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Seminars / Workshops / Discussions
organised by CPA

Activities conducted in: 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 -2002

2002

Constitutionalism, the Rule of Law and the 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution

24th September 2002

CPA organised a seminar on the proposed 18th and 19th Amendments to the Constitution on the 24th September 2002. The seminar held for the purpose of raising awareness on the political and legal implications of the 18th and 19th amendments, focused in addition to the content of the constitutional amendments to the process in which they originated. The panelists comprised of, Mr. Shibly Aziz, P.C. Constitutional Council, Hon. Naveen Dissanayake, Deputy Minister Plantation Industries, of Mr. Rohan Edrisinha, Director, CPA, Mr. Nigel Hatch, Attorney at Law. The timely nature of the topic ensured a large participation including the press, politicians, and other civil society members.

Initiating presentations, Mr. V.T. Thamilmaran, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, concentrated on the key concepts of sovereignty, democracy and the rule of law. He stated that sovereignty of the people is entrenched in article three of the Constitution of 1978 which states that sovereignty lies with the people and that this right is inalienable. Focusing on the 19th amendment he questioned the possibility of undermining the presidents power without undermining the sovereignty of the people. He further opposed the granting of full immunity in the 18th amendment stating that this amounted to a setting up of a parallel body of legislature. As a principal he stated that constitutional amendments in addition to a two-thirds majority in parliament should entail a referendum.

Mr. Rohan Edrisinha. in agreement with Mr. Thamilmaran on the point of immunity questioned the need for unfettered discretion of the members of the Constitutional Council. He stated that this created a Constitutional Council more powerful than the Supreme Court. He further found the 19th amendment to be ad hoc and ad hominem and spoke on the need for a 19th amendment based on principals. Concluding his presentation Mr. Edrisinha suggested a simple 19th amendment taking a way the power of the President to dissolve parliament, and that members of parliament be given the authority to vote based on their conscience on the occasion of all constitutional amendments.

Bilingualism in Canada: Its Role in Promoting Social Harmony- Lessons for Sri Lanka?

8th August 2002

CPA hosted a seminar on the 8th August 2002 in which Professor Marc Cousineau, Director Canadian Centre for Linguistic Rights and Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, spoke on "Bilingualism in Canada: Its Role in Promoting Social Harmony- Lessons for Sri Lanka?"

Prof. Cousineau initiated his presentation by making the observation that in his opinion Sri Lanka was at present in a similar situation to that of Canada in the late sixties. His presentation comprised three main elements, which were as follows:

-A brief breakdown of demographics on the spread of the population in Canada by Language.
-A brief history of the relationship between the language groups in Canada
-An illustration of various mechanisms adopted by Canada to enhance relationships and harmony between the different language groups.

In this context Prof. Cousineau spoke of the Official Languages Commission in Canada, established by law with the authority to take government to courts, if the government was to act in contradiction to the official policy of bilingualism. The role of the Commission is to act for the protection of minorities, to promote bilingualism throughout the country.

The presentation was concluded by an illustration of the strengths and weaknesses of this policy followed by various questions raised regarding the relevance of the Canadian bilingual policy to the Sri Lankan context.

Good Governance and the Freedom of Information:
A Comparative Approach

15th July 2002

Mr. Vikram Chand, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, World Bank, India, spoke on the occasion of a seminar arranged by CPA on the 15th July 2002 on "Good Governance and the Freedom of Information: A Comparative Approach." Mr. Chand, in his presentation spoke of Information as a flow emanating from government to the people. He spoke of the interrelationship between freedom of information, the access to information and the right to information and the broader sets of governance issues including empowerment, transparency and service delivery. Information is in his opinion a prerequisite to citizen participation and empowerment in addition to being an important tool in discouraging corruption by holding government and public departments accountable.

Speaking on the dangers of a bad Freedom of Information Law he cautioned against laws which provide an image of democracy without the necessary substance citing the Australian and Pakistani Freedom of Information acts as such examples. The Japanese Freedom of Information Act, the various information acts of the state governments of India, including those of Maharasthra and Rajasthan, were mentioned as examples of good laws. The state of Maharasthra had in addition carried out various experiments in the use of IT to improve access to information.

Finally as characteristics of good freedom of information laws he listed, he listed amongst other issues the existence of an exhaustive index in the law, proactive disclosure clauses, and provision for easily accessible information.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce-CPA Collaboration - Conflict Resolution - The Role of the Business Community: A Comparative Approach

20th June 2002

CPA together with the CCC organised three seminars as part of a seminar series funded by KAS. The aim of these seminars is to bring together the business community with groups of other civil society actors to highlight the involvement of the business community in the peace process in Sri Lanka.

The third seminar held on the 20th June 2002 was conducted under the theme "Conflict Resolution - The Role of the Business Community: A Comparative Approach". Speaking on this occasion Mr. Charitha Ratwatte, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Muthukrishna Sarvananthan, Economist and Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) presented papers.

Mr. Ratwatte in his presentation dealt primarily with the role of the business community in conflict transformation processes in South Africa, Guatemala and Northern Ireland. Mr. Sarvananthan presentation dealt with the problems of taxation in the North-East, where he claimed that the LTTE did not create an atmosphere conducive for the conduct of profitable businesses. He further highlighted several other problems facing business in the North-East, and spoke of the pivotal importance of capacity building of local entrepreneurs in the North-East, to help revive the economy of the region.

The Belgium Constitution and Pluralism: Lessons for Sri Lanka

19th June 2002

CPA organized a seminar on the above topic on the 19th June 2002. Mr. Luc Walleyn, a Belgian expert in Constitutional Law, made the presentation on this occasion. Mr. Walleyn spoke on the Belgian transition from a unitary decentralized state to a federal state, which maintains national sovereignty whilst facilitating increased economic and cultural regional autonomy.

Following a brief outline of the federal state in the Belgian context, Mr. Walleyn identified the principles of negotiation, cooperation and compromise on which the model is based. As innovations worth emulating in the Sri Lankan context, Mr. Walleyn spoke on the provisions in the Belgian system by which the economic and cultural interest of the minorities are protected, the Alarm Bell procedure by which a two third majority, in either of the main linguistic groups, could refer a law further to a council of ministers, if the law could be considered to damage relations between the communities. He further spoke of the fact that any parliamentary or legal reform in Belgium was published in the three main languages.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce-CPA Collaboration - The Peace Process in Sri Lanka: From Interim to Final

17th May 2002

CPA together with the CCC organised three seminars as part of a seminar series funded by KAS. The aim of these seminars is to bring together the business community with groups of other civil society actors to highlight the involvement of the business community in the peace process in Sri Lanka.

The second seminar held on the 17th May 2002 was titled "The Peace Process in Sri Lanka: From Interim to Final Settlement". Mr. Rohan Edrisinha, CPA, in his presentation "From Interim to Final: Constitutional & Legal Challenges" highlighted the need to work towards federal options through creative constitutional reform with a view to meeting Tamil aspirations while safeguarding the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. Speaking on limitations of the cease-fire he expressed concern of the lack of adequate human rights guarantees in the agreement.

Further presentations by Mr. Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary, Prime Ministers Office and Mr. Paul Harris, Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph London were followed by a lively and open discussion between the panel and the audience focusing mainly on concerns over concessions perceived given by GoSL, and the various models of federal governing systems.

A Professional and Non-partisan Public service : The Canadian Model

9th May 2002

CPA organised a public lecture on the 9th May titled "A Professional and Non-partisan Public service :The Canadian Model". Ms. Nurjehan Mawani, at this public seminar, Commissioner of the Public Services Commission of Canada initiated her presentation stating that the 17th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution could be seen as an opportunity to rebuild confidence in public institutions.

Ms. Mawani stated that the essential purpose of any public service is the advancement of the public good. In order to fulfill this purpose the Canadian Civil Service is based on the principal of Merit as this ensures the independence of public services from political or bureaucratic favour or patronage. In addition to ensuring the non-partisanship of services it also ensures an equal opportunity for those qualified to compete for jobs in the public service.

The Canadian Public service has in addition to the above values related to:
* The recruitment and staffing process
* Results- competency, non-partisan and representative of those served.
* Organisational values- flexibility, affordability and efficiency

In Canada the Public Service has a role in contributing to the cohesion of society by reflecting Canada's diversity and by promoting and embodying the shared values that hols Canadian society together which are inter alia, linguistic duality, Aboroginal Peoples' rights and multiculturalism.

In line with the above the Canadian public service is expected to reflect Canadian needs, concerns and interests in policies, programms and services whilst being inclusive and representative of Canadian society. There appears however to be a lag in fulfilling this criteria and therefore legislation was passed to ensure Employment Equity legislation which was followed by a joint task force on the inclusion of visible minorities (persons, excluding aboroginals, non-white in colour) in public services.

The Independent Public Service Commission

8th May 2002

Ms. Nurjehan Mawani, Commissioner General of the Public Services Commission of Canada spoke on the history, role, functions and the guiding principles of this institution in Canada. With regard to the establishment of a Independent Public Services Commission Ms. Mawani identified a list of vital points for consideration which includes, the 17th amendment as a good governance tool, issues of multiplicity of recourse mechanisms in the public service, central and provincial issues, a value based approach, the need for a code of ethics, issues of official languages in addition to the principle of merit.

Ms. Mawani's presentation was followed by a discussion chaired by Dr. Shelton Wanasinghe, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. Mr. Bradman Weerakoon, Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Asoka Gunasekera, Chairman of the Finance Commission and Mr. Rohan Edrisinha, Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives participated in the discussion.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce-CPA Collaboration - The Peace Process: The Challenge of Negotiations

3rd May 2002

CPA together with the CCC organised three seminars as part of a seminar series funded by KAS. The aim of these seminars is to bring together the business community with groups of other civil society actors to highlight the involvement of the business community in the peace process in Sri Lanka.

The first seminar held on the 3rd May 2002 titled "The Peace Process in Sri Lanka: The Challenge of Negotiations" initiated with the presentation, of a paper on the failure of past negotiations and their bearing on the present, by Sanjana Hattotuwa, on behalf of Kethesh Loganathan. Apart from highlighting the failures of the past three rounds of negotiations between the LTTE and the Government the paper stressed on the importance of an inclusive process that recognises democracy and pluralism, and also one that incorporates human rights and human rights norms.

Speaking next Dr. Norbert Ropers, Director, Berghof Foundation, spoke on various aspects of conflict transformation processes. Mr. Jehan Perera, The National Peace Council, addressed the challenges facing civil society in the peace process. He stressed that civil society should advocate both parties to sign a comprehensive human rights agreement.

Representative Democracy & Electoral Processes

11th April 2002

CPA arranged a Public Lecture on the 11th April 2002 in which Mr. Ronald Gould spoke on the above topic. In the introduction to his lecture Mr. Gould spoke of Elections and election processes as the integral foundation for representative democracy. He further went on to caution that the mere existence of elections and election processes did not necessarily guarantee a representative government and spoke on the case of the recently held elections in Zimbabwe, where electoral processes had been misused, to subvert representative democracy.

Speaking on the Election Commission, Mr. Gould noted three prerequisites necessary for its effective function. They are; basic guarantees of the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly, independent court and judicial systems and appropriate election systems for the country taking into account ethnic composition and geography.

Mr. Gould also spoke of challenges to the newly appointed Election Commission which included the need for independence, transparency, sanctions and penalties for immediate procedures against violations of the Election Act. Topics such as election systems, election violence, the 17th amendment were taken up in the plenary discussion that followed the presentation.

Electoral Democracy: Institutions and Processes

10th April 2002

In a seminar organized by CPA, Mr. Ronald Gould, Former Head, Elections Commission of Canada, spoke of his experiences in his tenure as Canadian Elections Commissioner. He spoke of the mandate, role and functions of the Canadian Commission and noted that the 17th Amendment by which the Elections Commission in Sri Lanka had been established along with the provisions in the amendment with regards to the independence of the Commission are positive steps in ensuring that the electoral process in Sri Lanka will evolve into a tool for enhancing representative democracy.

Speaking further on the positive aspects of the Commission he noted that the Commission should be able to act independent of partisan government given the fact that they are appointed through the Constitutional Council. In addition the Commission is financed by a consolidated revenue fund and the government does not control their expenditure. On the negative aspects Mr. Gould noted that the lack of sanctions for-non compliance was a loophole.

Mr. H.L. de Silva, a member of the Constitutional Council, spoke on the Constitutional Council established under the 17th amendment, its role, mandate and statutory provisions whilst Mr.Rohan Edrisinha, Director, CPA critically assessed the 17th amendment with special reference to the Constitutional Council and the Election Commission. Mr. Arjuna Parakrama, CMEV, spoke of the experiences of the Centre for Monitoring of Election Violence in monitoring elections in Sri Lanka and in extension of this on the deficiencies in the Election Laws.

Child Trafficking in Sri Lanka

3rd April 2002

A national workshop was held to publicise the findings on the inadequacy of the laws relating to child trafficking in Sri Lanka, on the 3rd April 2002. Following the introductions by Dr. Saravanamuttu (CPA) and Ms. Staermose (ILO/IPEC), the legal researchers of CPA presented their papers, to which responses were made by Mr. Thurairaja, Senior State Council, AG's Department and Mr.A.Tampoe, Attorneys - at - Law. Following the presentation the participants were divided into working groups, which further discussed identified areas which included, sentencing policies including minimum mandatory sentencing, Rehabilitation of the survivor, and the de-criminalising of the survivor. The working groups presentations was followed by a plenary.

During the course of the workshop a member of the Law Commission, former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Amarasinghe recommended that CPA draft a law on trafficking promising in this context that the Law Commission would lobby for the acceptance of this draft.

The legal research team as a CPA initiative has prepared a draft law on the prevention of child trafficking. Dealing with inadequacies in the existing legal framework the draft law has created new offences, dealt with rehabilitation and child friendly repatriation procedures in addition too de-criminalising the child survivor. The draft law will be presented to the civil society and key members of the judiciary in the month of October.

International Labour Standards and Labour Law Reform

15^th March 2002

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, The Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung hosted a half-day seminar on the 15^th of March 2002 on International Labour Standards and Labour Law Reform. Since there is a widespread perception that that Sri Lankan Labour laws are antiquated and in need of reform this seminar was arranged for the purpose of bringing together various actors of the business community with trade union representatives, government officials and other stakeholders to discuss the content and process of labour law reform.

Ms. Claudia Coenjaerts, Director, International Labour Organisation in her presentation titled "International Labour Standards and Labour Law Reform- Perspectives of the ILO" spoke on International Labour Standards applicable in the event that labour laws in Sri Lanka would be amended. The business community representatives and others present were introduced to the content of the international labour law. Ms. Coenjaerts further elaborated on the law reform process highlighting issues that would need to be taken into consideration in such a reform process.

Issues off International labour standards and labour law reform from an employers perspective were presented by Mr. Gotabaya Dassanayake, Director-General, Employers Federation of Ceylon. The employees' perspective was presented by Ms. Nimalka Fernando, Free Trade Union Dialogue Centre and Mr. I.N.R. Rasseedin a member of a non-partisan trade union. Ms. Fernando spoke of her involvement and work with the employees of the free trade zone garment sector. Mr. Rasseedin highlighted many of the concerns of the trade union movement. He stressed its opposition to the commodification of workers.

The above presentations were followed by a panel discussion which included Mr. Nigel Austin, Former President Employers' Federation, Mr. Mohamed Adamally, Attorney at Law, Mr. C. Jayarathne, The president Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Mr. Rohan Edrisinha, CPA.

One of the significant features of the seminar was that it facilitated frank and open dialogue on a controversial subject between representatives of groups, which would not interact with each other under normal circumstances.

The rule of law and the independence of the judiciary:
The IBA Report 2001

18^th January 2002

The Centre for Policy Alternatives in collaboration with the Law and Society Trust hosted a discussion on the Rule of Law and the Independence of the Judiciary on the 18^th January 2002 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI). The report prepared by the International Bar Association on the Judiciary in Sri Lanka titled: "Failing to Protect the Rule of Law and the Independence of the Judiciary", was the focus of the discussion. Ways and means of securing the independence of the judiciary were also discussed.

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu addressing the gathering stressed the importance of the discussion on the IBA report for good governance in Sri Lanka. He highlighted three main issues in the IBA report which the Government of Sri Lanka should recognize namely, the independence of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice to serve the people through the Supremacy of the Rule of Law, Constitutional reform must be achieved through constitutional means and a strong democracy depends on a free media a fact that all upholders of the law should respect. The discussion was chaired by Justice R.M.H Dheeraratne whilst Mr. Desmond Fernando, Mr. R.K.W Goonesekere, Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya and Mr. Rohan Edrisinha spoke of various aspects of the Sri Lankan judiciary and shared their experiences on the Sri Lanka’s Judicial System.

Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons:
The Sri Lankan Challenge

12^th January 2002

The Centre for Policy Alternatives organized a seminar on the 12^th January 2002 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI) to discuss the challengers faced by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka. Dr. Saravanamuttu spoke on the involvement of CPA with the situation of the IDPs in Puttlam in particular and all Sri Lankan IDPs in general.

Mr. M. Faiz of the Rural Development Foundation shared the experiences of Northern Muslims while Ms. Renuka Senanayake presented the report prepared by CPA on the Human Rights Violations of the IDPs. Mr. Michael Lindenbaur, representative of the UNHCR shared information with regard to the work carried out by the UNHCR with IDPs. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion on the United Nations and the Protection of the IDP’s.

Government representatives present informed the audience of work carried out by the government in order to improve the situation of the IDPs and the obstacles faced during this process. All present were of the agreement that much remains to be done by the Government of Sri Lanka, civil society and the UN organizations to ensure that the basic needs of IDPs are met and their human rights safeguarded.

Activities conducted in: 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 -2002