Fifty three students from the University of The Visual and Performing Arts were trained on Transitional Justice (TJ) under NPC’s project, Youth Engagement with Transitional Justice for Long-lasting Peace in Sri Lanka.
In addition to introducing them to the concepts of TJ, the training made the students aware of the importance of TJ in building sustainable peace and motivated them to produce art-based educating tools to take this concept to the public.
The students said they had attended the workshop to learn about peace and reconciliation, improve their leadership skills and find information for film scripts. They were asked to discuss such statements as “LTTE fought for Tamil people’s rights”, “We need a new constitution”, “We need international support to investigate war crimes”, and “TJ means punishing the war heroes.”
The students were divided into groups to present their ideas on TJ through drawings and drama. They said that as visual arts students, they could promote the concepts of TJ through films, street drama, concerts, art exhibitions, songs, poems and therapeutic music programmes for victims, as well as helping victims to make memorial statues.
A similar programme was held for 48 students from Wayamba University, which included team building activities, lectures, film screenings and participatory discussions. In Kurunegala and Vauniya, 44 participants, including school students, youth club members and members of the youth parliament attended an information session of TJ.