Women's Human Rights in post-conflict in Sri Lanka
In this lecture, Sunila Abeysekera will talk about women's rights groups in Sri Lanka, working for equality and an end to violence against women within a context of growing authoritarianism and shrinking public space for dissent and diverse opinions.
During the period of protracted conflict in Sri Lanka, women's rights groups continued to work on issues of violence against women, women's political participation and affirming women's equality in civil and political arenas.They also worked for broader democratic agendas including the freedom of expression and a non-violent resolution of the ethnic conflict with full and equal rights for the minority communities of Sri Lanka. Since the military conflict came to an end in May 2009, women's rights groups confront the challenge of working for equality and an end to violence against women within a context of growing authoritarianism and shrinking public space for dissent and diverse opinions.
Sunila Abeysekera
Sunila Abeysekera is a Sri Lankan feminist and human rights defender with many years of experience working on women's rights and human rights issues in Sri Lanka and globally. She works with INFORM, a human rights documentation centre based in Colombo. In 1998, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, she received the UN Human Rights prize from the UN Secretary General for her work on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. She is presently a Research Fellow at the International institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, in the Hague.
Modern South Asia Seminar
The lecture series of the Modern South Asia Seminar is co-funded within the AMT Research Funding scheme, IIAS and LIAS.
Asian Modernities and Traditions
The research profile Asian Modernities and Traditions (AMT) aims to raise the strength and visibility of research, teaching and dissemination of Asian studies at Leiden University.