Youth activists on human rights in Sri Lanka
To commemorate Human Rights Day 2009 (falling on 10 December) Groundviews interviewed a number of leading activists in Sri Lanka to find out their perspectives on current challenges facing human rights in post-war Sri Lanka. In general, activists featured were asked to comment on the Sri Lankan State’s protection of human rights, the nexus between human rights and human dignity and opportunities for greater human rights protection over the coming years.
This video features two well known youth activists. K. Guruparan, who has also appeared earlier on Groundviews is associated with Beyond Borders and was one of the founders of the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament. Jovita Arulanantham, also a youth activist, is a student at the University of Colombo.
Amongst other issues, both speak of the ignorance and apathy of society towards human rights, and the incompatibility of Emergency Rule and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with fundamental rights, especially in post-war Sri Lanka. Guruparan points to the incident involving the public and the Police in Bambalapitiya recently where B. Sivakumaran, a Tamil boy, was cudgeled and forcibly drowned as an example of the crisis in human rights in Sri Lanka today. Jovita also speaks of the challenges facing language rights in Sri Lanka.
Sunila Abeysekera, towards the end of her interview with Groundviews on Human Rights Day, also talks about youth activists, and how they are emerging to champion human rights in Sri Lanka in their own way, through new tools and technologies.
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Thanks for the interesting thoughts. Listening to the interviews, it seemed that there were two parallel cultures in Sri Lanka — one that embraces rights-based values, and one that gives birth to human rights violations. This may explain then, for example, why so many from the South rushed to help their fellow Tamil citizens trapped in the camps, while at the same time supporting the very political culture that sustained their detainment. There seems to be some very strong confusion among the citizenry about human rights.
Guruparan brought up the issue of NGO awareness raising. I completely agree that any change must be based on a political (and social/cultural) acceptance of human rights. Abstract awareness raising just doesn’t seem to be making a difference. If there is such a duality in our people’s prevailing outlook, however, I am wondering what would be the most effective way of doing this? How do we go back to morality and common sense, back to our cultural foundations of human rights, when the dominant political culture has skewed its meaning and demonized it in the public mind? In this climate, would it actually be better to depoliticize human rights so it can be reintegrated into everyday values instead of part of the cultural fringe (and thus subject to debate)? And what does this imply for efforts at peacebuilding and reconciliation?
A lot of questions, I know…but I’m interested in hearing what others are thinking on this issue, and perhaps come a little closer to understanding how best to normalize these very essential values.
Only one comment for this post. The sadness of interest on the subject in our society.