Women Human Rights Defenders In Sri Lanka: Challenges

By Anushka Kahandagama –November 22, 2016

Anushka Kahandagama

The word ‘defender’ connotes agency and strength while the word ‘victim’ connotes passivity and susceptibility to harm and violations in the physical as well as mental sphere. However, there is a subtle or no difference between these two categories when it comes to the real world. The roles can change, as a victim can become a defender in any moment and a defender can become a victim. The many human rights violations perpetrated against and suffered by women during the war, which was side-tracked due to the sole focus on celebrating a masculine victory of the war under the previous regime, has to be addressed immediately. On the other hand, focus of human rights in the post war context under the new regime has masked other forms of human rights violations occurring in a day to day context against women. As women comprise of the larger part of the picture of Human Rights Defenders, the constant and additional challenges they encounter due to their gender, needs to be addressed. While both men and women are victims of patriarchal structures, this piece focuses on the challenges faced by women as human rights defenders.

In a militarized and patriarchal society, as the space of violence is possessed by men, women are left with the struggle for human rights, as advocates of non-violence and justice. Where men were killed and abducted, in place, women were left with ‘human rights’ to shield themselves in the brutal aftermath and seek justice for the loved ones they lost. In Sri Lanka, while men were killed and abducted in the context of war, their female relatives took on the role of human rights defenders. They faced and continue to face constant struggles in order to seek justice for their loved ones. The struggles of these women extend its horizons beyond boundaries of ethnicity, religion, class and other socially imposed categories upon them. Against this background, women took the frontlines as human rights defenders who fought their struggles most often in isolation and sometimes as groups, to reach the goal of justice.

Women Human Rights Defenders/ Photo via Facebook IMADR

When the husband, father or brother either goes missing, is abducted or killed, women have no option but to interact with the authorities which are highly masculine as well as patriarchal for recourse. In Sri Lanka, these women have to interact with military, police and with local authorities to make complaints, obtain compensation, relevant documentation, as well as their bare necessities. The lack of gender sensitivity in the institutional structures could be seen as a discouraging factor for women to stand as human rights defenders and will serve to exacerbate specific forms of violence against them.

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