Involve Civil Society In Implementing LLRC Action Plan

(31 July, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) An action plan prepared by the government with regard to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was released last week. There are 91 recommendations that the action plan takes cognizance of. Each of these recommendations is looked at in terms of specific activities they entail. The action plan also identifies the government agencies that will be responsible for implementing each of these activities within a specified time frame, most of them ranging from 6 to 24 months.

By making its response to the LLRC known in the form of an action plan, the government can be said to have finally clarified its position on the issue. Previously different members of the government spoke with different voices regarding the government’s attitude towards the LLRC. The government now can also be credited with coming up with an action plan that spells out in summary fashion what it intends to do and how to measure that progress. This opens the possibility of monitoring the government’s progress.

However, the National Peace Council is concerned that the contents of the action plan still remain beyond the reach of the masses of the people as the LLRC report itself is still not translated into the Sinhala and Tamil languages despite the passage of over 8 months since the report was released in the English language. Neither has the LLRC action plan itself been prepared in a manner that is easily comprehensible by the general public or been translated into the two official languages.

We believe that the LLRC report is a document that could serve as a blueprint for Sri Lanka’s renewal as a success story of post-war development, democracy and reconciliation. We call on the government to further develop the action plan in consultation with civil society and other sections of the polity and to make it a people-friendly document and one that is accessible to the people. NPC is willing to take the action plan to the grass roots level, Inform grass root communities of the plan and its process and assist the government to monitor how it is being carried out

Governing Council

The National Peace Council is an independent and non partisan organization that works towards a negotiated political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. It has a vision of a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka in which the freedom, human rights and democratic rights of all the communities are respected. The policy of the National Peace Council is determined by its Governing Council of 20 members who are drawn from diverse walks of life and belong to all the main ethnic and religious communities in the country.