A series of workshops were conducted in Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa, Nuwara Eliya, Jaffna, Ratnapura and Hambantota on pluralism, Transitional Justice, good governance and missing persons for Local Government Agents (LGAs) in 16 districts under NPC’s project Consolidating Ongoing Multi-Level Partnership Actions for Conflict Transformation (COMPACT).
LGA members, including several women, representing different political parties attended the workshops.
Participants from the Jaffna workshop said that the mechanisms of Transitional Justice needed to be properly established by the government. They said that the government should continue to support the Office on Missing Persons and the Office of Reparation. It was also important to formalise and establish a proper prosecution mechanism.
A female participant who took part in the Ratnapura workshop asked NPC to conduct a separate workshop for female LGAs who would benefit from the topics that were discussed. She pointed out that that there were obstacles for a female LGA member to work in politics such as the lack of knowledge of good governance, Transitional Justice and pluralism. Also, female LGA members were discriminated against because men believed that women were not as efficient as males when it came to performing their duties.