This event has passed. The recording is available below through the HLS YouTube channel.
Victims of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict have been seeking truth, justice and reparations for the abuses and violations of international law committed during the nearly three-decade long war. Domestic transitional justice efforts have been largely piecemeal, with no real political will to address longstanding grievances. In addition to the change of government and their commitments to operationalize a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission victims are largely skeptical of, the panel will discuss the role of the international community to ensure that Sri Lanka’s victims of grave human rights violations and abuses find redress.
Panelists
Kate Cronin-Furman studies mass atrocities. She is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at University College London, where she directs the MA in Human Rights. Cronin-Furman received her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia in October 2015 and has held fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. In addition, she has a J.D. and has practiced law in New York, Cambodia, and The Hague.
Thyagi Ruwanpathirana is the 2024 Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Fellow, hosted jointly by the Human Rights Program and the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School. As the Tiruchelvam Fellow, her research project focuses on the creation of an enabling environment for a post-conflict Truth Commission that meets the needs of the victims of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict. Thyagi works as Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Office in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 2018. After having completed her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Warwick, UK in 2010, Thyagi obtained her Master of Law (LLM) in Human Rights in 2011 from Birkbeck College, University of London.
This event is cosponsored by the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, HRP and HLS Advocates for Human Rights.