​In 2023 two workshops for the Religious and Priests for Human Rights (RPHR) were held in Thalawila and in Kandy with several participants gaining knowledge and experiences.
 
The first workshop was held St. Anne’s Church, Thalawila Retreat house of Chilaw Diocese from 13th - 16th February 2023 with 37 participants from different parts of the country. The workshop included an exposure, inputs of resource persons, discussions and sharing. The focus of the workshop was on workers’ rights and hence the theme was “Ensure Dignity of Workers and empower the voiceless”

​The exposure was to the sea fishing community, lagoon fishing community and to a farming community. With the findings of the exposure the participants continued their discussions and deliberations as they identified the hardships in their work and rough living conditions and social & economical challenges they face. 

​Rev. Fr. Nishantha Cooray TOR made a scriptural in put on the dignity of the workers and our call to ensure that while the Political & Economic crisis and the aspirations of Northern society was highlighted by Fr. Jeyabalan Croos and Fr. Nehru Croos.

​The second workshop was held at Montefano Ampitiya Kandy from the 28th- 30th May 2023 Taking into consideration the 200 years struggle of the Tea plantation community in Sri Lanka, the workshop focused on the workers of the tea plantation community with the theme "Let us uphold the dignity of the tea plantation workers".

​From several parts of the country 28 participants joined the workshop. An exposure to the Tea plantation community was made to the Knuckles Estate in Panvila Parish. The participants had a first-hand experience seeing the plight, the reality of the tea plantations workers, the Upcountry Tamil people who migrated from India and lived in central, province who contributed to the national economy in various ways for 200 years. Their contribution is about a third of the total income of the plantation sector. Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe elaborated on this with a presentation on ''The bitter brew of the plantation workers in Sri Lanka while Rev. Fr. Arosh made a scriptural, input on " Prophetic role and our calling". 

​The participants identified the issues faced by the tea plantation workers such as discrimination, minimum wages, Labour right violations, inequality, unemployment, power-sharing, and many more. Hence it was discussed that reflections of those main issues for a common person to live par with another community equally makes difficulties and it creates a huge disparity between them and other communities.

​Further the participants identified the exploitation of women in the plantation sector as the most marginalized group of workers in Sri Lanka. Although the Plantation women are contributing a lot to their families as income earners and taking care of the entire family makes them more exploited in their strength-wise & labour wise. The rights of plantation people & legal remedies “were presented by Mr. Suren D. Perera AAL and Mr. Madawa Eriyagama while Mr. Kamaladasan AAL shared his experiences growing up in the plantation community, the challenges that he had to face specially when he had to continue his highest studies in the university. The need for the church to treat, respect and ensure the “Rights” of the tea plantation workers was expressed by the participants and to develop a strategy to ensure equality as citizens of Sri Lanka.
 
“Proposed security law and the Prevention of Terrorism Act“ was also discussed as an immerging issue with the facilitation of Mr. Ruki Fernando.  

Suren D. Perera AAL initiating the discussion of the workshop, raised some basic questions regarding the Economic crisis & the youth struggle. He paused 03 main questions: 

• Reasons for the economic crisis  
• The perspective of the participants about the People’s       struggle.
• The changes that participants look forward to if the    presidents resign? 

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It was an individual and a group activity for which all the participants actively joined. 

The discussion on “Women & Economic crisis” was facilitated by Sarah Arumugam AAL. She briefly explained and questioned the life of women during the crisis and the participation and the leadership of women in the struggle. Further she raised the question regarding the response of the society to women's activism and the barriers to women's political participation in Sri Lanka.

​With COVID 19 health restrictions and guidelines, the workshop of the Religious and Priests for Human Rights (RPHR) was held at Fatima Retreat House, Lewella Kandy from the 14th - 17th February 2022 with 28 participants from different parts of the country. 

​The participants had an exposure to the Katugastota - Thekkawatte garbage dumpsite and dolomite mining site at Digana on 15th February. Following the exposure there were discussions in small groups and several recommendations were made by the participants in protecting the environment especially with regard to the disposal of garbage.

​With the exposure, the participants had a firsthand experience and therefore were able to reflect on the massive destruction of the environmental due to the negligence of the people and short-term political ambitions of politicians. Rev. Fr. Sagara Jayamanne SSS made a scriptural in put on the theme “Prophetic call” while the present situation of the North and the East was highlighted by Rev. Fr. Jeyabalan Croos. The unexpected critical economic crisis in the country and the causes in relation to women were discussed with the facilitation of Mrs. Vishaka Dharmadasa. Bishop Kumara Illagasinghe explained the challenges faced by the plantation people followed by a lively discussion. In spite of various challenges and obstacles, possible initiatives within a limited democratic space were pointed out by Mr. Rukshan Fernando and some legal initiatives on the amendment to the PTA (Prevention of Terrorism ACT) were introduced by Mr. Suren D. Perera AAL for which the participants consented to become petitioners. Therefore, the petition to be filed in the Supreme Court was explained.

​​The Director of CSR Rev. Fr. Rohan Silva OMI facilitated a discussion about the aftermath of the Easter Sunday Attack and requested the participants to study the recommendations made by the commission and invited the participants to work in solidarity to bring about Justice to the victims of Easter Sunday Attack. The 03-day workshop was concluded with a thanksgiving mass on the 17th February.

​Focusing on the theme "When Women lead, others follow” the Human Rights Office Kandy organized the International Women's day on the 12th March 2022 at the Parish hall of Fatima Shrine Padiwatte Kandy Sri Lanka.
 
More than 100 participants from the families of the disappeared, families of the prisoners, the survivors of torture, rape, sexual and gender based violence and their families, the members of the support group and the staff of the Human Rights Office participated in the day’s programme. 

The guest speaker Ms. Geeva Nilmalgoda, Attorney at Law highlighted the theme and provided examples how women lead not only the families, but in many other spheres taking up responsibilities with determination. "Women as leaders have the capacity to lead others while they suffer silently but still have the courage to endure challenges”. 

​The women who participated lit lamps in honour of all the suffering women, mothers who give new life to this earth, widows, daughters, child victims of sexual abuses, unborn babies, women labourers, women displaced by the war. 

​Fr. Nandana Manatunga the Director of the HRO explained the purpose of gathering women to celebrate the Women’s day with the theme "When Women lead, others follow". He said it is because the women sustain initiatives until completion that there are so many women’s organizations and therefore he invited the participants who were present to face the challenges that are before them due to the economic downfall of the country. The participants were then divided in to groups and were asked to discuss their own experiences and the initiatives that they have taken to meet the unexpected challenges with the economic crisis, which resulted a severe inflation experienced during the last few weeks and which may continue in the coming months.

​The Human Rights Office joined the suffering people to protest against the present regime. Silent peaceful protests were held in Kandy on the 30th March and in Matale on the 02nd of April 2022. Several priests, nuns, professionals and civil society activists came together to express their dissatisfaction towards the political leaders who have shown a deaf ear to the cries of the people who are suffering without the most basics, such as power, fuel, gas, milk foods and even other essentials items. Although people wanted to make their voices and cries heard, they were afraid of the ruthless militarized regime. However, with our initiative to make our voices heard in public, the ordinary citizens, religious, professionals, university students have started protesting in public and so much so that the President declared a state of emergency and imposed curfew on the 03rd April 2022 fearing the public outrage against him and his cabinet of ministers.

​With COVID 19 health restrictions and guidelines, the workshop of the Religious and Priests for Human Rights (RPHR) was held at Fatima Retreat House, Lewella – Kandy from the 09th - 12th February 2021 with 28 participants from different parts of the country.
 
Usually the February workshop is held outside Kandy, however due to COVID 19 pandemic, the workshop was held at Lewella - Kandy.

​2021 Human Rights workshop for Religious & Priests was inaugurated with a short memorial service for the late Sr. Alexander Molligoda (sisters of charity) who was an active member of RPHR. As an appreciation to her dedicated services, a visual presentation was made about her life and ministry, illustrating her work with prisoners both in Galle & Boossa. 

​Rev. Fr. Sathgunaraj, the Parish Priest of Hewaheta explained the difficulties and challenges in the field of education the children are faced with. He further said that he goes out of his way to encourage the children of the plantation community to somehow aim for higher education.
 

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​On the 11th February Fr. Jeyabalan Croos made a presentation during the first session on “Challenges for the people in the North” and he explained about the 10 key demands that were made in the “P2P” Walk for Justice which was organized by the North and East Civil Society Organizations to draw attention to the key issues faced by the Tamil community, Tea Plantation workers and Muslim Communities. ​

​Mr. Ruki Fernando made a presentation on the 20th Amendment and its consequences. He explained the differences of the amendments made in the constitution regarding the executive powers and checks and balances. This was followed by a discussion and the participants said that the religious leaders and the civil society members should be made aware of the present situation. Further he raised awareness on the ongoing issues and campaigns: such as the protest launched by the farmers in Hambanthota, Forced Cremations, struggle for daily wages of the tea plantation workers, denial of memorialization in the North and the P2P Walk for Justice. 

​​Fr. Nishantha Cooray TOR, made a very challenging scriptural presentation on the theme “Our mission for the voiceless with shrinking democratic space" He explained how the people of God had to struggle for freedom, equality and democracy. “Pilate was carried away by the public opinion when he had to decide on Jesus and often we too are carried away by the public opinion”. He stressed the need for the priests and religious to be prophetic. “Sri Lanka needs convinced, caring and creative people”.

​Mr. Charaka Dharmasiri & Mr. Suren D. Perera, the legal counselors of HRO explained what contempt of court means, sighting examples of recent incidents. Further, they explained how the Sri Lankan Government has limited the democratic space of the people by using the ICPPR Act to curtail the freedom of expression. There were several questions raised by the participants that led to a lively discussion.

​The workshop was concluded with a thanksgiving mass on the evening of the 11th February. On behalf of the organizing committee, Fr. Nandana thanked all the participants who joined the workshop from different parts of the country, making an extra effort despite of the current COVID 19 situation.  Further, it was proposed that the next workshop also to be held in Kandy in July 2021. 

"Sulugune" an isolated village surrounded by Knuckles mountains, situated in the Wilgamuwa Divisional Secretariat, in Matale District, Central Province. About 76 families live there, mostly farming. 06 men work in the military. There are about 30 school aged children, 14 children go to the village primary school while others go to a school about 8 km away. Only four had passed the GCE Advance Level so far, and two entered university". The villagers have to walk 05km to get to the main road as there is no transport available.

An exposure to the village "Sulugune” was organized as a part of the Human Rights Workshop for Religious and Priests held from the 09th - 11th September 2020 organized by the Human Rights Office Kandy Sri Lanka. On the 10th September 36 participants visited the village and had a firsthand experience of what the villagers go through. Wild elephants are a major concern villagers face, and they feel projects outside the village, such as Moragahakanda and Kaluganga projects, have made the wild elephant issue worse for them. One woman described how her father had been killed by a wild elephant while he had been at the paddy field. Others showed and talked about damages to their houses and cultivation. Rs. 5.2 million had been spent on elephant fence, but it had broken down after few months and we saw some pieces. The villagers also told that the issue of wild elephant cannot be resolved by a mere elephant fence, but through a national policy.
 
The participants who arrived at the Fatima Retreat House in Lewella, Kandy on the 09th September were given a brief introduction to the exposure after the self-introduction each of them made along with their experiences being shared during the lockdown period with COVID 19. Many participants said that they shared whatever they had with the poor during this period while they also had experienced love and affection from their own communities, being together, working together in home gardens, planting vegetables, trees and flowers etc. COVID 19 lockdown has also given time they said to reflect about themselves as well as to pray for others, especially for the victims of COVID 19.
A thanksgiving mass was offered on the 10th evening on Rukshan’s Birthday and the participants joined in prayer and thanked the Lord for the person of Ruki who is a gift to the Sri Lankan society and the church who is recognized internationally as a committed Human Rights activist and a resource person.

On the 11th September, during the first session, participants made their comments, remarks and findings of the exposure. The courage and the leadership of the villagers, specially of women were very much highlighted and the participants thanked the organizers for selecting “Sulugune” village for the exposure as it broadened their knowledge about the struggles, that the villagers go through not only with wild elephants but with the poor attention paid by the state authorities.

Mr. Ruki Fernando and Fr. Jeyabalan Croos made presentations during the second session on “Emerging trends” in the country and the situation in the north after parliamentary elections. This was followed by a discussion and the participants expressed that the Sinhala Buddhist voters expect the leaders to safeguard them and hence the minorities in the country are challenged in all spheres. Further it was noted that the human rights activists will have to take additional risks as the democratic spare is gradually sinking and the activists will have to find new ways and means to voice for Justice on behalf of the victims of injustice.

Taking forward the discussion of February 2020 RPHR, it was noted that the increase of the daily wages to thousand rupees for the tea plantation workers, in spite of promises made during presidential and parliamentary elections were not fulfilled. Further it was noted that, the Militarization in the north continues with a new face as “security measures” since Easter attack & COVID 19 pandemic. However, the families of the disappeared in the north still struggle with their campaign for justice.
 
Sr. Nillanthi Ranasinghe FMM spoke about the need to protect the children in the face of growing number of child abuse cases in Sri Lanka.

2020 has recorded the highest number of child abuse cases with 5242 cases being reported until June 2020. Regarding unreported cases of child abuse, university students Shehan Kodituwakku & Supupi Medamarandawela, shared their findings and experiences on the research.

Fr. Nishantha Cooray TOR, made a very challenging scriptural presentation on the theme “Future challenges with emerging trends" inviting the participants to commit themselves totally to be prophetic voices. He said that we have to give the Lord the best, the only thing and the things that we are not able to give up.           

Reflections sent by Fr. Ried Shelton Fernando & Dr. Philip Setunga were also read and explained by Fr. Nandana Manatunga and the participants were given the opportunity to react and comment. Dr. Philip Setunga explained about the False sense of nationalism that is experienced in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and elsewhere as a new wave of Nationalism discarding human right or ethical standards. Therefore, he remarks “the question of validity of social movements around human rights issues or their relevance in the present day context is something that needs our deliberations. If they are found to be relevant, what are the new forms and methods that can be employed?”.
 
Fr. Reid in his reflection, explained the main question that vexes mind of the Christian leaders and the faithful: how would the majority leaders would react to the promotion of any social activism and unable to provide progressive models of pastoral approaches for the welfare of the country. Further he suggests that the Catholic Church has to learn from the past events that all Catholic experienced since the Easter Carnage & the COVID 19 pandemic to seek the Divine promptings to listen and to act positively in a new normality by giving importance to the welfare of the people. “The structural-based approach is not the solution, instead of going back to the old systemic approach there is need to put on new thinking caps on with the support of the Holy Spirit guided by the Word of God and act supporting the people”.

With the identified emerging trends in the country, it was suggested that the activists should campaign as a group and assist and collaborate with each other and use the google group to keep in touch with one another and further update on the emerging trends.
 
The workshop was concluded with a thanksgiving mass on the evening of the 11th September. On behalf of the organizing committee, Fr. Nandana thanked all the participants who joined the workshop from different parts of the country, making an extra effort, spending long hours of travel.  Further It was proposed that the next workshop scheduled in February 2021 to be held in the north, either in Mannar or in Jaffna.

​Mr. Tissa Jayasinghe, a Former Commissioner of Prisons and former Superintendent of Bogambara - Dumbara Prison, shared his long years of experiences in several major prisons in Sri Lanka. He brought out practical issues that the prison authorities face due to the over crowdedness in prisons and efforts made by the officers to rehabilitate the prisoners. He also admitted the malpractices of some prison officers and the absences of a well formulated rehabilitation programme for the prisoners.

​Human Rights and Rights of the Prisoners were introduced by Mr. Rukshan Fernando, a Human Rights Activist. In his presentation, he cited several examples of prisoners detained as suspects who were already punished even before they were tried in court and therefore  he emphasized the need for a fair trial. Further he recalled the incidents where several prisoners were massacred while in State custody for which perpetrators were not brought to Justice. This was followed by a presentation by Mr. Suren D. Perera, Human Rights Lawyer and the legal officer of HRO. His presentation explained “Who are in Prisons?” and “for What” dealing with the legal process that finally result, suspects being imprisoned and the few opportunities they have to prove their innocence at the Court of Appeal.

·Health conditions remains minimal with the hospital being too far away, PHIs’ rarely visiting the area.

·Schooling is rendered difficult with the enormous distance and often the unavailability of public transport & higher education in estate schools.
 
·Despite all these difficulties, a few students have done well in their studies and have moved to schools in the city with a foot hold in the estate as the parents continue to live and work there.
 
·It was mentioned that the situation of the tea small holders appears to be better compared to that of the company owned estate workers.
 
·Our involvement in future will have to be in the area of advocacy in matters of daily wage, improved living conditions an d better education facilities for the children.

Exactly after a decade of the civil war- since the declaration of cessation of the military intervention by the State, the need for an evaluation of our own initiatives was felt essential in the present context. Hence the Human Rights Workshop for Religious and Priests focused to make a personal assessment of one’s own initiatives for justice and reconciliation with theme “Let us reflect on our own involvements to envision future commitments”. Thus, the meeting was to create an occasion for each other who have been meeting since 2003.

The workshop was held from the 04th - 07th February 2019 at the Pastoral Centre, Halpathota, in Galle Diocese with 31 participants. 

A matter of great concern
Fr. Jeevantha Peiris of Ratnapura Diocese, drew the attention of the group to the campaign of the members of the Tamil community in the Mulaithivu District against the colonization on of the Section “L” of the Mahaveli scheme. The traditional Tamil lands are offered to the families of the Sinhalese brought from the south of the country perhaps in a bid to create a mixed community, thus preventing the formation of a north eastern unit as has been demanded by the Tamil community. Besides, the Tamil people that fled the area in shambles during the war, cannot trace their deeds to claim ownership of the land. This is paving the way for the State to distribute the land among the Sinhalese peasants who eventually might find stranded as the river is no longer capable of providing water to the newly opened areas. Fr. Jeevantha was requested to keep us updated on its developments for further action.
 
The formal workshop & the meeting closed with the Eucharist celebration on the 06th evening.