February / March, 2016
The Diplomacy Training Program’s 25th Annual Human Rights and Peoples’ Diplomacy Training for Human Rights Defenders in the Asia-Pacific was held in Sri Lanka (Colombo & Kandy). Twenty two human rights defenders from Nepal, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Fiji and Sri Lanka attended from 18th of February until 5th of March 2016.
The DTP program took place at a time of hope in Sri Lanka, with a recently elected government exploring constitutional change to guarantee human rights and engaging with the UN and international efforts to bring accountability and justice to victims and to build a future of peace and respect for human rights. The program drew from Sri Lanka’s community of experienced human rights defenders and provided an opportunity for exchanging experiences and perspectives on impunity and accountability, transitional justice and reconciliation, protecting human rights defenders and claiming human rights in authoritarian and repressive environments.
Alumni listed with this symbol have a detailed profile – click to view.
DTP acknowledges with appreciation Malathy Bavananthan and staff of the Centre on Human Rights and Development, Ruki Fernando (INFORM); Father Nandana and the staff and volunteers of the Human Rights Organisation (Kandy); Deepika Udagama, staff, volunteers and students of Peradeniya University; Mr Sivaprasagam from Human Development Organisation (Kandy).
