Minority Empowerment for Democracy and Pluralism in Sri Lanka
Duration: 1 February 2024 – 31 January 2026
Country: Sri Lanka
Communities: Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils, Sri Lankan Moors, Malays, Burghars, Telugus, indigenous persons, people facing caste-based discrimination, and within these communities: women, youth, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people.
What is this programme about?
The programme aims to protect human rights and democracy in Sri Lanka by achieving the full inclusion of minorities, particularly women and youth, in electoral processes. We will support Sri Lankan civil society actors in their initiatives to make political institutions and electoral practices more transparent, accountable and inclusive. This will be achieved by bringing the perspectives of minority and marginalized communities into civil society, and by supporting civil society initiatives to increase participation of minorities in electoral processes as active citizens, voters and political representatives.
We will also increase commitment from local, national and international duty-bearers to reform practices and institutions to make political processes transparent and fair. Overall, the programme will increase the capacity of minority communities (especially women and youth) to participate in politics, research and document ongoing challenges and influence policies and practices related to such challenges.
What are we doing?
- Training minority women, youths and journalists to empower them with knowledge on how they can become more politically active as voters or candidates for political office.
- Creating minority women’s networks and a minority youth network to provide a safe space to discuss shared challenges, give and receive emotional and practical support and brainstorm ways of overcoming political barriers.
- Providing participatory research training for minority women, building their advocacy skills, provide opportunities for them to engage with politicians, and strengthening their network-building activities.
- Providing minority women and youth with small grants for community-led awareness campaigns to strengthen the accountability of democratic institutions, strengthen their own advocacy capacity, or strengthen community awareness of democratic rights and processes.
- Researching and producing a report on minorities and the political process including voting, electoral systems, processes and practices before, during, and after elections and issues of equal representation.
- Producing a participatory research report on minority women, with the help of trained women or youth from target communities, focusing on the current issues facing minority women in Sri Lanka and making recommendations for positive change.
- Developing a briefing on marginalized communities, including persons with disabilities, which identifies intersectionality issues and makes recommendations to policymakers.
- Engaging in advocacy with political parties, election commissions and international actors to ensure inclusive election processes, electoral reforms and the participation of minorities in the electoral process.
What is the context?
Sri Lanka is recognized as one of the most complex plural societies in the world, as it is home to three major ethnic groups — Sinhalese, Tamils and Moors— as well as four of the world’s main religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Since the country’s independence from Britain, minorities have been subjected to discrimination and exclusion, which led to the monstrous ethnic conflict lasting for 30 years known as the Sri Lankan Civil War. The war continues to impact majority-minority relations on the island, resulting in challenges within the constitutional, legal and policy framework of the minority rights discourse.
In Sri Lanka’s political system, institutions of democracy exist, but political exclusion of minorities is prevalent. While political parties representing minority communities, vital instruments of pluralism, are able to operate, they are fundamentally challenged by Sri Lanka’s current majoritarian politics, stemming from the long history of inter-ethnic tension still lurking beneath the democratic facade. Sinhalese Buddhist majoritarianism is increasingly threatening the state’s pluralistic democratic ideals.
The history of Sri Lanka demonstrates that violence is prevalent against election officials, minority voters, and legislators, as well as against women and youth attempting to enter the political sphere. Minorities are often disadvantaged by electoral systems and practices, such as the delimitation commission process (the process of drawing the boundaries of electoral constituencies), the absence of quotas for marginalized communities and disenfranchisement.
It is crucial to guarantee the full participation of minorities, particularly women and youth, in electoral processes, as this will have a beneficial effect on minority communities in Sri Lanka.
Who are our partners?
Oxford Brooks University is one of the UK’s leading modern universities and enjoys an international reputation for teaching excellence and innovation.
Eastern Social Development Foundation was founded in order to assist weak and disadvantaged women in exercising their fundamental rights and addressing their needs for sustainable development by a group of social activists in 2010 as a rights and women-based Civil Society organization. In the aftermath of the war in Eastern Province, the Eastern Social Development Foundation has been assisting individuals in need who are vulnerable women and minority communities across the nation who have experienced gender-based violence and other types of community violence.
Human Development Organization (HDO) is a non-governmental, non-profit making and non-racial national human rights organization that works with underprivileged and marginalized communities in the plantation and rural areas of Sri Lanka. The mission of HDO consists of the ‘‘Establishment of a socially just, equitable and peaceful civil society through poverty eradication and sustainable development’’. For the last 22 years the organization has developed appropriate strategies, methodologies and approaches to challenge the human rights and development issues among the target groups, and in the region and the country.
Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit and national level organization. SDJF is an action based and learning organization having a dedicated staff and over 500 trained volunteers, young journalists and civil society members across the country to foster vibrant democracy and to reduce voice poverty of excluded and marginalized communities. They do this by advocating, capacity building, mentoring, stewardship, internship, volunteering and community initiatives.
Who is funding this programme?
This programme is funded by the European Union.
Featured image: A Sri Lankan Tamil Woman Shows her inked finger outside a polling station after casting her vote during a presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 16 November 2019. Credit: Jayawardana/NurPhoto SRL/Alamy Stock Photo.
