Oxfam's work in Sri Lanka in depth

Campaigning

Oxfam in Sri Lanka is involved in campaigning for both the Control Arms campaign calling for an Arms Trade Treaty, and the We Can campaign calling for an end to violence against women.

Control Arms Campaign

Everyday, millions of men, women and children live in fear of armed violence.  In Sri Lanka, approximately 2000 people are killed or injured every year by illegal small arms and light weapons. This figure does not include those deaths due to the ethnic conflict. Petty crimes, political violence, armed robbery and property disputes are the main incidents where illegal weapons are used.

Oxfam launched the Control Arms Campaign in Sri Lanka on 9 August 2003 in partnership with South Asia Small Arms Network (SASA-NET). This island-wide programme is part of an international campaign to control arms throughout the world.  Oxfam, IANSA and Amnesty International are spearheading the campaign globally. The campaign's objectives are to raise awareness that arms is out of control and millions of lives are lost. The campaign is calling for an International Arms Trade Treaty to help control the arms trade.

On 26 June 2006 hundreds of delegates from the 191 member states gathered at the United Nations in New York for the Small Arms Review Conference. Ahead of this crucial meeting, Control Arms campaigners undertook a 100-day campaign, organising events to highlight the impact caused by small arms in society and the need for an arms trade treaty.

In Sri Lanka, the South Asia Small Arms Network (SASAnet) collected nearly 12,000 pictures of people, who came out in support of the campaign against small arms.

Victims of small arms presented a memorandum and the album containing these pictures to the Sri Lankan delegation to the Review Conference. The memorandum and the album was also handed over to President, Mahinda Rajapaske by Kingsly Rodrigo, chairperson of SASANet Sri Lanka and members of the National Commission against Proliferation of Small Arms headed by the defence secretary, Gotbaya Rajapakse.

All across the island SASAnet organised a Lantern competition on the occasion of Poson Poya. Hundreds of people participated in the competition making lanterns of various shapes and sizes conveying the message of non-proliferation of small arms.

At country level, Sri Lanka is one of the few countries, which has set up a National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Oxfam Sri Lanka has been partnering and providing some core support for the South Asia Small Arms Network in Sri Lanka (SASA-Net) to promote the development of a broad, robust campaign in Sri Lanka to control the flow and easy access of arms in order to create safer communities.

We Can Campaign

Sri Lanka's development-related indices are surprisingly good for a country experiencing armed conflict for over two decades. But these gains conceal the widespread and deepening crisis of domestic violence against women.

Over 60 per cent of women in the country cope with violence within their homes on a daily basis. On an average, over 100 cases of domestic violence are reported each month in the national media while many go unreported and unrecorded.

For many women speaking about violence is not a real option; to do so would threaten their lives. The National Alliance, a coalition of civil society organisations and individuals who have come together to work for this cause, implement the ‘We Can’ campaign to help bring the issue into the public domain. Thereby making it visible and unacceptable to the community at large, and creating a popular demand for gender-just laws and to pressurise policy makers to join community efforts at ending all violence against women.

In March 2006, Sri Lanka hosted the ‘We Can’ campaign, South Asia Change Makers’ Assembly. More than 800 delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the event that coincided with International Women’s Day. 

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Last updated: September 06