesak with a difference by inviting people of all religions to participate in the celebrations. Although the Batticaloa district is home to Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese, the different communities rarely participate at each other’s festivals.

A one-week training on conflict transformation for peace workers was held in Colombo under NPC’s Religions to Reconcile project, which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented with a Jordan-based partner organization, Generations For Peace.

A dispute between Buddhists and Muslims because of a Buddha statue in front of a meat shop belonging to Muslims was discussed at DIRC Badulla’s monthly meeting under NPC’s project Reconciling Inter Ethnic and Inter Religious Differences (RIID).

About us

The National Peace Council (NPC) was established as an independent and impartial national non-government organization