Strategic Mapping of Women's Peace Activism in Sri Lanka

Strategic Mapping of

Women’s Peace Activismin Sri Lanka

© Women and Med ia Collective

First Print April 2009

ISBN 978-955-1770-03-7

Compiled by :Sarala Emmanuel

Cover Photo by :Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala

Cover & Layout :Damayanthi MuthukumarageVelayudan Jayachithra

Supported by :

Women and Med ia Collective174 Alwis Avenue, Castle Street, Colombo 8, Sri LankaPhone: +94-11-2690192, 2690201, 5635800, 5632045Fax: +94-11-2690192Email: womed [email protected]: www.womenandmed ia.net

Published by :

Executive Summary 051. Introduction 122. Conceptual frameworks for analysing confl ict and peace 143. History of women’s movement activism and civil society

activism in Sri Lanka 174. Analysing women’s peace activism 20

4.1 `Women’s peace activism in the 1980s – l inkingpeace work with socio-economic rights 25

4.2 Movement pol itics and identity pol itics 264.3 Peace build ing and peace making - deal ing with the

everyday real ities of confl ict 294.4 Addressing issues of justice 324.5 Creating alternative d iscourses and spaces through

cultural and mainstream med ia 334.6 Networking 344.7 International advocacy and lobbying 374.8 Research and theorising 374.9 Memory and History 374.10 Working from within – involvement with government

initiatives 384.11 Lobbying with key stakeholders to the formal peace process 39

5. Conclusion 405.1 Threats and challenges – the socio-pol itical context 405.2 Mobil ity 415.3 Cultural Barriers 415.4 Fund ing 41

6. Reflections and recommendations 426.1 Assessing impact 426.2 Moving towards consol idating achievements of

women’s peace initiatives 436.3 Build ing and strengthening women’s pol itical participation 446.4 Networks and networking 44

Footnotes 46Bibl iography 48

C o n t e n t s

44444 Strategic Mapping of Women’s Peace Activism in Sri LankaWomen’s Organizations celebrating International Peace Dayorganized by Sri Lanka Women for Peace and Democracy, 2007

5 5 5 5 5 Strategic Mapping of Women’s Peace Activism in Sri Lanka

This report has been compiled frominterviews with women (and men)

associated with 17 organisations that have beeninvolved in peace build ing work in Sri Lanka. Ithas also drawn from the existing l iterature onpeace work and women’s activism in Sri Lanka. Adraft of this report was presented to a gatheringof representatives from the organisationsinterviewed, long-term women activists, thoseinvolved in peace work, academics andinternational organisations working in this f ield.The critiques, recommendations and d iscussionpoints raised at this meeting have also beenincluded in this report.

The report records some of the actions taken byind ividuals, groups of women, and organisationsto respond to the impact of confl ict on women,as well as initiatives taken to promote peace atthe community, d istrict, national and interna-tional levels. These activities were selected torepresent varied types of interventions, the longduration of peace activism and the spread ofwork geographically within Sri Lanka.

Internationally there has been a growing recog-nition that the impact of war on women issignif icantly d ifferent to that of men and thatwomen’s long term peace build ing activities

Executive Summary

have largely been marginal ised from most formalpeace negotiation processes. This global recog-nition has been further strengthened by UnitedNations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace andSecurity which was adopted by the UN SecurityCouncil in October 2000. This report on mappingwomen’s peace initiatives illustrates how SriLankan women’s groups have been involved inworking on many of the areas d iscussed in theparagraphs of the Resolution as part of their dayto day responses to confl ict and also as part oftheir long term strategic work towards promot-ing women’s human rights in Sri Lanka. Much ofthis work began long before the Resolution wasadopted and continues to-date. Therefore theinformation in this report can be a source ofknowledge for future initiatives to promote UNResolution 1325. The conclud ing section of thisreport provides some suggestions on how theUN Resolution 1325 can be used to strengthenthe work of women’s groups and organisationsin Sri Lanka.

The aim of this report is to map initiatives aswell as the ways in which women’s activism haschanged and evolved to respond to the changingsocio pol itical context. The analysis explores theunderlying concepts that have influenced the

66666 Strategic Mapping of Women’s Peace Activism in Sri Lanka

assumptions about the nature of confl ict, andthe objectives for engaging in peace work.

The objective of this exercise is to provide aframework-document which can be useful forind ividual women’s groups and organisations toassess their own work, as well as for thewomen’s movement and organisations involvedin peace work to collectively and critically reflecton the initiatives taken so far.

The report is divided into three sections. First,this report engages with concepts of confl ictand peace build ing from existing l iterature,particularly focusing on feministconceptual isations of war, mil itarism, violenceand peace build ing, as an exploration into peaceactivism in Sri Lanka cannot be d iscussed inisolation as mere activities, without frameworksthat enable us to place this work within the largersocio pol itical context and women’s movementactivism in Sri Lanka.

In the second section this report traces thehistory of women’s movement activism, activismwithin social movements and within civil societyorganisations again drawing on existing l itera-ture.

The f inal part of the report describes the d iffer-ent types of activities that have been used bywomen’s groups and organisations, based ontheir particular assumptions about the causesand the nature of confl ict. This section endswith a d iscussion of how UN Resolution 1325can be affectively used in the context of SriLankan women’s peace activism.

It is important to note that each sub section usesinitiatives and organisations as examples todescribe particular types of activities. This doesnot mean these are the only organisationsinvolved in these particular types of work. Thefinal part of the report and its analysis, andindeed this entire mapping exercise is onlyind icative of types of initiatives and is notrepresentative of all the work done in Sri Lanka.Also, to enable a concise analysis, the f inal partof the report also singles out specific key inter-ventions of organisations, although theorganisations have often been involved in avariety of activities over the years.

What has been theconceptualisation of peace thathas guided different interven-tions?

One of the key underlying concepts that hasguided women’s engagement with peace build-ing has been the identif ication of violence asexisting along a continuum. Women oftenexperienced the, “connected forms of domesticand political violence that stretched from thehome, to the street to thebattlef ield”(Manchanda, 2001. p. 17).Thisconceptual isation has provided a broaderframework which has enabled us to look atwomen as also impl icated in violence and torecognise that the end of formal confl ict doesnot mean peace for women.

Through the interviews what emerged was thatoften women’s work towards build ing peace hasrecognised these connected forms and was basedon the understand ing that people should l ive in ajust society and not be subjected to socioeconomic marginal isation, cultural oppression,patriarchal power relations and pol itical d is-crimination. Some women’s groups recognisedthe right to self determination of minoritycommunities, some based their work on thepremise that a pol itical settlement to the confl ictwas essential, some organisations had made theconceptual l ink that violence during confl ictspread in a continuum from within the home tothe community and country and their activismtherefore was not l imited to periods def ined asconfl ict-times but also extended to t imes ofceasefires and peace processes. Someorganisations’ work towards peace was aboutthe daily resistance of the mil itarisation of theirhomes and communities. Others had l inkeddevelopment work to peace build ing work andaddressed issues of l ivel ihoods, health andpoverty.

This report puts forward a proposition that thetheorising and documenting of peace work hasbeen signif icantly d ifferent from the theorisingand documentation of women’s movementactivism for peace.


Feminist theorising and analysis of women’speace activism has had some d istinctive fea-tures. Women’s peace activism has usually beenconceptually placed within women’s pol iticalparticipation in labour movements, in antiimperial ist struggles and left movements(Tambiah, 2002; De Mel, 2001; Giles 2003).Therefore an important observation that is madein this report is that women’s peace activism hasbeen a part of their broader work towardsaddressing issues of socio economic

marginal isation, cultural oppression, patriarchalpractices, labour rights, pol itical rights andjustice. Peace work has not been a separate orisolated activity, and women’s engagement withthese other d imensions has not been instrumen-tal or simply as a means to bring about peace.These d imensions related to structural injusticeand oppression, were seen as inherently impor-tant, and as being both inter-connected with andindependent from issues of war and armedconfl ict.

An overview of interventions and strategies documented in this report

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report on future peace build ing work by womenin Sri Lanka. The reflections and recommenda-tions have also been l inked to particular UNinstruments – namely United Nations SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 and Convention on theEl imination of all forms of DiscriminationAgainst Women(CEDAW) as a way of highl ight-ing how these UN instruments can be useful infuture work in terms of women and peacebuild ing.1

Assessing impact

There has been much comment on why thepeace movement in Sri Lanka cannot mobil ise asmuch support as the mainstream pol iticalparties. Also there has been analysis of theimpact of donor fund ing and ‘NGOisation’ ofsocial movements in weakening pol itical activ-ism (Orjuela, 2004; Burke and Mulakala, 2005).Indeed, this report also notes the efforts madeover the years by women’s groups and thechallenges they have faced in trying to mobil isewomen for peace.

This report does not explore the impact oreffectiveness of specif ic interventions. As thevarious examples in this paper illustrate,women’s groups have used d iverse strategies,which call for equally varied approaches toimpact assessment. It is important to evaluatethe strategies that have been used – for example,the work towards increasing women’s pol iticalparticipation, the work done to build networks,or the publ ic advocacy and campaign work andthe lobbying and advocacy during the formalpeace process for the inclusion of women andgender concerns in the peace negotiations of

2002/03. Also it is important to note that thoughwomen’s peace activism, specially in the 1980sand 1990s l inked peace work with socio-eco-nomic and pol itical rights, there would havebeen an impact of donor fund ing for stand-alonepeace projects, on the work of women’sorganisations. This report in its l imited scalecannot fully explore this impact. It is hoped,however, that this paper may be useful to stimu-late some future d iscussions about the impact ofsome strategies and possible future work in thisfield. Therefore a follow up study to this reportcould be a sensitively developed research pro-cess to assess the impact of women’s peaceactivism in Sri Lanka.

Moving towards consol idat ingachievements of women’s peaceinitiatives

UNSCR 1325 Paragraph 8(b) -Recognising women’s day today interventions inresponding to conflict andpromoting peace – supportingand sustaining this work

Women’s groups and organisations haveprovided independent spaces for women todevelop pol itical awareness and leadership, to beable to challenge mil itarisation and war at theircommunity level as well as nationally fromoutside mainstream pol itics, and haveconsistently voiced alternative d iscourses to thepowerful mil itaristic, national istic and extremistd iscourses. Therefore these small but potentinitiatives need to be supported and


strengthened so that women’s voices and visionscan influence publ ic d iscourse and any futurepol itical negotiation to the confl ict.

One of the important outcomes of this mappingprocess was that there was a serious and criticalreflection about the work, by those who werepart of it. In this vein, a key observation of thoseinterviewed was that though women’s groupshave been working over a number of years withincommunities, keeping al ive the d iscussions andanalysis of peace, democracy, justice andmil itarisation, these d iscussions have not beenconsol idated and effectively employed atstrategic levels of intervention within the pol icyand pol itical spheres. There needs to be somecreative thought on how this can be achieved.One possible f irst step in this regard would be tocarry out research and d iscussions using feministresearch methodologies with community womenabout their own day to day initiatives inrespond ing to the confl ict and local level peacemaking, and their suggestions on how theseresponses could be translated into strategic levelactivism and action.

An important area of future work that wasidentif ied was respond ing to the militarisationof communities, especially of the youth. Thisissue was raised by women working in confl ictareas and villages bordering confl ict areas.Mil itarisation was seen as a serious challenge tocreating spaces for representation and voice.Therefore there needs to be collective reflectionand strategising on how women’s groups couldrespond to the mil itarisation of theircommunities, especially its effect and impact onyouth, and to collectively respond to stateideologies of war and mil itarisation throughadvocacy.

The participants at the presentation of the draftreport identif ied a d isconnect between thoseorganisations who focus mainly on advocacyand lobbying work and those organisationsprovid ing case-by-case support to women,children and men affected by confl ict. Therefore,there is a need to look back at moments whenthere was strong cohesion between thesestrands of work and drawing from thatexperience to strengthen conceptual andprogrammatic l inks between these two areas ofwork. This would provide more support for the

locally based organisations d irectly working withcommunities as well as enrich the advocacy andlobbying work.

The capacity and strength of women’s groups toactively support ind ividual women orcommunities has to also be further strengthenedwith add itional skills and resources in terms ofpsycho – socio- economic support, casemanagement, documentation and supervisionsupport.

Questions were raised as to whether adequateeffort has been made by women’s groups tosustain or consol idate the empowerment, socialchanges and challenges to patriarchal relationsthat have taken place due to the confl ict. Thereis a need to ensure that support systems andcapacity have been built up to avoid localcond itions reverting to oppressive past formswhen confl ict ceases or changes. Many stud ieshave analysed and documented the impact ofNGOs and women’s groups in bringing aboutwomen’s empowerment and leadership inconfl ict contexts and these stud ies provide arich source of knowledge that could be usefulfor a comprehensive analysis and d iscussion asto how these gains can be build upon (seefootnote 7).

Building on and strengtheningwomen’s political participation

UNSCR 1325 Paragraph 1, Para-graph 8(c) CEDAW Article 7a,b,cWomen’s part icipation in polit icaland public life, CEDAW GR 23 (1997)Political and public life, CEDAW GR6 (2003) Effect ive national machin-ery and publicity.

Another area which was identif ied as requiring agreater and a sustained amount of work waswomen’s pol itical participation especially at thelocal levels – as peace making and peace build ingwas seen as an inherently pol itical process2.Within this broader area of work some possibleinterventions identif ied were -

Creating a d ialogue with communities aboutwomen’s pol itical participation andrepresentation


Creating awareness, supporting andempowering women to engage withmainstream pol itics

Coming up with strategies on how women’sgroups could engage with any future peaceprocess or pol itical negotiation process witha critical reflection on past experiences. Thiswould then help guide the long and med iumterm work towards build ing a constituency ofwomen pol itical representatives.

Networks and networking

UNSCR 1325 Paragraph 1, Women’srepresentation in decision making,8(b) Supporting local women’sinit iatives, 8(c) Protect rights ofwomen and girls, 10 Supportive workin responding to gender-basedviolence, CEDAW Article 2(c) Mecha-nisms to provide legal redress andprotect women working on humanrights issues.

When the draft report was presented, anotherkey challenge identif ied by those present, wasthe lack of effective networks and the lack ofcapacity in networking of women’s groups andorganisations. Some recommendations forfurther action which came up were -

A systematic reflection on current network-ing practices to learn from good examplesand to create more effective networks whichcan respond to the needs of women’s groupsand organisations working in confl ict areasand peace build ing.

The need for effective networking to respondto urgent human rights violations, violenceagainst women, and threats to womenworkers, in terms of practical immed iatesupport.

To collectively work towards effective pol iti-cal representation of women’s rights in peacebuild ing.


This report has been compiled from interviews with women (and men)

associated with 17 organisations that have beeninvolved in peace build ing work in Sri Lanka. Ithas also drawn from the existing l iterature onpeace work and women’s activism in Sri Lanka. Adraft version of this report was presented to agathering of representatives from theorganisations interviewed, long-term womenactivists, those involved in peace work,academics, international organisations workingin this f ield and women representatives fromtrade unions. The critiques, recommendationsand d iscussion points raised at this meeting havealso been included in this report.

The report records some of the actions taken byind ividuals, groups of women, and organisationsto respond to the impact of confl ict on women,as well as initiatives taken to promote peace atthe community, d istrict, national andinternational levels. These activities wereselected to represent varied types ofinterventions, the long duration of peaceactivism and the spread of work geographicallywithin Sri Lanka.

Internationally there has been a growingrecognition that the impact of war on women issignif icantly d ifferent to that of men and thatwomen’s long term peace build ing activitieshave largely been marginal ised from most formalpeace negotiation processes. This globalrecognition has been further strengthened bythe United Nations Resolution 1325 on Women,Peace and Security which was adopted by theUN Security Council in October 2000. This reporton mapping women’s peace initiatives illustrateshow Sri Lankan women’s groups have beeninvolved in working on many of the areasd iscussed in the paragraphs of the Resolution aspart of their day to day responses to confl ict andalso as part of their long term strategic worktowards promoting women’s human rights in SriLanka from much before the adoption of theResolution and continues todate.. Therefore theinformation in this report can be a source ofknowledge for future initiatives to promote UNResolution 1325. The conclud ing section of thisreport provides some suggestions on how theUN Resolution 1325 can be used to strengthenthe work of women’s groups and organisationsin Sri Lanka.

Introduction

1


The aim of this report is to map initiatives aswell as the ways in which women’s activism haschanged and evolved to respond to the changingsocio pol itical context. The analysis explores theunderlying concepts that have influenced theassumptions about the nature of confl ict, andthe objectives for engaging in peace work.

The objective of this exercise is to provide aframework-document which can be useful forind ividual women’s groups and organisations toassess their own work, as well as for thewomen’s movement and organisations involvedin peace work to collectively and critically reflecton the initiatives taken so far.

The report is divided into three sections. First,this report engages with concepts of confl ictand peace build ing from existing l iterature,particularly focusing on feministconceptual isations of war, mil itarism, violence

Caption CaptionCaption CaptionCaptionCaptionCaption Caption

and peace build ing, as an exploration into peaceactivism in Sri Lanka cannot be d iscussed inisolation as mere activities, without frameworksthat enable us to place this work within the largersocio pol itical context and women’s movementactivism in Sri Lanka.

In the second section this report traces thehistory of women’s movement activism, activismwithin social movements and within civil societyorganisations again drawing on existingl iterature.

The f inal part of the report describes thed ifferent types of activities that have been usedby women’s groups and organisations, based ontheir particular assumptions about the causesand the nature of confl ict. This section endswith a d iscussion of how UN Resolution 1325can be effectively used in the context of SriLankan women’s peace activism.


Many scholars have argued against viewingthe l ink between women and peace

build ing as an intrinsic one ( i.e. that women are‘naturally’ peace loving as they are ‘creators’ and‘nurturers’ of l ife), but stress that they often dofind it easy to understand and identify structuralinequal ities, power relations and oppression asthey experience injustice and structuraloppression and control in everyday l ife, whetherthere is an overt confl ict or not (Manchanda,2001; Coomaraswamy & Fonseka, 2004).

There have been arguments made to move awayfrom simpl istic conceptual isation of womenmerely as victims of violence and men asperpetrators. Coomaraswamy & Fonseka (2004)suggest that this sort of one d imensional analysisis not helpful to understand women’s agency,women’s call for participation in peace build ingprocesses as active citizens or to recognisewomen’s compl icity in horrific violent acts inconfl ict contexts.

Therefore, one of the key underlying conceptsthat has guided women’s engagement withpeace build ing has been the identif ication ofviolence as existing along a continuum. Womenoften experience the, “connected forms ofdomestic and political violence that stretches

from the home, to the street to the battlef ield”(Manchanda, 2001. p. 17).This conceptual isationprovides a broader framework which enables usto look at women as also impl icated in violenceand also to recognise that the end of formalconfl ict does not always mean peace for women.

In fact, feminist researchers have noted thatduring peace negotiations or post confl ictcontexts, the incidence of violence againstwomen increases. Jane Barry, who analysed theimpact of confl ict on women in Kosovo, Serbia,Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Sri Lanka, argued thatthis was because in post confl ict contexts thenumber of groups who pose a threat to womenincreases with the presence of national armedforces, armed mil itant groups, internationalmil itary interventions and demobil ised menreturning to communities (often with access toarms). She also points to the rise in mercenarygangs and criminal gangs at such times.Secondly, particular types of violence increase,such as human traff icking, prostitution andbacklash against women who have stepped intopubl ic space. Thirdly, there is the prevail ingsense of impunity (as well as certain impunityclauses that become part of ‘peace deals’) whichlead to the lack of any investigation or justice

2

Conceptual frameworks foranalysing conflict and peace


into incidences of violence. She notes that whenthere are ceasefire agreements or peacenegotiations in progress, the international actorsinvolved consider the violence occurring at thattime as not related to the confl ict - as ‘the war isnow over’. The incidents are seen as isolated,sporad ic or private (Barry, 2005).

In the d iscussions with older women’s groups inthe South of Sri Lanka, what became clear wasthat they d idn’t engage in peace work becausethey felt they had an intrinsic desire for peace asthey were women. They d id so because they feltthat while working for the rights of their owncommunities, (i.e. women workers or womenfarmers) they also had to respond to theinjustice, d iscrimination and violence againstwomen from the minority communities l iving inthe North and East and sometimes in their owntowns and villages. Many of them felt that thiswas their responsibil ity.

This report advances a proposition that thetheorising and documenting of peace work issignif icantly d ifferent from the theorising anddocumentation of women’s movement activismfor peace. For example, Orjuela (2004) who hasdocumented civil society peace work in Sri Lankathough critical of the l imitations of theoreticalframeworks of confl ict resolution and peacebuild ing, nevertheless draws on theseframeworks for her own analysis. Here the centreof focus is on the violence/confl ict/war. Fromthat point of reference, these frameworksexplore social, economic, pol itical structures andcultural suppression and deprivation that need tobe addressed as root causes in order to bringabout an end to the confl ict. Orjuela (2004)makes a d istinction between those interventionsthat work towards end ing violence and thosethat work towards transforming society andbringing about social justice and argues thatsometimes within peace work these two goalsare confl icting. However, the assumption in heranalysis is that these two l ines of work are bothinstrumental means of bringing about an end tothe confl ict. Therefore, she notes that peacework could be work done to prevent violentconfl ict, reduce violence, promote negotiationsand settlements (p.45). Orjuela’s framework canbe said to roughly represent the conceptualframeworks of many professed peace-build ing

organisations in Sri Lanka and also represent theframeworks used for research done in the field ofpeace build ing (see also Goodhand & Klem,2005).

However, feminist theorising and analysis ofwomen’s peace activism is d ifferent. Women’speace activism has usually been conceptuallyplaced within women’s pol itical participation inlabour movements, in anti imperial ist strugglesand left movements (Tambiah, 2002; De Mel,2001; Giles 2003). Economic and pol itical rightsfor women were very much part of activedebates and d iscussions within thesemovements. The rapid progress achieved in thepost-independent Sri Lanka in terms of women’saccess to education, health and employmentenabled women to mobil ise around action tosecure their socio-economic rights in the 1970sand 1980s.

Tambiah (2002) notes how rural women’sgroups such as Wilpotha Kantha IthurumParishramaya and the Sinhala Tamil RuralWomen’s Network (STRWN) were challengingunequal power relations within the home and thecommunity and addressing issues of poverty andinjustice. These very same organisations havealso been working on issues of peace and justicesince the 1980s. One example of this is how theSTRWN contested the provincial councilelections in April 1999 as an independent allwomen’s party because they felt that thegovernment and pol itical parties were notrespond ing to the demands of the poor ruralwomen they worked with. The 18 women whocontested were from varied ethnic and rel igiousbackgrounds and they were challenging not onlythe gender bias but also class and ethnic biaseswithin mainstream pol itics (Tambiah, 2002). Thiswas not done as peace work per se, but with arecognition of structural inequal ities and theright to pol itical representation.

While tracing histories of women’s movementactivism, what becomes clear is that women’sgroups have often addressed issues of sociopol itical and economic injustice, and have overthe years attempted to identify violence againstwomen and pol itical violence within this context.De Mel (2001) notes that organisations such asthe Women’s Development Foundation and theUva Wellassa Govi Kantha Sanvidanaya worked


with plantation Tamil labourer women, womenfrom the North and East and d isadvantagedfarmer women from the South-east practising atransversal pol itics that challenged restrictivestructures and re-imagined the nation in a farmore plural istic way.

“ Women have, therefore, been amongst theharshest critics of the dominant national ismsthat hold up a community and/or the nation-state, for they had to engage with the fact oftheir d ifference within the nation. Theird ifference from men as citizens, as well asmembers of ethnic, rel igious, class and castegroups whose affil iations they have tosymbol ically bear”. (De Mel, 2001, p21)

An important observation that this report aims tomake is that often women’s peace activism hasbeen a part of their broader work towardsaddressing issues of socio economic

marginal isation, cultural oppression, patriarchalpractices, labour rights, pol itical rights andjustice. Peace work was not a separate orisolated activity, and women’s engagement withthese other d imensions was not instrumental orsimply as a means to bring about peace. Thesed imensions related to structural injustice andoppression were seen as inherently important,and as being both inter-connected with andindependent from issues of war and armedconfl ict.

The woman demand ing the cost of rice, breadand milk powder to be brought down stood nextto the woman asking for justice for those missingin the confl ict when demonstrating in publ ic.They supported each other’s causes. “A feministpeace politics thus connects with the struggleagainst racial, ethnic and class oppression”(Manchanda, 2001, p.17).


In Sri Lanka’s history, women were very activein anti imperial ist struggles. For example in

1933 women launched the Suriyamal movementagainst the Armistice Day or Poppy Day wherepoppies were sold to raise funds for the BritishSold iers. The funds raised through the Suriyamalmovement were used for educating low castegirls (De Mel, 2001). De Mel notes theestabl ishment of the Girls Friendly Society andthe Ceylon Women’s Union in 1904, The TamilWomen’s Union in 1909, The Mall ika KulanganaSamitiya in 1925, the Women’s Franchise Unionin 1927 as some the early organisations thatspoke of women’s rights in terms of educationand health and lobbied in particular on thewomen’s right to vote, which led to Sri Lankaenjoying universal franchise in 1931.

Women were also very active in trade unionpol itics and the left pol itics of the LSSP. Two ofthe women’s organisations that emerged prior toindependence were the Eksath KanthaPeramuna, a women’s pol itical organisationaffil iated to the Lanka Sama Samaja Party(LSSP), and the Lanka Mahila Samithi, whichworked closely with the United National Party(UNP). Though the women’s organisations hadl ittle recognition within mainstream pol itics and

3

within their own parties, women were stillspeaking out against war along with their otherdemands for social and economic rights. Two keyfigures that De Mel describes from this periodwere Vivienne Goonewardena and Sel ina Perera,who were members of the LSSP. Recall ingVivienne Goonewardena’s work, De Mel notesthat she was elected a Municipal Councillor in1950 and served as a Member of Parl iamentfrom 1956-60, 1964-5 and 1970-7.Goonewardena was very vocal against certaininternational confl icts and aggressions in the1960s and the early 1970s.

History of women’s movement andcivil society activism in Sri Lanka

Women for Peace post card, 1985


“Vivienne was vocal in her protests against USaggression in Vietnam, Cuba, Mozambique, andZionist aggression in Palestine....She asked thatthe Sri Lankan government d isallow Pakistani airforce use of Sri Lankan airports as a fuell ingpoint in its strikes against Bangladesh in the 1971war of independence.” (De Mel, 2001 p 29).

Some of the organisations working on peacetoday also emerged in the 1950s. For example,the Sarvodaya Movement had a social istideology of working to empower marginal izedgroups across ethnic l ines, for example workingwith Tamil plantation workers and Sinhala ruralagricultural workers. This work wasconceptual ised as a part of the ‘struggles’against oppression and not as peace work per se(Orjuela, 2004).

The 1970s saw the emergence of organisationsworking specifically again state aggression suchas the Civil Rights Movement which was createdafter the JVP insurrection and its aftermath in1971, The Citizen’s Committee for NationalHarmony after the communal violence in 1977,and the Movement for Inter-racial Justice andEqual ity (MIRJE) in 1979, and the MargaInstitute. These organisations were involved in

campaigns to release pol itical prisoners, push forconstitutional reform, document violenceagainst minorities, and create spaces ford ialogue between communities in the North andthe South (Orjuela, 2004). In 1978, a multi ethnicsocial ist women’s collective was formed calledthe Voice of Women which at the time was theonly expl icitly feminist organisation (De Alwis2003). Other women’s groups formed during thelate 1970s were Hatton Women’s Committee,Musl im Women’s Research and Action Forumand the Musl im Women’s Conference3. Therewere also church-l inked groups which startedraising concerns of violence and confl ict in the1970s, such as Satyodaya, Devasaranaramaya,Centre for Society and Rel igion, Socio EconomicDevelopment Centre, The Student ChristianMovement and the National Christian Council(Samuel, 2006). Samuel notes that there werevery active women in all these movements andsome of them later became active in women’sorganisations.

Women for Peace Appeal, 1989


1. Women for peace post cards,19852. Women for peace post cards,19853. Mothers and Daughters of Lanka Petition - Stop the Killings

on All Sides, 1989

In the early 1980s, De Mel (2001) notes thatsome of the key campaigns that women’s groupswere involved in related to equal pay for womenin the plantations, the el imination of night workfor women in the Free Trade Zones, campaignsfor maternity benefits, criminal ising domesticviolence, women’s med ia representation,women’s reproductive health and other strategicgender interests. However with the mountingstate violence and war, women’s groups startedtaking on issues related to violence and confl ictas well Samuel (2006).

3

1

2


4

Analysing women’s peace activism

This section of the report draws from theinterviews from 17 organisations, and

documented accounts of women’s activism andwork in relation to respond ing to confl ict andpromoting peace. Each sub section usesinitiatives and organisations as examples todescribe particular types of activities. This doesnot mean these are the only organisationsinvolved in these particular types of work. Thissection and its analysis, and indeed this entiremapping exercise is only ind icative of types ofinitiatives and is not representative of all thework done in Sri Lanka. Also, to enable a conciseanalysis, this section also singles out specific keyinterventions of organisations, although theorganisations have often been involved in avariety of activities over the years.

The following table has been drawn up bycombining the categories that have been putforward by Jane Barry (2005) and by CamillaOrjuela (2004). This table provides a snapshotview of the activities which have been often usedin respond ing to confl ict and promoting peace.The following section will also analyse theassumptions, l inkages, and pol itics behind theseactivities for a better understand ing of women’speace work.

Women’s peace vigil near Katunayake Airport, 2006

Women’s Street Drama on Peace by Community EncouragementFoundation, Puttlum, 2006


gnitsiseRtcilfnoc

krownoitcetorP ecivreS-noisivorp

nairatinamuh

lageLmrofer

lacitiloPmsivitca

-oitisnarTsn

lamrofnIycamolpid

ssorcdnacinhte

stcatnoc

rawitnA-tartsnomed

,snoi,stsetorP

,seillaRsligivtnelis

ottroppuSfosrovivrus

gnicart,ecneloivdna

,noitacifinuerdnaecivdalagel

,troppusesacefas,gnillesnuoc

sesuoh

,retlehs,htlaeH,retawdoof

otsseccanoitacude

-utitsnoCClanoit

-osmrofer-noitutitsn

smroferla

-tnoCtnoCgnitse

snoitcelegnitse

snoitcele

-silibomeDdnanoit-a-targetnier

fonoidlihc

sreidlos

nemoWgnirahs

secneirepxeecneloivfo

tsniaganemow

ssorcatnereffid

spuorgcinhte

ssenerawA,gnisiar

ecaepnoitacude

dnanoitamrofni

gnirahs

rofgnillesnuoCswodiwraw

ecivreshtlaeHotsredivorp

niplehecneloiv

nemowtsniagahguorhtsesac

s'nemowhtlaeh

seettimmoc

fomrofeRlanosrep

swal

-megagnEnitne

erifesaececaepdna-itaitogen

sno

ytiradiloSstisiv

gnidulcni'sniartecaep'

namuHsthgir

,gnirotinom-atnemucod

dnanoitgnitroper

troppuslautuMytiradilosdna

rofspuorgesohwnemow

srebmemylimafevah

.deraeppasid

doofgnidivorPstnemelppustnangerprof

dnanemowgnitatcal

PDInisrehtomspmac

gniwarDpu

-emmocersnoitadnecaeprofsessecorp

dna-itaitogen

sno

lanoitanretnIs'nemoW

noissiM-adnemmocer

ehtotsnoittnemnrevog

erutangiSsngiapmac

ecnaniforciMroftidercdna

s'nemowtnemrewopme

gniwarDpu

-emmocersnoitadn

rofs'nemowlacitilop

-tapicitrapnoi

gnidniftcaFstisiv

doohileviLdnatroppus

gnitekramdnatroppus

ssenisub,gniniart

htiwgnikniltnemnrevog

stinu

TABLE 1 – TYPE OF WORK


TABLE 2 – ORGANISATIONS INTERVIEWED

gnidivorPgnisuoh

rofecnatsissanemow

lanoitacoVdnagniniartgniniartslliks

nemowrof

gnitsiseRtcilfnoc

krownoitcetorP ecivreS-noisivorp

nairatinamuh

lageLmrofer

lacitiloPmsivitca

-oitisnarTsn

lamrofnIycamolpid

ssorcdnacinhte

stcatnoc

foemaNnoitasinagro

noitacoL foraeYtnemhsilbatse

krowgnitratsrofsnosaeR

gnimrofreProfertneCtrA

obmoloC/anffaJ 9991/5691 satraesudnastsitrafoylimafaetaercoTssorcaspihsnoitalergnidliubfosnaema

.ecnereffidcinhte

nemoWrofertneCtnempoleveDdna

anffaJ 8891 otsecivresnairatinamuhgnidivorPybdetceffaseilimafdnanemowlaudividnignisserddaotdevomretaltubtcilfnoceht

tcilfnocniseussisthgirnamuh

tsurTytinummoCdnuF

malattuP 0991 egralfoseitilaerehthtiwlaedoTsnosrepdecalpsidfosnoitalupop

ihtkahSayiriDs'nemoW

noitasinagrO

awurannoloP 0002 detceffayltceriderewseitinummocriehTdna,ytrevopemertxednatcilfnocehtyb

desiratilimyldipargnittegsaw

sthgiRnamuHellaGnoitcetorP

noitasinagrO)tnorFs'rehtoM(

ellaG 7891 ewesuacebecaepnognikrowdetratseWkrowewseitinummocehttahteveileb

,tcilfnocehtybdetceffayltceriderahtiwlacitilopanieveilebewesuaceb

eveilebewdnatcilfnocehtottnemelttesmorfsdnetxenemowtsniagaecneloivtaht

.yrtnuocehtotemoheht

dnasrehtoMaknaLfosrethguaD

krowteN 9891 lacitiloptsniagathgifotrehtegotemaCetats-nondnaetatshtobybecneloiv

foselpicnirpehtnoputessawtI.srotcaytiradilosdliub,efilotthgirtcepserdnasuoigiler,cinhtetnereffidgnoma

sthgirs'nemowetomorp,spuorglarutluc

s'nemoWmilsuMnoitcAdnahcraeseR

muroF

/ianumlaKobmoloC

6791/0991 milsuMehtnihtiwmorfkrowoTotselpicnirpcimalsIdnaseitinummocs'nemowdnatcepser,ecaepetomorp

.tnemrewopme


ecaePlanoitaNlicnuoC

obmoloC 5991 fopuorgsuoigiler-retniybdetratSohwsnoitasinagrodnaslaudividni

dnaecneloivnoitceletsniagadengiapmacotnoituloslufecaepdnatnenamreparof

.tcilfnocdetcartorpeht

raWrofnoitaicossAnemoWdetceffA

ydnaK 1002 fonoitamrofnirofgningiapmacybdetratSytirucesehtmorfgnissimsenodevol

.secrof

ayiriDajarPamanadaP

malattuP 2002 elbarenluvfosdeenehtotdnopseroTspmacPDI861nignivilseitinummoc

manadamaS ydnaK 3991 ,ecitsujstroppustahtyteicosadliuboTybelytsefiltneloiv-nonadnaytilauqeslliksnoitacinummoctneloiv-nongnisu

laruRlimaTalahniSs'nemoW

noitasinagrO

eelamocnirT ni3002/8891elatnaK

erewohwesohtotfeileredivorpoTotdnatcilfnocehtoteuddecalpsid

ynomrahlanummocetomorpdnatcetorp.yrtnuocllihehtni

s'nemoWayiruSertneCtnempoleveD

aolacittaB 1991 nisdeenlacitcarps'nemowotdnopseroTdnadecalpsidehtrofspmaceht

foselpicnirprofgnikrowotdessergorpsthgirs'nemowdnaecaep,ycarcomed

remraFassalleWavUs'nemoW

noitasinagrO

alagaranoM 8791 dnamedotnemowremrafgnisinagrOsthgirrieht

ertneCs'nemoW alakE 2891 srekrownemowfosthgirrofgnikroW

aideMdnanemoWevitcelloC

obmoloC 4891 tsinimefstcepsertahtyteicosaetaercoTdnaycarcomedfoselpicnirp,selpicnirp

silaudividniyrevehcihwni,sthgirnamuhotthgirriehtdnaytingidhtiwdetaert

.detcepsersinoitanimreted-fles

ecaeProfnemoW krowteN 9991-4891 arofllacotdehsilbatsekrowtens'nemoWtcilfnocehtottnemeltteslacitilop

foemaNnoitasinagro

noitacoL foraeYtnemhsilbatse

krowgnitratsrofsnosaeR


TABLE 3 – AREAS OF WORK

The following table provides a rough outl ine ofwhere the emphasis of surveyed work has been.These categories are not mutually exclusive andalso d ifferent organisations identif ied their‘target groups’ using d ifferent descriptive terms.However it is still interesting to note that there

had been much work done at the communitylevel working with women affected by confl ict,but quantitatively less targeting decision-makers, leaders at community and d istrict levels,national pol icy making bod ies, med ia andpol itical parties.

spuorgtegraT ycneuqerF

nerdlihC X X X X X

htuoY X X

nemowdecalpsiD X X X X X X X X X X

sdlohesuohdedaehnemoW X X

nemowgnuoY X X X

segalliv'redrob'ninemoW X

nemowetsac'woL' X

retneotgninnalpnemoWsessecorplacitilopmaertsniam

X X

dnalamrofnisrekrownemoWrehsif,srekrowxes(srotceslamrofni

tnargim,nemowremraf,nemow)srekrow

X X X X

swodiW X X X X X X X X X

sOBCrehtO X X X X

smelborplaicepsgnicafnemoWecneloivgnidulcni

X X X X X X X X

seitinummoccinhtellA X X X X

seitinummoccinhtellamorfnemoW X X X X

sOGNrehtO X X

sredaelleveltcirtsiddnaegalliV X X X X

sredaelsuoigileR X X X

aideM X X

skrowtentcirtsiD X

seitraplacitilopdnatnemnrevoG X

snoinuedarT X


4.1. Women’s peace activism in the 1980s –Linking peace work with socio-economicrights

One trend that became apparent through thismapping is that women’s peace activism tookplace along side their activism for social andeconomic change.

The Sinhala Tamil Rural Women’s Organisation, amembership based organisation, was originallyset up to respond to the d isplacement of famil iesdue to the confl ict, and then later startedworking on community development, microcred it, health and nutrition, sexual andreproductive rights,

environment and peace.

“In its involvement in the pol itics ofeveryday l ife, STRWN has taken onissues as d iverse as the import ofpotatoes, construction of a newhydro power plant and the rise ofidentity pol itics in the d istrict(Tambiah, 2002 p.460)”.

As d iscussed earl ier, the STRWN attempted tocontest local government elections as a women-only pol itical party in 1999. However, what wasclear was that their work on socio-economicempowerment of communities was closelyl inked with addressing issues of violence and

confl ict. For example, from 2005 onwards theirprogrammes combined working with widowsand women headed households, famil iesaffected by the tsunami d isaster and famil iesl iving in poverty along with having languageclasses, sharing of experiences acrosscommunities, trainings and awareness raisingprogrammes on the ethnic confl ict and peace.

De Mel (2001) documents the work of theWomen’s Development Foundation, which grewout of the Progressive Women’s Front whichstarted in 1982. The Progressive Women’s Frontbegan organising farmer women in theMonaragala District to campaign against thewater tax and also provide preschool facil ities forwomen working in the sugar plantations.However they also started d iscussing issues ofoppression, violence against women and theconfl ict and started visiting women pol iticalprisoners in the Anuradhapura Prison. After the1983 riots the women worked on rebuild ingrelationships between the Sinhala and Tamilcommunities in their area.

The Women’s Development Foundationpubl ished a monthly journal Athwela whichregularly carried articles by women call ing forthe end to the ethnic confl ict and the need for a

Sri Lanka Women for Peace and Democracy demonstration atLipton Circus on International Peace Day, 2007


negotiated pol itical settlement. They alsohighl ighted the experiences of women l iving inthe confl ict areas. The Progressive Women’sFront used cultural exchange though streettheatre especially between 1984 and 1985, as ameans of d iscussing issues of oppression,d iscrimination and ethnic bias (De Mel, 2001).

The Uva Wellassa Farmer Women’s Organisationalso primarily worked with women farmers in theMonaragala District. Poverty was common in thed istrict and was considered to be one of themost underdeveloped d istricts in the country.Poverty had pushed many young men in thed istrict to join the mil itary and be sent to thefrontl ines. There had also been attacks onvillages l iving in the border areas with theEastern d istrict, where the LTTE had been active(De Mel, 2001). The organisation had close l inkswith MIRJE, and therefore was a part of thepeace campaigns that was organised by MIRJE.They were involved in supporting famil ies whowere d isplaced due to the 1983 riots and also themany famil ies who were affected by the violencebetween 1987 and 1989 due to the JVPinsurrection and government counterinsurgency activities. Some of the farmerwomen had their fathers killed and sonsd isappeared during this t ime, and theseexperiences had led them into publ ic activism(Barry, 2004). In 2003, UWFWO was involved ind iscussions with another f ive women’sorganisations from Jaffna, Akkaraipattu,Batticaloa and Monaragala, where there was asharing of experiences, a d iscussion on

strategies for peace activism and exploration ofstrategies for enhancing women’s contributionto peace processes.

The Women’s Centre in Ekala focused mainly onrights of women workers in the factories.However, apart from their work in promotingrights of women workers, they also recognisedthe importance of assisting women who havebeen affected by the confl ict. After the ethnicriots in 1983, The Women’s Centre assisted 10famil ies by rebuild ing their homes that wereburnt during the riots. They also provided shelterand security to two Tamil famil ies during theriots.

They engaged in awareness raising andd iscussions on the ethnic confl ict because theyalso felt that all women workers should be awareof the confl ict. The Women’s Centre hasnetworked and built l inks with women workersin factories in the East and in the Estate sector.As women workers they have also used streettheatre as a med ium through which they cand iscuss problems of women workers andproblems related to the confl ict.

4.2. Movement politics and identity politics

“If civil society is the space, orcontext, in which people canorganise to promote peace, theconcepts of social movement.....describe the forms for suchorganisat ion.....A social movementcan be defined as organisations,groups of people and individualswho act together to bring abouttransformation in society (Kaldor,2003: 82 in Orjuela, 2004, p.59)

Apart from working as ind ividual organisations(as d iscussed in the previous section), the 1980ssaw the coming together of women’s coal itionsagainst the war. One of the first such women’scoal itions to be formed around the ‘nationalquestion’ was the Women’s Action Committee(WAC). This coal ition comprised of women fromtrade unions and women organised by theWomen’s Centre and the Dabindu Collective bothworking in the Greater Colombo EconomicCommission Area in which the f irst ExportProcessing Zone of Sri Lanka was situated. TheWAC also brought together women from

Newspaper advertisement by Sri Lanka Women for Peace andDemocracy, 2005


plantation women’s groups, the Women’s StudyCircle in Jaffna, women’s organisations workingamong the peasantry, church based women’sgroups, women writers and academics (Samuel,2007). Originally they came together to showsol idarity to the women from the PolytexGarments who were on strike demand ing tradeunion membership, a higher wage and aChristmas bonus. However, they later had publ icdemonstrations demand ing the repeal of thePrevention of Terrorism Act 1979, the release ofNirmala Nithiyanandan the f irst Tamil womanpol itical prisoner and equal wages andcitizenship rights for Tamil plantation workers. Atthe national level, the coal ition engaged inpubl ic activities centred around InternationalWomen’s Day, International Human Rights Dayand International Labour Day. At the communitylevel the d ifferent groups had d iscussions,awareness raising and inter ethnic interactions(Samuel, 2006; De Mel, 2001).

The WAC provided a space for d iscussion onpol itical issues such as national l iberation,women’s l iberation and feminism. Also, as(2007) has noted, the conceptual underpinningsbehind the work of WAC l inked the ethnicconfl ict and pol itics of violence to thedeterioration of democracy and itsconsequences for all communities. The WAC wascommitted to the right of self determination forminorities and was against the establ ishment ofnon democratic structures and the abuse ofstate power. In other words, the nature andobjective of peace work of WAC was stronglypol itical.

“It was, therefore, one of the mostbroad-based groups of the time. Itorganised several workshops,campaigns and lobbying strategieslinking women’s rights to humanrights, with the ult imate goal ofestablishing a far-reaching demo-cratic culture within Sri Lanka.” (DeMel, 2001, p.237)

However, the pol itical base of the work of WACmeant that it faced much hostil ity and attacks aswell. For example, WAC welcomed the attemptto a negotiated solution to the ethnic confl ictthrough the Indo-Lanka peace accord in 1987.This meant that many of the women were then

Newspaper advertisement by women - May, 2006


targeted by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) and had to go into hid ing and leave theirvillages as the JVP was strongly opposed to theInd ian intervention in Sri Lanka (Samuel, 2007;De Mel 2001). The WAC reconstituted itself intoa broader coal ition called Mothers andDaughters of Lanka in the face of JVP terror andcounter terror by the State in 1989 andcontinues its activism for a negotiated pol iticalsolution to the ethnic confl ict.

Motherhood identity pol itics -“Mobil ising outside conventionalpol itical forums to challenge thestate”(Tambiah, 2002, p.21)

In Sri Lanka’s recent history, women havemobil ised to respond to pol itical violence thathave d irectly affected them. This was mostpowerfully seen in the mobil isation of mothers inJaffna in 1984 after over 800 Tamil youth wererounded up in Velvettiturai and transported tothe South (Samuel, 2003). Samuel notes that thiswas the f irst time that motherhood had beeninvoked to demand accountabil ity andprotection against violence from the state. Thecommon experience of the men in their famil ies

being taken away and their moral authority tovoice their anger as mothers allowed for thesewomen to come together across d ifferentpol itical views and classes. The NorthernMothers Front had l inks to the women’s groupsin the South, particularly those associated withthe Women’s Action Committee and the WACmaintained these l inks raising the issue of rapeby the security forces for the f irst t ime in 1984 insupport of the campaigns of the NorthernMothers Front. The WAC also took up the call forthe release of Tamil pol itical prisoners andworked closely with the Movement for InterRacial Justice and Equal ity, the Campaign for theRelease of Pol itical Prisoners and Women forPeace, a broad coal ition of women call ing for apol itical solution to the ethnic confl ictestabl ished in 1984 raising the concerns of thenorthern mothers call ing for the release of theirloved ones detained or d isappeared by thesecurity forces. While the protests took the formof letter writing, the issuing of statements, streetdemonstrations and pickets, Women for Peaceplayed a crucial role in provid ing legal assistanceand support to famil ies of detenues throughtheir work in the prisons and with the familymembers of the detained (Samuel, 2006).

The Southern Mothers’ Front was formed in1990 in Matara, again by women who had hadfamily members d isappeared by the state andJVP. The Southern Mother’s Front had leadershipfrom women l ike Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttuwhose son Richard de Soyza was assassinatedduring this time. She tried to keep the focus ofthe Mother’s Front to be peace seeking and nonpartisan.

“Make no mistake, our aim is peace,our method is peaceful. We havewept alone and come together forcomfort. From this has arisen ourdesire to collectively seek peace inour country”words of Dr. Saravanamuttu at apubic gathering (Samuel, 2003, p.170).

The Southern Mother’s Front was very powerfuland had a broad based membership of famil ieswho were affected by the 1987-89 brutalviolence in the South4. Key pol iticians were alsoassociated with the movement. For example,International Peace Day Activity, Mothers & Daughters

of Lanka


Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, MahindaRajapaksa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and MangalaSamaraweera were all key champions of humanrights and supporters of the mothers of the d isappeared at the time (De Mel 2001, Samuel 2003).The women not only used mainstream pol iticalactivism with statements and pol itical meetingsbut also used unconventional means such asappeal ing to the gods (Kannalawwas),collectively cursing perpetrators at temples andgoing on marches (Padayatras).

Movements such as the Southern Mother’s Frontled to the election of Chandrika BandaranaikeKumaratunga as President, who came to powerpromising peace and the establ ishment ofd isappearances commissions to investigate theviolations during the bheeshana samaya (reignof terror). Famil ies received compensation butthere was no substantive justice in terms ofprosecutions of the perpetrators.

Perera-Rajasingham (2005) in her paperResist ing Violence : The Politics of Motherhood inthe East also speaks of the gendered activism ofwomen within the space of ‘motherhood’ andhow they have been resisting the atrocities ofcivil war, where children were conscripted bymil itant groups. She notes instances ofind ividual and collective action such asd ialogues and mass protests, against forcedconscription of young children in the EasternProvince.

Women have also taken on pol itical activismafter their sons and husbands went missing whileworking for the security forces in the current

confl ict. Again, their identity as mothers andwives of sold iers enabled them to step intopubl ic space and into activism. When theceasefire agreement was signed between theGovernment of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in 2002,these women lobbied for the release of prisonersof war hoping to f ind their loved ones. TheAssociation of War Affected Women was formedat this time. They made l inks with mothers fromJaffna who had their children d isappeared due tothe confl ict. AWAW organized a demonstration,in Colombo, with the Guard ians Association forthe Disappeared in Jaffna that brought togetherfamil ies of sold iers missing in action withfamil ies of the d isappeared in the North, todemand for information about the missing andthe d isappeared5. The quest for f ind ing theirloved ones or information about what happenedto them was intertwined with calls for the end ofwar, pushing for a negotiated settlement and therespect of the Geneva Conventions (Barry, 2005,Orjuela 2004).

4.3. Peace building and peace making - dealingwith the everyday realities of conflict

When interviewing Diriya Shakthi Women’sOrganisation6 the interviewer asked the question‘why is it important for your organisation to workon peace’. They repl ied with many examples oftheir day to day battles to prevent theircommunities and homes being mil itarised. Theyhad also made the conceptual l ink that theincreased mil itarisation in their communities hadled to the increase in domestic violence withintheir homes, and sexual ised violence in theircommunities.

Publications by National Peace Council Women and Media Collective Celebrating International Peace Day, 2007


They were able to stop a mil itant group fromrecruiting 5 young boys from their village. Theyhad been going from house to house and havingsmall meetings with parents groups to createawareness about the dangers of send ing youngchildren to join armed groups and the homeguard. They protested as a village when thesecurity forces in the area demanded that twopersons from each home should come for guardduty to their camps.

The women from this organisation noted theincrease in child marriages – sometimes girls asyoung as thirteen were marrying young menfrom the home guard. There was an increase insex work - for example there were two sexworkers in 2005, but in 2007 there were eightwomen working as sex workers in that village.The use of pornographic f ilms by the securityforces and home guards has also been l inked tothe sexual abuse of women and young girls in thevillages. They noted the increase in poverty, thefact that young women were abandoned withchildren, the lack of access to proper health careand education facil ities as contributing factorsto women’s vulnerabil ity. Due to these real itiesthey were working to prevent the mil itarisationof their homes and communities and voicingtheir resistance to war.

When l iving in confl ict contexts, women’sgroups have had to use innovative means toaddress the consequences of war. SuriyaWomen’s Development Centre (Suriya), forexample, has been working with women’sgroups at the community level in promoting theirlocal l ivel ihoods as a means of creating a space

for the women to come together and shareexperiences and create awareness about sociopol itical concerns includ ing respond ing todomestic violence, articulating women’sconcerns about peace, and helping women whohave had family members d isappeared or killedto access help and legal assistance.

Though Suriya Women’s Development Centrestarted by meeting the very practical rel ief needsof d isplaced women and have continued to dothis again and again when communities havebeen d isplaced due to confl ict and the tsunamid isaster, Suriya has also been clear aboutarticulating strategic concerns and rightsalongside this work. This has included call ing forthe inclusion of women in decision-makingbod ies at the local and d istrict level, lobbying forthe recognition of women as co-heads ofhouseholds and canvassing for the recognitionof women’s right to land in resettlementprocesses. In the early 1990s, many of thehumanitarian interventions in the BatticaloaDistrict conceptual ised women as ‘destitute’,‘down trodden’, ‘victims’, ‘poor’ andinterventions took a very welfarist approach. Atthe time, Suriya had many d iscussions and raisedawareness at the community and d istrict levelabout the importance of not looking at womenas only victims but as ind ividuals with rights andagency.

Organisations such as Musl im Women’sResearch and Action Forum have been workingfrom within the Musl im communities and Islamicprinciples to promote peace, respect andwomen’s empowerment. For example, they

Staff of Women and Media Collective preparing for InternationalPeace Day, 2007

Empowerment program of Women Forum Members byCommunity Trust Fund


Group discussion at a Peace Programme, Center forWomen and Development, Jaffna

been d isplaced; and through these programmesthey work towards peace. Their aim has been tol ink peace work to poverty alleviation work inJaffna.

Similarly Praja Diriya Padanama and CommunityTrust Fund, which both work in Puttalam, carryout development work such as constructingpubl ic build ings, provid ing housing andl ivel ihood assistance along with forming villagelevel peace committees to build co-existencebetween Tamil, Sinhala and Musl im communitiesin the area. Praja Diriya Padanama also works onenvironmental concerns as the real ities ofd isplacement and large IDP camps has taken atoll on the host communities, their environmentand resources. Their work with d isplacedcommunities has been from a rights perspectiveand not merely as welfarist rel ief work.

De Mel (2001) documents the changing powerrelations and patriarchal controls on womenwhen confl ict destabil ises existing socialsystems. Though confl ict has caused immensesuffering, it has also provided spaces for womento take on leadership roles in the community,become heads of households, have increasedmobil ity and become economically independent.She describes these spaces as transformative,and identif ies the challenge for the women’smovement to build on what has beenempowering for these women.

Skill building in non violent confl ict resolutionand confl ict handl ing - Samadanam whichstarted working in 1993 aims to build thecapacities of community groups to resolved isputes and confl icts in a non violent manner

supported women to come forward to talk abouttheir experiences of confl ict and demand for anend to the war. Initially, the men from thesecommunities were opposed to women speakingin publ ic (to men) about pol itical topics such asthe need for peace. There was much oppositionfrom the mosque committees. MWRAF workedwith the mosque committees creating genderawareness and awareness raising as to whywomen have the legitimacy to talk about peacein their communities. They also influenced thecurricula taught at madrasas and includedcomponents on learning about othercommunities.

MWRAF have supported the creation of Hinducultural societies, Buddhist societies andChristian societies and formed an inter rel igiousgroup in Ampara in 2007. They work with schoolchildren where they support the local Maulavi togo and speak about Islamic culture and rel igionin the Tamil schools and vice versa. They also runa pre school in the border of a Musl im and Tamilvillage so that children from both communitiesattend this school and this enables the childrento be friends with each other and the parentsfrom the d ifferent communities also to interact.

Linking peace work with development work -The Centre from Women and Developmentworking in Jaffna also has a hol isticconceptual isation of peace work. Their worksupports women who have experienced violencein the home by provid ing legal assistance andthey have l ivel ihood support programmes forfamil ies l iving in poverty and those who have Women’s Peace Camp organized by Centre for Performing

Arts, 2005


through d iscussions in a neutral space. Theyhave been training rel igious leaders, med iapersonnel, government off icers, students andwomen leaders to be able to facil itate non violentconfl ict resolution at the community level andform networks of non violent facil itators acrosscommunities.

4.4. Addressing issues of justice

“As gendered violence in the SriLankan war became one of itsmarked features with the 1996rapes and murders of schoolgirlKrishanthi Kumaraswamy and 22-year-old Rajani Velauthapillai at theChemmani and Kondavil militarycheckpoints in Jaffna respectively; ofIda Carmelita in 1999, and thecustodial rapes and torture of twowomen in Mannar in 2001, women’sgroups joined forces as a ‘vigilcoalition’, issued statements ofprotest and demanded swift just ice(Kois 2001 in Options 2001:17 in DeMel, 2007 p.278).

The Vigil Coal ition had regular silentdemonstrations in Colombo asking for a speedyinvestigation and justice for the KrishanthiKumaraswamy case. There was a signaturecampaign and lobbying with international humanrights organisations and Foreign Governments.The cumulative impact of the lobbying andpubl ic demonstrations was that the five sold iersand pol icemen accused in the case were foundguilty of rape and murder (Samuel, 2006).However, this was a rare occasion on which there

Peace Programmes for youth By Centre for Performing Arts, 2008

has been any legal justice for crimes againwomen in confl ict in Sri Lanka and even thisprocess was flawed. Other organisations havealso been involved in provid ing support forwomen who have faced sexual violence inconfl ict contexts. They have provided safehouses, counsell ing, material support, med icalhelp and legal help. For example, Women in Needwas establ ished in 1987 to provide shelter,psychosocial support and legal help for womenwho have experienced violence, and Women forPeace which worked with pol itical prisoners,facil itating legal assistance, family visits, shelterand transport for famil ies was also very active inthe Vigil Coal ition; the Suriya Women’sDevelopment Centre also provides legal, materialand psychosocial support to women who haveexperienced violence in confl ict.

Legal and Constitutional work - “In 1996, theWomen and Media Collective coordinated aconsultation with Coomaraswamy on legislationthat would lead to a domestic violence bill in SriLanka (Options 1999: 17-18 in De Mel, 2007).National organisations such as the Women andMed ia Collective (WMC) have been involved inlegal reform processes such as the abovementioned campaign that resulted in theenactment of domestic violence legislation. TheWMC also participated in the drafting of the1997 draft constitution advocating for women’srights and a chapter on socio-economic rights.The Collective has also been advocating foraff irmative action to increase women’srepresentation in Parl iament and in Provincialand local government since 1994. It continued

Peace activists at adiscussion, Center for Women andDevelopment, Jaffna


this work proactively in the period following theappointment of a Parl iamentary SelectCommittee on Electoral Reform in the 2006,making submissions before the SelectCommittee together with the InternationalCentre for Ethnic Stud ies and the Musl imWomen’s Research and Action Forum andactively lobbying Parl iamentarians for awomen’s quota and electoral reforms to put inplace checks and balances to deal with theculture of electoral violence and malpractice.

4.5. Creating alternative discourses andspaces through cultural mediums andmainstream media

Many of the organisations and women’s groupsused theatre, street theatre, Kavi madu, rad ioprogrammes, community rad io, main streammed ia, f ilm and songs to create alternativespaces and d iscourses to d iscuss the real ities ofconfl ict. Some organisations that work at thenational level such as the National Peace Counciland Women and Med ia Collective d irectly workwith national level med ia outlets sponsoring talkshows, having advertising campaigns, send ingstatements to the newspapers, participating intalk shows and news programmes.

Organisations also publ ish their own newslettersand journals as well, such as Samakali publ ishedby Women for Peace, Shakthi, Dharini, MadyaNirikshaka, Options, Eya, Sol publ ished by theWomen and Med ia Collective, and Pennpubl ished by Suriya Women’s DevelopmentCentre. These publ ications provide analternative space to raise women’s voices and

critically challenge socio-pol itical developmentsand cultural practices.

Women and Med ia Collective produced Sinhalaproductions of pol itical plays such as Death of aMaiden(1998) and Bernardo Alba. Organisationssuch as the Suriya Women’s Development Centrehad their own women’s theatre group whoproduced street theatre such as MattunagarKannakikal(1998) and Wind as Witness(2003)which d iscussed the impact of war on womenand also d iscussed the continuum of violencewhere even when there were talks between theconfl icting parties violence against women andcommunities continued with abductions,kill ings and recruitment of children. These playsalso d iscussed the social stigma on women whohave experienced violence or who were widowedand called for the change in social attitudes andcultural practices that impinged on women’srights.

The Centre for Performing Arts (CPArts) workswith young people from d ifferent ethnic groupsand use theatre as a med ium for interactionsbetween Sinhala, Tamil and Musl im youngpeople. The theatre groups from d ifferent townsvisit each other and l ive in each others homes.They also have theatre camps for children andyoung people from d ifferent ethnic groups andfocus on training women actors to take onleadership roles. For example, CPArts organisedan exhibition and demonstration Women

Relief Distribution to Conflict Affected Districts, Centre forPerforming Arts, 2007

Inetrnational Peace Day March by Sri Lanka Women for Peaceand Democracy, 2006


Towards a New Age in Panadura in 2007 whichfocussed on the work and achievements ofwoman actors who have been a part of CPArts.

4.6. Networking

Almost all the organisations interviewed werepart of broader networks both nationally andinternationally. The following table traces someof these networks.

Networking has been a key strategy that hasbeen used by women’s groups and organisationsto make their work more effective and strategic.Being a part of a network also providesprotection for ind ividual organisations andind ividual men and women when raising humanrights concerns and issues of violence during thewar. Networks have also provided opportunitiesfor organisations and ind ividuals to accessinformation, have exposure to d ifferentexperiences nationally and internationally andlearn about other strategies and to build capacityto respond to situations of confl ict and peacebuild ing. For example, in 2003 and 2004, TheMothers and Daughters of Lanka worked atd istrict levels to create awareness amongwomen about the importance of gettinginvolved in national level pol itical processes, inparticular within the on-going peace process.

Some of the national organisations have beenfacil itating networks for many years. Forexample, the Women and Med ia Collective has

Peace Rally on International Peace Day by Sri Lanka Women forPeace and Democracy, 2006

Women’s activist commemorating 4th Anniversary of the CeaseFire Agreement, Colombo 2006

been involved in WAC, Women for Peace,Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, Sri LankaWomen for Peace and Democracy, and the SriLanka Women’s NGO Forum. The National PeaceCouncil has sector wide networks for med ia,rel igious leaders, pol iticians, youth and tradeunions.

However networking has also not been free ofdeep d ivisions due to the d ifferences of theprinciples of engagement in peace work. Someof the women’s organisations engaged in peacework have engaged in mainstream pol itics andalso had built up relationships with the LTTE. Thishowever placed a crucial challenge for women’sgroups and networks which had been engaged inpeace work along the principles of justice,democracy and peace (Such as the Mothers and


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Daughters of Lanka), as they viewed the d irectengagement with the LTTE alongside pol iticalparties and their agenda for negotiations, ascompromising the principles of women’s peaceactivism7. There needs to be some reflection onthese experiences so as to better prepare for andplan the cond itions, on which women’s groupsand organisations would engage withmainstream peace negotiations and pol itics inthe future.

4.7. International advocacy and lobbying

Another strategy used by some of theorganisations was international level lobbyingand advocacy. This work was done throughinternational networks that women’s groupswere a part of (see above table). Some otherexamples include the facil itation of anInternational Women’s Mission with prominentinternational women’s rights actors to documentthe situation and provide recommendations forthe Sri Lankan government on includ ing womenand gender concerns in the peace process. Morerecently women’s groups engaged with abroader range of civil society organisations tocompile submissions to the Universal Period icReview Process of the UN on women’s concernson peace build ing. Women’s groups have alsocome together to prepare shadow reports for theCEDAW Committee and at present there is aninitiative to incorporate concerns on women andconfl ict into the NGO Shadow Report toCEDAW. The Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum,the Centre for Women’s Research, and theWomen and Med ia Collective, have respectivelytaken the lead in preparing the Shadow reportsover the years. The Women and Med ia Collectivecoord inated a visit by women’s groups to SriLankan refugees in Chennai to document andadvocate for the inclusion of Tamil refugeeconcerns in the peace process.

4.8. Research and theorising

Women’s groups and ind ividual feminists havealso been involved in key research work that hasguided peace build ing work in Sri Lanka. Thisreport does not provide a review of theacademic contributions to the f ield, though ithas drawn on feminist conceptual isations for itsanalysis. However, to provide some examples,there has been very important theorising and

knowledge generation done on the connectionsof gender, poverty and confl ict; women’sreproductive health in confl ict contexts;women’s land rights, on gender based violence inMusl im communities; on mil itarisation; femaleheaded households; empowerment and agencyduring confl ict.

4.9. Memories and history

One of the most important aspects of peacework that has been done by the women’smovement in Sri Lanka, that has been rarelydone by other organisations, has been keepingmemories and histories al ive. For example, in1993 women’s organisations were part of theMIRJE init iative to organise the Freedom fromFear campaign which was in memory of the lossof l ife of Rajini Thiranagama and Richard deSoyza and many other deaths and kill ings due toviolence, and the challenges against democraticprinciples. They were used as symbols tocampaign against the terror of the state and theLTTE in arresting, d isappearing and extrajud icially executing civil ians. Also in 1999 severalevents were held to commemorate the 10th deathanniversary of Rajini Thiranagama. This eventwas organised by a coal ition which included theWomen and Med ia Collective, Mothers andDaughters of Lanka, UTHR(J), Movement for theDefence of Democratic Rights and the NationalChristian Council. There was participation ofSouth Asian feminists at this event (De Mel2001).

“Human rights activists bravedheavy military presence and Emer-gency Rule to both commemorateand vindicate the assassinations ofRajini Thiranagama in Jaffna andRichard de Soyza in Colombo andused the symbolism of their lives,their struggles for justice and democ-racy and their brutal killings tolaunch the Campaign on Freedomfrom Fear with a march and rallycommencing from the beach at Mt.Lavinia where Richard’s body wasfound. This was one of the f irst suchstruggles launched by the humanrights community linking state andnon state violence and violations ofhuman rights. It was launched to


link the demand for democracy withthat of peace. Women mobilised inlarge numbers to support andparticipate in this campaign(Samuel, 2006, p.25).”

Neloufer De Mel has conceptual ised theimportance of memory and testimony forfeminist peace build ing work in her bookMilitarising Sri Lanka: Popular Culture, Memoryand Narrative in the Armed Conflict (2007).Though this report does not explore in detail hertheoretical contributions, it draws attention tosome aspects of her d iscussion, for example,that testimony is important to remember thosewho d id not survive violence and also to givevoice to experiences of women whose l ives havebeen hidden from official accounts of history. DeMel describes the video archiving of stories from54 women as a means of not forgetting peopleand events that have taken place.

These are the well documented examples, butthere are many such commemorative events,publ ications and small ceremonies which havebeen held in quiet ways by women’s groups overthe years to remember and mourn massacres,the 1983 riots, d isappearances, rapes andkill ings, and abductions of children.

4.10. Working from within – involvementwith government initiatives

Most of the national level peace work of thewomen’s groups and NGOs d iscussed in thepaper has been from outside the mainstreampol itical and governing processes. However, it isimportant to note here that at a local and d istrictlevel women’s groups and organisations havebeen working with decision-making bod ies torespond to the real ities of confl ict, d isplacementand violence.

In analysing the l iterature of mainstream peacebuild ing, there are two instances documentedwhere human rights and women’s rights groupsattempted to work with the government in itsefforts to bring about a peaceful resolution tothe confl ict. One was the work done by the SuduNelum movement and the peace caravan in1997-1999, and the second, was theparticipation in the Sub Committee on GenderIssues within the Norwegian-facil itated peace

negotiations in 2002.

The Sudu Nelum movement was initiated underthe Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratungagovernment to create awareness about the unityof Sri Lanka and its people, the recognition thatthere was an ethnic confl ict that needed to besolved, and the need for the devolution of power.This ran alongside other government initiativessuch as the National Integration ProgrammeUnit of the Ministry of Justice, ConstitutionalAffairs, Ethnic Affairs and National Integration.Though many human rights activists, includ ingwomen’s groups became involved in this process,there was a move away from working with thegovernment by 1998-1999 as the governmentlaunched a major ‘war for peace’ at the sametime.

Similarly, though women’s groups initially gotinvolved in the peace negotiations of the UNPgovernment with the LTTE post 2002, thefall ing-through of the negotiations and thechange in government in parl iament placed atobstacle to the continuation of this work fromwithin. Samuel (forthcoming 2008) documentsthe work of the Sub Committee on Gender Issues(SCGI) which was a mechanism establ ished aspart of the peace negotiations in 2002. Shenotes that women d id negotiate norms ofgender equal ity and citizenship and exercisedagency in the Sri Lankan peace process eventhough formal peace making had marginal isedwomen (and the SCGI).

Consultation on Mapping of Women’s Peace Activismorganized by Women and Media Collective, 2008


There have also been state welfare initiatives toprovide support to widows of sold iers who haved ied or were missing in action in the confl ict.Two stud ies by Pathirana and Dissanayake(2004) and Wickremasinghe (2003) documentsthe work of Seva Vanitha, Ranawiru SevanaAuthority (RSA) and Family Services Centre inprovid ing counsell ing support and welfare tothe widows. The RSA has also worked incollaboration with Sarvodaya in provid ingl ivel ihood support for widows.

Dealing with the pressures of the LTTE andthe state – Orjuela (2004) documents thechallenges and negotiations that NGOs have hadto go through with the changing pol iticalcontexts where there have been moments ofincreased pressure from the LTTE on NGOs tojoin their development and pol itical work. TheLTTE backed Tamil Rehabil itation Organisationcontrolled many of the local NGOs working inthe areas controlled by them in terms of fund ingand type of work that was done. The LTTEexerted control over d istrict NGO consortia,through which all local NGOs had to report theirwork and their financial reports to the LTTE.Orjuela (2004) notes that during the ceasefireperiod there was non violent popularmobil isations in the North and East which werespearheaded by the LTTE such as hartals and sitins usually around security interests of the LTTEsuch as mil itary violence and the removal of theHigh Security Zones, and cultural events such asPongu Tamil which mobil ised students andcommunity people in a large scale. Whenorganisations refused to participate, they werethreatened.

Some of the organisations interviewed spoke ofthe d iff iculties in maintaining an independentfocus when faced with the increased pressure ofthe LTTE, especially during the ceasefire periodafter 2002. For example in 2003 there was muchpressure that all activities for the InternationalWomen’s Day had to come under the activities ofthe LTTE and it was not possible to hold anyindependent events.

Similarly the state has also put enormouspressure includ ing using violence to curtail thework of NGOs when there has been increasing

criticism of the state and its human rights record.Orjuela (2004) documents the state control ofNGO work in the 1977-1994 period where therewas a push for increased control of NGOfund ing and activities by the state, a sustainedcampaign to create suspicion of NGO activitiesas promoting western imperial ism, and personalthreats against NGO workers includ ing the headof Sarvodaya in the early 1990s. The samephenomenon can be seen happening in thecurrent context with a del iberate and strategicattack against NGOs but this time includ ing theUN and its systems, control of visas andregistration processes for internationalorganisations, Defence Ministry clearances forworking in particular areas and personal threats,abductions and kill ings of NGO workers (Lawand Society Trust, 2008).

4.11. Lobbying with key stakeholders to theformal peace process

“Welcoming the ceasefire at a publ ic rally inColombo, marking International Women’s Dayon 8 March 2002, over 1000 women from thenetworks ‘Mothers and Daughters of Lanka’ andthe ‘Sri Lankan Women’s NGO Forum’,comprising d ifferent ethnic groups, sectors andregions of the country called for a strengtheningof the CFA and the commencement of peacenegotiations. The Government and the LTTEwere petitioned with the reminder, ‘that animportant feature of any agreements madeduring processes seeking to establ ish peace isthat they must be transparent and inclusive ofthe concerns of civil ians’. (Samuel, 2008)”

The Women and Med ia Collective, along withother women’s networks carried out manyinit iatives such as lobbying for the inclusion ofwomen and gender concerns in the peaceprocess, all iance forming across ethnic groups,facil itating a multi ethnic, inclusive fact f ind ingmission to the North and East, carrying outadvocacy work with the Norwegian facil itators,and lobbying with the bi-lateral and multi lateraldonors to Sri Lanka for a women’s mechanism tothe peace process8. The work of Association ofWar Affected Women has also been on similarl ines (see above).


In this conclud ing section, this paper draws onthe interviews and l iterature to identify

challenges that were mentioned by thoseinterviewed, for women’s peace activism.

5.1 Threats and challenges – the socio-political context

In the current context, some of thoseinterviewed had been facing intimidation andpressure from the mil itary, from sections of thepol ice and pol iticians, from mil itant groups,pol itical parties such as the Janatha VimukthiPeramuna, Jathika Hela Urumaya as well as otherSinhala extremist groups includ ing Buddhistmonks in the border areas. Some organisationshave been labelled as tiger supporters becausethey work with Musl im and Tamil communities.Staff have sometimes been taken in forquestioning under the new regulations whichgive a lot of power to the state. In the 1980s,organisations were labelled as CIA agents, whilstin the current context they are called LTTEsupporters.

At the community level, people have bel ievedthe misinformation about the current pol iticalcontext given in the med ia and are also verysuspicious about NGO activities. People havealso expressed a strong support to the war effortof the state, so women’s groups stated that

working in this context has been very d iff icult.Even among women workers, it was becomingharder to get support for a negotiatedsettlement as feel ings of national ism were high.Those interviewed noted that within this contextof a high level of intimidation and impunity tothose who attack and threaten NGOs and civilsociety groups, there has been a growingpolarization of communities.

During the time period of this research therewere two elections that took place in the East ofSri Lanka – the Local Government Elections inBatticaloa on the 10th of March 2008, and theProvincial Council Elections for the EasternProvince on the 10th of May 2008. Though the SriLankan government claimed that these electionswere democratic and were not marred byviolence, local communities and women’s groupsworking in the East noted the intimidation,threats, fear and suspicion that surrounded theseelections. There were also very genderedmanifestations of violence during this timewhich were not publ icised due to the extremefear of communities and local women’s groupsworking in the East. During this period during theweek prior to the Local Government Elections, atleast four women were abducted and onewoman was raped.

5

Conclusion


Across the country, some of the organisationsnoted that when working across ethnicidentities, it had been d ifficult to have asustained involvement of d ifferent ethnic groupswhen the pol itical context had beenunpred ictable and volatile. It took years tochange the attitude of suspicion and mistrustacross ethnic identities, especially ascommunities l ived the real ities of poverty andconfl ict on a day to day basis. In the currentcontext, there have been add itional challengesdue to the increase in d isappearances andkill ings – sometimes ethnically motivated - tocreate confl ict between communities. Peoplel ived in extreme fear and suspicion. In thiscontext, there has also been an increase inviolence against women includ ing rapes andcriminal activities as there is absolute impunityfor perpetrators.

5.2 Mobil ity

Some of the challenges identif ied byorganisations were practical issues whenworking in confl ict areas, such as the lack ofresources, constraints to travel due to securityrestrictions (such as in Jaffna) and the risksinvolved for Tamil staff to travel outside theNorth and East (particularly for young men).Even organisations working in the South whohad establ ished close l inks and friendships withcommunities in the North and East, describedd ifficulties with travel to particular areas in theNorth and East.

5.3 Cultural barriers

Some of those interviewed noted that there hasbeen l ittle encouragement at the communitylevel for people to learn each others’ languageand this was a challenge for community levelpeace build ing work. Women’s groups and peacebuild ing NGOs were therefore engaged inprovid ing opportunities for community women’sgroups to learn Sinhala and Tamil. There werealso cultural restrictions identif ied that d id notallow for women and men to be involved inpubl ic activities, and especially those whichwere seen to be pol itical. For example, TheCentre for Performing Arts noted that within theMusl im communities it was a challenge to getyoung men and women involved in theatre andperformances. It was also d ifficult for Musl imwomen to be involved in peace work in publ icspace due to gendered restrictions and controlof women’s mobil ity within their communities.

5.4 Funding

In the current context, organisations have beenfacing problems raising funds and werefinancially weak to carry out their work. This wasa result of the lack of capacities to writeproposals and have access to alternative fund ingsources on the one hand; but also due tofund ing organisations moving away fromfund ing work seen as ‘pol itically sensitive’ dueto government attacks and controls on foreigndonors.

Some of those interviewed stated that fund ingwas also largely dependent on personal contactsand those organisations and ind ividuals who d idnot have these contacts found it d iff icult tosustain their work. Also within the peacebuild ing/confl ict resolution f ield often fund ingwas more read ily provided to nationally basedhigh-profile groups rather than regional orcommunity based organisations that had anecessarily lower profile.

One organisation stated that in the post tsunamicontext, fund ing shifted away from peace workto tsunami related work and that this made ithard to continue work.

Traning for Peace Volunteers in Puttlam District, CommunityTrunst Fund


The section puts forward somerecommendations based on the interviews

and recommendations made by the participantsat the publ ic presentation of the draft report onfuture peace build ing work by women in SriLanka. The reflections and recommendationshave also been l inked to particular UNinstruments – namely UNSCR 1325 and CEDAWas a way of highl ighting how these UNinstruments can be useful in future work in termsof women and peace build ing.

6.1 Assessing Impact

There has been much comment on why thepeace movement in Sri Lanka cannot mobil ise asmuch support as the mainstream pol iticalparties. Also there has been analysis of theimpact of donor fund ing and ‘NGOisation’ ofsocial movements in weakening pol iticalactivism (Orjuela, 2004; Burke and Mulakala,2005). Indeed, this report also notes the effortsmade over the years by women’s groups and thechallenges they have faced in trying to mobil isewomen for peace.

This report does not explore the impact oreffectiveness of specif ic interventions. As thevarious exemples in this paper illustrate,

6

women’s groups have used d iverse strategies,which call for equally varied approaches toimpact assessment. It is important to evaluatethe strategies that have been used – for example,the work towards increasing women’s pol iticalparticipation, the work done to build networks,or the publ ic advocacy and campaign work. Alsoit is important to note that though women’speace activism, specially in the 1980s and 1990sl inked peace work with socio-economic andpol itical rights, there would have been an impactof donor fund ing for stand-alone peace projects,on the work of women’s organisations. Thisreport in its l imited scale cannot fully explore thisimpact. It is hoped, however, that this paper maybe useful to stimulate some future d iscussionsabout the impact of some strategies and possiblefuture work in this field. Therefore a follow upstudy to this report could be a sensitivelydeveloped research process to assess the impactof women’s peace activism in Sri Lanka.

De Mel (2001, p. 12) argues,

“Feminist scholars have drawnattention to the fact that measuringthe success of women’s movementsneeds different yardsticks because

Reflections and Recommendations


their composition and strategies arenot necessarily orthodox. A women’smovement comprises a range ofwomen’s organisations and net-works encompassing women’s wingsof political part ies, NGO coalit ions,trade unions, academics and profes-sional women’s networks. Theystand, at times in coalition, at t imesalone, for a diverse array of goalsand strategies. They incorporateboth middle class and working classgroups. Some of them chose to workwith the state while others do not.Their goals have not only been thoseof raising awareness, equal opportu-nit ies and gender justice, but also ofemployment generation, health,education, legal aid, community andslum development, consumerprotection for women and culturalproduction. Thus, yardsticks such asmembership numbers of the successof orthodox “tactics of disorder”such as public protests and demon-strations are not always the bestgauge by which women’s movementscan be judged. Many women’sorganisations opt for workingprivately, away from public view.They do not keep written records ofmeetings, and in certain culturesdepend more on informal networksand kinship groups rather thanorganised party or associationmembership.”

6.2 Moving towards consolidatingachievements of women’s peace initiatives

UNSCR 1325 Paragraph 8(b) - Recognisingwomen’s powerful day to day interventions inresponding to conflict and promoting peace –supporting and sustaining this work

Given the history of activism in women’smovements and the work of organisationsdocumented above – with their d iverse butsignificant gains and enormous challenges -when the question is raised on why it is stillimportant for NGOs to be involved in this work,we can f ind some powerful arguments in the

work of Tambiah (2002). She notes that NGOsprovide a space for women to cultivate pol iticalawareness and challenge various forms ofd iscrimination from outside party-dominatedspaces. NGOs can provide opportunities forwomen to take on leadership roles and developleadership capabil ities which they can then usein their communities. Also women’s movementpol itics provide alternative d iscourses andd iscursive spaces to articulate feminist visionsand understand socio-pol itical real ities in a morecomplex way. NGOs also play a key role insupporting women who have decided to entermainstream pol itical arenas in terms of raisingissues from a gendered perspective and voicingalternatives to the hegemonic agendas of thestate and extremist groups.

The participants at the presentation of the draftreport identif ied a d isconnect between thoseorganisations who focus mainly on advocacyand lobbying work and those organisationsprovid ing case-by-case support to women,children and men. Therefore, there is a need tolook back at moments when there was strongcohesion between these strands of work anddrawing from that experience to strengthenconceptual and programmatic l inks betweenthese two areas of work. This would providemore support for the locally based organisationsd irectly working with communities as well asenrich the advocacy and lobbying work.

The capacity and strength for women’s groupsto actively support ind ividual women orcommunities has to also be further strengthenedwith add itional skills and resources in terms ofpsycho – socio- economic support, casemanagement, documentation and supervisionsupport.

Questions were also raised as to whetheradequate effort has been made by women’sgroups to sustain or consol idate theempowerment, social changes and challenges topatriarchal relations that have taken place due tothe confl ict. There is a need to ensure thatsupport systems and capacity have been built upto avoid local cond itions reverting to oppressivepast form when confl ict ceases or changes.Many stud ies have analysed and documentedthe impact of NGOs and women’s groups in


bringing about women’s empower-ment and leadership in conflictcontexts9

Women’s groups and organisations haveprovided independent spaces for women todevelop pol itical awareness and leadership, to beable to challenge mil itarisation and war at theircommunity level as well as nationally fromoutside mainstream pol itics, and haveconsistently voiced alternative d iscourses to thepowerful mil itaristic, national istic and extremistd iscourses. Therefore these small but powerfulinitiatives need to be supported andstrengthened so that women’s voices and visionscan influence publ ic d iscourse and any futurepol itical negotiation to the confl ict.

One of the important outcomes of this mappingprocess was that there was a serious and criticalreflection about the work, by those who werepart of it. In this vein, a key observation of thoseinterviewed was that though women’s groupshave been working over a number of years withincommunities, keeping al ive the d iscussions andanalysis of peace, democracy, justice andmil itarisation, these d iscussions have not beenconsol idated and effectively employed atstrategic levels of intervention within the pol icyand pol itical spheres. There needs to be somecreative thought on how this can be achieved.One possible f irst step in this regard would be tocarry out research and d iscussions using feministresearch methodologies with community womenabout their own day to day initiatives in respond-ing to the confl ict and local level peace making,and their suggestions on how these responsescould be translated into strategic level activismand action.

An important area of future work that wasidentif ied was respond ing to the militarisationof communities, especially of the youth. Thisissue was raised by women working in confl ictareas and villages bordering confl ict areas.Mil itarisation was seen as a serious challenge tocreating spaces for representation and voice.Therefore there needs to be collective reflectionand strategising on how women’s groups couldrespond to the mil itarisation of their communi-ties and to collectively respond to state ideolo-

gies of war and mil itarisation through advocacy.

6.3 Building on and strengthening women’spolit ical participation

UNSCR 1325 Paragraph 1, Para-graph 8(c) CEDAW Article 7a,b,cwomen’s participation in polit icaland public life, CEDAW GR 23 (1997)Political and public life, CEDAW GR6 .,(2003) Effective national machin-ery and publicity

Another area which was identif ied as requiring agreater and a sustained amount of work waswomen’s pol itical participation especially at thelocal levels – as peace making and peace build ingwas seen as an inherently pol itical process10.Within this broader area of work some possibleinterventions identif ied were -

Creating a d ialogue with communities aboutwomen’s pol itical participation and represen-tation

Creating awareness, supporting and empow-ering women to engage with mainstreampol itics

Coming up with strategies on how women’sgroups could engage with any future peaceprocess or pol itical negotiation process witha critical reflection on past experiences. Thiswould then help guide the long and med iumterm work towards build ing a constituency ofwomen pol itical representatives.

6.4 Networks and networking

UNSCR 1325 Paragraphs 1 women’srepresentation in decision making,8(b) supporting local women’sinit iatives, 8(c) protect rights ofwomen and girls, 10 supportive workin responding to gender-basedviolence, CEDAW Article 2(c) mecha-nisms to provide legal redress andprotect women working on humanrights issues.

When the draft report was presented, anotherkey challenge identif ied by those present, wasthe lack of effective networks and the lack ofcapacity in networking of women’s groups and


organisations. Some recommendations forfurther action which came up were -

A systematic reflection on current network-ing practices to learn from good examplesand to create more effective networks whichcan respond to the needs of women’s groupsand organisations working in confl ict areasand peace build ing.

The need for effective networking torespond to urgent human rights violations,violence against women, and threats towomen workers, in terms of practicalimmediate support.

To collectively work towards effective pol iti-cal representation of women’s rights in peacebuild ing.


Footnotes1. The rationale for linking CEDAW to UNSCR 1325 is

that these instruments complement each other andprovide a platform for stronger lobbying with stateand non-state actors. The Sri Lankan Government isa signatory to CEDAW and has been reporting onwork done on issues of women’s politicalparticipation, gender-based violence, women andhealth, women and education and women’s rights inconflict. Sri Lankan women’s groups and NGOshave also been submitting alternative reports to theCEDAW committee. Therefore there is potentialwhich has not been fully utilised, for usingCEDAW along with the UNSCR 1325 for morestrategic interactions with the state. It should alsobe noted here that the new UNSCR 1820 which wasadopted by the Security Council in June 2008, alsodeals with sexual violence in armed conflict andcould be used in combination with the other UNinstruments.

2. Other studies that document work done in Sri Lankato promote women’s political participation andwomen’s experiences in participating in peaceprocesses include - The Asia Foundation [TAF].Collaborating Within and Across Borders toAdvance Women’s Political Participation. P.13-15.1998 Annual Report- Economic Crisis in Asia:Meeting the Challenge. San Francisco; UnitedNations. Peace Process. P.53-72. Women, Peaceand Security : Study submitted by the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution1325 (2000). New York. 2002; Taking 1325 to theVillage : Association of War Affected Women[AWAW},Ongoing. Resolution 1325 in Action. 15 November2007. 1p. [Source – http://www.peacewomen.org/1325inaction/ index.html; accessed on 8 February2008]; Sivachandran, Saroja. Women’sParticipation in Peace Building. 3p. Expert meetingon Women’s Human Rights under Armed Conflict,Kyoto (Japan), 14-15 September 1000. Tokyo,Asian Women’s Fund. 2000; Ms. SelvadharshiniThevanesan Croos, (Sri Lanka). P.25 Women andLeadership : Voices for Security andDevelopment : *Forum Report Ottawa, SAP. 2002;Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum(MWRAF). Enhancing Human Resource Pool andenabling Citizenship Activism for Muslim Women :Field-Level Workshops & Training. Puttalam, 21April 2001 p. 11 Annual Report : January –December 2001. Roundtable discussion on women

and politics at the Women and Media Collective, 2008June 23.

3 Samuel, Kumudini. Feminist Trends in the Women’sAction Committee (WAC) 1982-1990, MastersThesis, University of Colombo. 2007.

4. Other groups that worked with families who hadloved ones disappeared during this period were theOrganisation of the Families of the Disappearedand the Organisation of the Parents and FamilyMembers of the Disappeared.

5. Personal communications with Sunila Abeysekera,INFORM Human Rights Monitor July 2008.

6. The Diriya Shakthi Women’s Organisation wasformed out of the Polonnaruwa District Women’sCommittee which was a committee of womenvoluntarily working in the ‘border areas’ in thePolonnaruwa and Batticaloa Districts.

7 Personal communication with Sunila Abeysekera,INFORM Human Rights Monitor, July 2008.

8. For example the following documents refer to theinclusion of gender concerns and women’srepresentation within the peace process which wasa result of the lobbying and advocacy of women’sgroups – Samuel, Kumudini (2008), Women in theSri Lankan Peace Process: Included but Unequal,Institute for Human Rights, University of Deusto,Bilbao, Spain (forthcoming), Thiagarajah, Jeevan.SIHRN: Opportunities for Collaborating and Co-ordination: Summary of Presentation. [s.l].February 2003. 4p. [Source – http://www.cpalanka.org; accessed on 4 January 2007];Welcome opening for raising Gender Issues. 22March 2003. [and] Sub-Committee on GenderIssues [SGI]. 8 March 2003. Daily News; Women’sJourney Sri Lanka – South Africa 2003. Women’sJourney to Peace : Strengthening the Next StepForward, Colombo, 30 January 2003 : Reportfrom One day Workshop. 10p.; [http://www.onlinewomeninpolitics.org/ beijing12/women_peace_lk.doc ; accessed on 18/12/2007] ;Women’s Concerns and the Peace Process :Recommendations of the International Women’sMission to the North East of Sri Lanka 12th to 17th

October 2002. P. 40-44; notes. Pravada. Vol.8, No.


4. 2002; Post-Conflict and TransitionalParticipation. 1p. [s.l], International KnowledgeNetwork of Women. [Source – http://www.iknowpolitics.org/ en/ taxonomy_menu/2/49?.page=10; accessed on 8 February 2008].International Women’s Mission to the North andEast of Sri Lanka. Statement to Tokyo DonorConference : Summary of Women’s Concernssubmitted at the *Tokyo Donor Conference. April2003. 5p.

9 For example - Elek, Sophia. Choosing Rice overRisk : Rights, Resettlement and Displaced Women.Colombo, Centre for the Study of Human Rights(CSHR). 2003; Ruwanpura, Kanchana. ChildSupporting Households: Views and Perceptions ofFemale Heads of Households o. P.93-144; tables;notes; ref. Poverty and Social Conflict in Sri Lanka:Integrating Conflict Sensitivity into PovertyAnalysis. Ed. R. Asirwatham et al. Colombo, Centrefor Poverty Analysis (CEPA) et al. 2004;Ruwanpura, Kanchana. Female hardship amongMuslims in Eastern Sri Lanka: A Case ofChanging Household Structures. P.1-17; tables;notes. Nivedini. Vol. 11. July/August 2004; UNICEF.Displaced Women: The Key Issues. P.12-24. TheGender Dimension of Internal displacement:Concept Paper and Annotated Bibliography. Prp.Judy A. Benjamin and Kadija Fancy. [s.l], Office ofthe Emergency Programmes Working Paper Series.New York, 1998; Hoffman, Claire. CommunityParticipatory Family Planning and ReproductiveHealth with Internally Displaced Communities : SriLanka : p… Findings on Reproductive health ofRefugees and Displaced Population. [WashingtonD.C.,]. 5-6 December 2000. [Source – http://www.rhrc.org/ resources/ general_reports; accessedon 8 February 2008]; Kottegoda, Sepali. GenderDimensions of Poverty in Sri Lanka. Colombo, Centrefor Poverty Analysis (CEPA). 2004. 8p. (Briefing PaperSeries: Poverty Brief 8 – 2004); Pathirana,Buddhiprabha [and] Dissanayake, Vishaka.Investigation of Problems and Coping Factors ofWar Widows in the South of Sri Lanka. 11p.; ref.;annex. CENWOR: 9th National Convention onWomen’s Studies, Colombo, 20-23 March 2004; CAREInternational. Capacity Building of Communitybased Organisations in Jaffna (CAB-JAFFNA).[s.l]. 23 June 2004. [Source –http://www.careinternational.org.uk; accessed on 15 August2004]; FORUT-Sri Lanka. Project Activities :Puttalam. [Colombo]. 2000. P.1. [Source –http://www.forut.lk; accessed on 12 April 2003]; JaffnaDiocese of the Church of South India [JDCSI]. Kiran

Widows Empowerment Project (KWEP). p.24; plates.JDCSI Annual Report and Case Analysis 1996-97.Batticaloa; Kasynathan, Nalini. Working with WomenRefugees in Eastern Sri Lanka. P.24-26. Focus onGender. Vol.1, No.2. June 1993; Kurukulasuriya,Lasanda. War Widows denied Land. Daily Mirror. 3May 2002; Rajaratnam, Siron. The Role of Women inNon-Governmental Organisations in theTrincomalee District. 9p.; ref; annex. CENWOR: 4th

National Convention on Women’s Studies, Colombo,3-6 March 1994; Ruwanpura, Kanchana. The Genderand Spatial Politics of NGOs : Spaces of subversionand sites of reinforcement. 19p.; ref. “Gender andViolence”, Hambantota, 11-14 July 2005; Seneviratne,Dharshini. Changing Lives and Laws : Activism andPredicaments of the Muslim Women’s Research andAction Forum [MWRAF]. P. 34-37; notes. Options.2nd Quarter 1993;

10 Other studies that document work done in Sri Lankato promote women’s political participation andwomen’s experiences in participating in peaceprocesses include - The Asia Foundation [TAF].Collaborating Within and Across Borders toAdvance Women’s Political Participation. P.13-15.1998 Annual Report- Economic Crisis in Asia:Meeting the Challenge. San Francisco; UnitedNations. Peace Process. P.53-72. Women, Peaceand Security : Study submitted by the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution1325 (2000). New York. 2002; Taking 1325 to theVillage : Association of War Affected Women[AWAW},Ongoing. Resolution 1325 in Action. 15 November2007. 1p. [Source – http://www.peacewomen.org/1325inaction/ index.html; accessed on 8 February2008]; Sivachandran, Saroja. Women’sParticipation in Peace Building. 3p. Expert meetingon Women’s Human Rights under Armed Conflict,Kyoto (Japan), 14-15 September 1000. Tokyo,Asian Women’s Fund. 2000; Ms. SelvadharshiniThevanesan Croos, (Sri Lanka). P.25. Women andLeadership : Voices for Security andDevelopment : *Forum Report. Ottawa, SAP. 2002;Muslim Women’s Research and Action Forum(MWRAF). Enhancing Human Resource Pool andenabling Citizenship Activism for Muslim Women :Field-Level Workshops & Training. Puttalam, 21April 2001. p. 11. Annual Report : January –December 2001.


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Strategic Mapping of Women's Peace Activism in Sri Lanka

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