Women Left Behind: Truth Commissioning in Sri Lanka

*groundview journalism For citizens 

A mother displaying the photographs of his sons which are missing during the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) session in Trincomalee, December, 3-5, 2010. Photo courtesy Centre for Human Rights

The power and promise of national exercises like the LLRC lie in the way that they can access the voices of those who have not traditionally been heard, and use them to build a more representative and inclusive collective memory. Yet for Sri Lanka’s Tamil women, the LLRC simply reaffirms bad old habits, writes Jo Baker [i]

In the lead up to the release of the report by Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), strong concerns have been publicly raised about the value of a process that aims to build a clear picture of the conflict, without fully including or representing those who were most directly affected. This has led to important questions regarding who has been heard, how their concerns have been addressed, and whether they will feature fully in a final report and its recommendations. While such questions have focused on vital themes of accountability, ethnic discrimination and political will, often in relation to internationally-agreed standards, they have been resoundingly quiet in a criticalarea: the space and consideration being given to women.   
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission

TRC FINAL REPORT

All documents are in  PDF format and require Acrobat Reader to open.

• TRC Final Report - Summary and Guide to Contents
• TRC Final Report - Volume 1 (1.4 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 2 (1.7 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 3 (2.2 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 4 (832 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 5 (1.1 MB)

• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Foreword (137 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 1 (718 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 2 (995 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 3 (1.8 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 4 (515 KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 5 (1.1 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 6 - Section 6 (314 KB)

• TRC Final Report - Volume 7 - Part 1 (11O KB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 7 - Part 2 (2.3 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 7 - Part 3 (2.2 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 7 - Part 4 (2.6 MB)
• TRC Final Report - Volume 7 - Part 5 (345 KB)

Summary and Guide to Contents

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the Commission) consists of five volumes, each with a particular focus. It is important to note that, once the Amnesty Committee finishes its work, an additional volume will report on the work of that Committee, based on amnesty hearings conducted and findings made. That volume will also include summaries of the statements of those people the Commission found to have suffered gross violations of human rights. While the current report contains a full list of the names of those in respect of whom such findings were made, the codicil will include details of the violations.

The bulk of the findings of the Commission may be found in the final volume, as indicated below. However, specific findings are made in individual chapters throughout the report.

The logical sequence of the five volumes of the report is as follows.

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