Centre for Policy Alternatives on 13 January, 2016 
A collective of civil society organisations called the Citizens’ Initiative for Constitutional Change (CICC) organised a press conference on January 12th in Colombo, to give publicity to the process of collecting citizen input to feed into the government’s current constitution-making exercise.
Speeches from the press conference can all be accessed in a playlist embedded below;
More information on the briefing and the work of the Initiative can be found here.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 17 December, 2015 18 December 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka: According to the latest ‘Democracy in Post War Sri Lanka’ survey conducted by Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, 80.6% of Sri Lankans are of the opinion that the Government should find solutions to address the root causes of the conflict. While 48.1% of Sri Lankans state that there should be a credible mechanism to look into accountability during the final stages of the war, 37.7% indicate that there should not be one.
Among those who stated that there should be a credible mechanism, 43.8% prefer an exclusively domestic mechanism, 17.1% prefer an exclusively international mechanism to probe into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed by all parties to the ethnic conflict during the final stages of the war. A majority (61.7%) from the Sinhala community prefer an exclusively domestic mechanism. 47.6% from the Tamil community prefer an exclusively international one and 39.7% prefer a combination of both domestic and international.
On reconciliation, 47% of Sri Lankans believe that the Government is genuinely committed to promoting reconciliation in the country while 22.6% believe that the Government is not genuinely committed.
A majority of Sri Lankans (almost 55%) are satisfied with the current level of democracy in the country, while nearly 16% state that they are not.
On the composition of the new Cabinet of Ministers, State Ministers and Deputy Ministers, 31.7% of Sri Lankans state that they are satisfied while 36.7% of Sri Lankans express dissatisfaction with regard to the same.
While 31.3% of Sri Lankans believe that the general economic situation in the country has got better since the new Government was formed, 30.3% believe that it has got worse. When comparing data across the four main ethnic communities, the Sinhala community is the most skeptical with regard to the general economic situation in the country with 35.3% stating that it has got worse since the new Government was formed.
The respondents were asked to indicate their level of satisfaction in relation to the development initiatives taken thus far under President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. While 46.3% of Sri Lankans were satisfied, nearly 30% were not satisfied with the present pace of development in the country.
‘Democracy in post-war Sri Lanka’ sought to record public perspectives on democracy in Sri Lanka today and the findings are presented under five key sections – Economy and Development, Security and Freedom, Perceptions on politics, human rights and reconciliation, and the Government. The first wave was conducted in 2011, the second wave in 2013, the third in 2014 and the fourth in March 2015.
Conducted in the 25 districts of the country, this survey captured the opinion of 2103 Sri Lankans from the four main ethnic groups. The selection of respondents was random across the country except in a few areas in the Northern Province where access was difficult. Fieldwork was conducted from October 20th to November 15th 2015.
Download the report in full here.
Social Indicator (SI) is the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and was established in September 1999, filling a longstanding vacuum for a permanent, professional and independent polling facility in Sri Lanka on social and political issues. Driven by the strong belief that polling is an instrument that empowers democracy, SI has been conducting polls on a large range of socio-economic and political issues since its inception.
Please contact Iromi Perera at [email protected] for further information.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 10 December, 2015 
With the political transition in 2015, Human Rights Day this year provides us an opportunity to reflect on the situation in Sri Lanka, identify areas for improvement and work towards realising greater respect, protection and promotion of human rights for all citizens.
We have experienced and continue to experience a multiplicity of human rights challenges in Sri Lanka. What is captured here merely highlights some developments in Sri Lanka in 2015 and areas that require attention.
It is by no means an exhaustive overview of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka but provides a glimpse into the many areas that must be given attention without further delay and the reforms that are urgently required.
This story carries data from the latest wave of CPA Social Indicator’s ‘Democracy in Post-War Sri Lanka’ that is to be released later this month.
The immersive story can be accessed here.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 1 December, 2015 This booklet contains a collection of suggestions that can be taken into consideration if Sri Lanka is to have a new Constitution in the near future.
These suggestions are specifically derived upon analyzing South Africa’s and Kenya’s Constitutions.
The booklet would be most useful as a source for the public for information on constitution-making.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 20 November, 2015 The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder, democratic and transparent forum facilitating discussion on public policy issues related to Internet governance by all stakeholders. The discussions at the 2015 forum were framed around the theme ‘Evolution of Internet governance: Empowering Sustainable Development’, supported by eight sub-themes – Cybersecurity and trust, The Internet economy, Inclusiveness and diversity, Openness, Enhancing multi-stakeholder cooperation, The Internet and human rights, Critical Internet resources and Emerging issues.
The issue of hate speech online was the focus of a Workshop held on 12th November. ‘Dangerous speech online: Identification and strategies’, focused on the South Asian region, exploring the complex tangle of issues around online hate speech and implications for disempowered groups, Internet enabled anonymity, its cross-border nature and the effects of regulation on freedom of expression. The workshop was moderated by Professor Urs Gasser, Executive Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The panel included Professor Susan Benesch, The Dangerous Speech Project, Ankhi Das, Regional Director Facebook for South Asia and representatives from India, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Researcher Roshini Wickremesinhe represented CPA at this forum, having co-authored a recent report Saving Sunil – a study of dangerous speech around Facebook page dedicated to Sgt. Sunil Rathnayake.
Read a full report on the Forum here.
Listen to an insight on the Saving Sunil study here.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 17 November, 2015 
Download the November-December issue of the Saama Vimarshi magazine here.
Centre for Policy Alternatives on 13 November, 2015 
The Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (the Commission) was established on 15th August 2013 under Gazette No. 1823/42. Over a year into its mandate, the Commission continues to operate under circumstances that raise serious concerns in respect of the search for truth, justice and accountability in Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) depicts the Commission not only as its primary instrument to address the grievances of the families of the disappeared, but also since the expansion of its mandate, as the sole mechanism for addressing war time violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, amongst others.
Since it began its work of hearing complaints brought forward by family members of the disappeared, the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has monitored the work of the Commission and put forward several recommendations on improvements that can be made to the process. In addition to scrutinising these methods, CPA observers have recorded cases brought before all the commissioners across a majority of the hearings. This content is both a compilation of CPA’s work on the Commission and a look into some of the cases witnessed at hearings that help place in context the enduring trauma of enforced disappearances through personal narratives.
Stories of entire families lost, children separated from their parents, spouses taken into Army camps and loved ones lost in the last stages of the war coupled with a family’s desperate economic situation are some of the issues flagged in testimonies brought before the Commission.
The past few months have seen significant events that might signal positive change in addressing this issue that has plagued the country since the beginning of the war, with the cabinet agreeing to provide families of the missing with ‘Certificates of Absence’ and the Office of Missing Persons due to be set up. There is also hope that, at the time this is released, the on-going visit of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will yield information and recommendations for action to compensate the families that have been waiting for years on end for their loved ones.
Whether it is closure through a confirmation of death or joy on their return to their homes, CPA is committed to upholding the pillars of transitional justice in efforts to provide these families with answers.
The immersive story is accessible here.