COVID-19 has had a significant effect on the socioeconomic climate, as a result, the world is yet to recover from such effects. In the Sri Lankan context, such issues were compounded by the worst period of political turmoil the country has undergone, an ongoing economic crisis owing to the implementation of destructive national policies and the mismanagement of national funds. These events subsequently led to an unprecedented wave of peaceful protests by citizens around the country opposing the political regime and demanding accountability for the current plight of the country.

Although freedom of speech and expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental rights of citizens recognized under the Constitution of Sri Lanka, there have been serious threats/restrictions posed against the exercising of such rights over the last few months. The country has witnessed several cases of arbitrary arrests and detention of protestors by government authorities as means to suppress dissent towards the current political regime.

Therefore, the hub believes that it is critical to emphasize the protection of fundamental rights of Sri Lankan citizens, which are embedded in the Constitution. Thus, encouraging civic engagement in any situation that requires voices of opposition. Further, the hub believes that this collaboration assisted in increasing awareness of the situation in Sri Lanka while also promoting dialogues regarding the same between stakeholders from different sectors, both locally and internationally.

The project aims to highlight the following:

• Increase awareness and knowledge with regard to the fundamental rights of the citizens of Sri Lanka that are enshrined in the country’s Constitution, particularly in relation to the freedom of speech and expression, and peaceful assembly


• Advocate the importance of the protection of such rights and the means to do so for all parts of the community with a focus on minorities, gendered rights, the LGBTQ+ community, and differently abled persons


• Promote civic engagement and an equal democracy


• Draw attention to the arbitrary use of laws by the state to curtail dissent

The project consists of a day of conferences/seminars with participation from prominent human rights advocates to discuss the constitutional rights available to the citizens of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, with the aim of increasing online engagement, the project will also consist of a social media campaign aimed at creating online ‘know the awareness of your right'. The social media campaign will also include public discussions on the same, such as through Twitter Space and Instagram Live.

Thereby, the distinct feature of this project is that such seminars will be in the form of open public forums/discussions as opposed to lectures in order to initiate and encourage dialogue to ensure that the thoughts, opinions, and stories of individuals from all sectors are heard. We believe that this will be the most sustainable approach to increase awareness in this regard. In addition, we further propose to conduct discussions on the history of civic engagement that created tangible changes and more equitable societies in the past. We believe that such a ‘lessons learned’ dialogue will highlight both the importance of protecting the aforementioned rights and the endangerment posed to such positive changes by the oppression cast on dissent by the State.

Further, the keynote speakers will comprise notable legal professionals, individuals involved in the political space, citizens engaged in protests, LGBTQ+ representatives, writers, artists, etc. Furthermore, we aim to create such engagement through local languages.

Project Update

The project was conducted in 2 phases, an online panel discussion and a Human Rights advocacy training. The panel discussion took to the stage to highlight the Human Rights landscape of Sri Lanka and the challenge of the very event moving from offline to online as an example. Following up on the call to action on the panel discussion, a Human Rights advocacy training program was organized partnering with Commonwealth Youth Human Rights and Democracy Network, The Commonwealth Youth Programme, Rotaract Colombo, and Democracy and Governance Initiative of Sri Lanka. The session successfully trained 25 participants in Human Rights advocacy where participants were selected through a call of applications and a rigorous selection process. The training also consisted of online and offline training sessions.