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17

Human Rights Commissionof Sri Lanka:
Human Rights Education in Schools
MandateShirani Rajapaksa

Sri Lanka has a long history of excellent education system dating back to
200 B.C. During the 1658–1796 period, the Dutch colonial government
introduced a free and compulsory education system in Sri Lanka. During the
1796–1948 period, the British colonial government further developed the education system. In 1945, prior to the independence of Sri Lanka, the then Ministerof Education, Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara, placed education on firm grounds with
the introduction of free education for all the children from kindergarten to the
University; the adoption of the national languages as the mediums of instruction;and the establishment of Central Schools which for the first time provided the poor
children from rural areas the opportunity to obtain good education.1
Since independence, the government hasgiven priority to education. Section 12, Part
I of the Secretary to the Ministry of Education’s Circular No. ED/1/12/2/6/1 dated
2004/05, states that every child must geta school education compulsorily. And mostimportantly, every parent of a child of not lessthan five years and not more than fourteen
years of age shall cause such child to receive
an education by regular attendance at a school
unless she/he has otherwise made adequate
and suitable provision for the education of suchchild.2 Free textbooks, free school meals for the
first year students3 and uniforms are provided
to all the children.
The Education Ordinance No. 31 of 1939
(as amended) is the only law regarding the rightto education in Sri Lanka. According to Part V,
Article 37(1) of the Ordinance, the Minister of

Education has the power to make regulations
for the purpose of giving effect to the principles
and provisions of the Ordinance. Apart fromthe regulations concerning administrative issues, there are circulars by the Secretary to the
Education Ministry.

Child Protection Bodies In Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has a separate mechanism to promote and protect the rights of children. The
Ministry of Child Development and Women’s
Empowerment is the line ministry concerning
child rights. There is the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) as well. There arelegislations and special institutions that provide
de jure protection for children from being employed as domestic servants and other exploit-

17

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

ative work. The Labour Ministry of Sri Lanka
has a special unit that investigates child laborcases, including a hot line that receives information about children who are employed as domestic servants. The Department of Probation
and Child Care Services provides protection tochild victims of abuse and sexual exploitation.
There are special desks established in police
stations namely Children & Women’s Bureaus
to look into offences related to children.
Further, the Sri Lankan Constitution has aprovision for the advancement of children that
requires the enactment of laws and subordinate
legislations, as well as executive action.
Sri Lanka has ratified a great deal of international treaties, including the following that help
protect child rights and support the educationof children:• International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)• International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights (ICCPR)• Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC)• Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW)• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)• Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)• Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms ofChild Labour• Convention for the Suppression of the
Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitationof the Prostitution of Others.

The Human Rights Commission of
Sri Lanka
The Human Rights Commission of Sri
Lanka (HRCSL) was established in 1996 underthe HRCSL Act No. 21 of 1996 to protect
and promote human rights in the country.
The HRCSL has the vision of ensuring humanrights for all, and promoting and protecting
the rule of law in the country in law and policy
and in practice.
The HRCSL has the mission of developinga better human rights culture in Sri Lanka byprotecting and promoting the human rights ofall based on the universally recognized humanrights norms and principles, and with a special
emphasis on the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Sri Lankan Constitution forthe citizens of Sri Lanka. The HRCSL seeks tocoordinate and cooperate with all stakeholders
in protecting and promoting human rights
for all.
The 1996 HRCSL Act spells out the powers
and functions of the HRCSL, namely:4•	To advise and assist the government informulating legislations and administrative directives and procedures in furtherance of the promotion and protection of
fundamental rights.
•	To make recommendations to thegovernment regarding measures whichshould be taken to ensure that nationallaws and administrative practices are inaccordance with international humanrights norms and standards.
•	To make recommendations to thegovernment on the need to subscribeor accede to treaties and other international instruments in the field of humanrights.
•	To promote awareness of, and provide
education in relation to, human rights(Section 10(f)).
•	To undertake research into, and disseminate the results of such research (Section

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka: Human Rights Education in Schools Mandate  19

11(f)) and promote awareness of humanrights through educational seminars andworkshops.	
Though the HRCSL was set up with a wider
mandate, its initial operations in 1997 focused
only on inquiries and investigations into fundamental rights5 violations.
In 2002, the HRCSL established three main
sections, namely, Inquiries & Investigations
Division, Education & Special Programmes
Division, and Monitoring & Review Division.
The members of the HRCSL are appointed
in accordance with the 17th amendment of the1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka6 as well as the
HRCSL Act.7 At present the HRCSL has ten(10) Regional Offices with one Sub-Regional
Office.8

Human Rights Education Mandate
The mandate of the HRCSL on humanrights education is provided in Sections 10 (f)and 11(f) of the HRCSL Act. Interestingly, ina broader sense, the HRCSL has the power
to do all such other things as are necessaryor conducive to the discharge of its functions(Section 10 (h)). In a wider spectrum, humanrights declared and recognized by the two
major international human rights instruments,
the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) andthe International Covenant on Civil Political
Rights (ICCPR), are covered by the work of
Education & Special Programmes Division of
the HRCSL.

Our Goal
One goal of the HRCSL is to provide human rights education to the public aiming atbuilding up the individual, directed towards
national development, strengthening the universal culture of human rights, making people

understand the value of respecting the cultural
identity and values of the individual and communities by individuals and communities ofdifferent civilizations.

Specific Objectives
The objectives of the human rights education program of HRCSL are:•	To increase knowledge and understanding of the concept of human rights.
•	To increase knowledge and understanding of human rights law and increase thepractice relating to human rights protection and promotion.
•	To increase knowledge and understanding of contemporary human rights issues, both national and international.
•	To increase the ability to participate
effectively as citizens in the civil andpolitical life of the nation.
•	To promote and protect the fundamental
rights of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the society.

Program Activities
a. Teaching - learning materials development
In 2001, the HRCSL received financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) on a project todevelop a human rights education curriculum.
Under this project a situation analysis was carried out to identify the human rights educatorsin the country, e.g., from NGOs, governmentand other institutions. This was followed by
the preparation of an implementation plan
relating to human rights education. Modules
were prepared concerning identified twelve
target groups. At the regional level, educational
activities were held.
In 2003, the HRCSL with the UNICEF,

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Save the Children Fund (Sri Lanka), and theFoundation for International Training jointly
developed a training manual on child rights forgrassroots level organizations specially those in
the North and East of the country.
In developing the training manual, the
HRCSL and other stakeholders first reviewed
the training programs being implemented in
the North & East and some areas that were
thought important (Vavuniya, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Mannar, Batticaloa, Puttalam) for service
providers. They reviewed the target groups,
materials being used, and the difficulties in
conducting training programs. The guidebook
mainly focuses on the CRC, Sri Lankan legislations and training methodologies. UNICEF
organized two training activities in Kalmunai
and Killinochchi, Eastern Province using thetraining manual to test how people would receive the same. After successfully testing it, thetraining manual was made available in all threelanguages to those who seek to use it for humanrights training at the grassroots level.9
In 2005, the HRCSL produced a booklet,
An Introduction to Child Rights, under thepromoting and protecting rights of children
project funded by the South Asia Regional
Initiative Equity/Support (SARIQ). The European Union (EU) funded the HRCSL project, Human Rights for All - The Protection of
Minority Rights. Normally, we tend to see thesmaller ethnic or religious groups as minorities
in a country. Under this EU project, a different
approach was employed to identify the minority
groups in the smallest administrative areas in Sri
Lanka. The group, for example, may be that ofchildren, persons with disabilities, women, or
any other group that face problems caused by
the inaction of the government or some otherreasons that have not been addressed so far.
The project intended to find out who thesegroups were and held consultations at threelevels: Division level (smallest administrative
entities) to find out the most affected groups;
District level to identify whether the samegroups are the most affected or there were anyother groups with different types of problems;and at the national level to share the findings ofthe consultations at the Divisional and Districtlevels. Selected groups from the respective areas
were requested to identify the groups and the
problems they face, and to propose effective
solutions since they all live in those areas, rather
than ask outsiders or the government to comeout with solutions to their problems. The effort was meant to understand and identify theminority groups within the Divisional and District levels whose rights have been violated, andto table before the government solutions thatthey thought were best. Several publications
were produced under this project. One publication produced was Minorities and the Rights of
Women and Children. This booklet examined
the interface of women’s and children’s rights
and minority rights in the legal framework andin the development policies and programs.
b. Special Projects - Training & Education
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the Law Review Project of the HRCSL where Sri Lankan legislations
relating to children were reviewed to determine
their compliance with the international humanrights standards.
The United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees and the Asia Foundation fundeda special project to look into the issue of Internally Displaced People (IDPs), with special
attention to the protection and promotion ofchild rights.
The Disaster Relief Monitoring Unit, established to look into issues relating to tsunami
and its after effects, has produced numerous
documents including the human rights impact
of government and implementing agency posttsunami relief and reconstruction policies andactivities. These documents focussed especiallyon children and their right to education as well

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka: Human Rights Education in Schools Mandate  21

as on the hindrances to the fulfilment of thisright. The Tsunami Women’s Unit, establishedto look into issues relating to women, recommended that the government should ensure
equal opportunity of the girls for the enjoymentof the right to education as the boys. In thiscontext where girls are more likely to drop outof school for cultural and economic reasons,positive measures may be taken to guarantee
the right to education for girls, in accordancewith Article 10 of CEDAW.
The HRCSL initiated a national humanrights education program to implement theUnited Nations Decade of Human Rights
Education (and subsequently that of the United
Nations World Programme for Human Rights
Education from 2005). NORAD provided
funding for this program.10 The goal of thisprogram was to provide education to aroundten target groups in each province of Sri Lanka.
The target groups were the State agencies - themain duty bearers - and segments of the public- the rights holders. The State agencies included
the police, public service at various levels, andthe armed forces. The program also targeted
the public and sought to enhance awarenessof individual rights and the capacity to protectthese rights and to seek redress for their violation. Under this program more prominence wasgiven to economic, social and cultural rights
which relate to a large number of children who
were affected by various problems such as the2004 tsunami, conflict situation, migration ofparents for better prospect in life to Middle
Eastern countries, certain practices by the government officials, etc.
UNICEF funded the HRCSL project on
Protecting Children in Sri Lanka’s Children’s
Homes and Detention Centres. The project
objectives included; To identify the violationof international human rights norms and standards, abuses, weaknesses and other related
problems in the children’s homes and detention
centers and the domestic laws regulating them;
To pressure the government to implement

necessary amendments to the current laws andprocedures; and to conduct training and awareness programs for the relevant authorities andfor children residing in these State institutions.
With partial was funding from SARIQ, the
HRCSL held twenty-seven awareness programs
across the country to educate State officials including those who are engaged in child rights
activities such as the Child Rights Promotion
Officers, Probation Officers, Early Childhood
Development Officers, Social Services Officers
and officers at the Women’s & Children’s
Desks in Police Stations and Staff Members ofchildren’s homes. These workshops included
lectures on International Standards on Child
Rights, Domestic Measures in Sri Lanka for
the Protection of Child Rights, and Medical
Aspects of Child Rights.
During the 2006-2007 period, the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity
Sri Lanka (the Centre) funded the HRCSL
project on Prevention of Human Trafficking.
The Centre funded to train the HRCSL staff as
trainers, followed by training on prevention ofhuman trafficking for the government officers
in different parts of the country including thelaw enforcement officers such as the Police
Officers of the Children & Women’s Bureau,
officers of the Narcotics Bureau, Prison, Fraud
Bureau, and Excise Department. Special emphasis was given to the protection of the rightsof the children.
Knowing the gravity of the crime, the HRCSL conducted education programs whenever
there were requests from the State officials aswell as from the general public. In 2008, theDivisional Secretariats (established for the administration of small segments) in the country
received funding from the Women’s Ministry to
conduct programs relating to women empowerment. One topic covered was prevention ofhuman trafficking where the HRCSL received
requests to educate the grassroots level organizations.
In 2007, parallel to the training that was tak-22

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

ing place in India, Pakistan and other migrant
worker sending countries to the Middle Easterncountries, the Centre invited the HRCSL toconduct a training program to a select groupof lawyers/people with a legal background towork as volunteers on migrant workers issues.
The HRCSL in partnership with the Centreorganized and conducted a training program
in both Sinhala and Tamil languages. Childrights and their protection are part of the topics discussed.
The HRCSL has also been invited to participate in the human rights initiatives of otherinstitutions. For the annual Career Fair - Orientation Program of the Faculty of Law of the
University of Colombo for the incoming law
students, the HRCSL provided informationon the opportunities it could offer the law
students such as gaining working experience
as interns and the requirements needed to join
its permanent work force.
The government of Sri Lanka invited the
HRCSL to participate at the nine-day Dayata
Kirula National Development Exhibition for2008 and 2009 and educate the general public
on human rights and its work.

Human Right to Education of the
Indigenous Communities
This writer wrote her LL.M. thesis11 entitled
The Human Right to Education of the Vanniyala-etto Community (The Forest-dwellers) in Sri
Lanka as an Empowerment Right and provided
recommendations to the government as wellas to the HRCSL on how to realize this rightof the indigenous community. The thesis was
published in June 2008 by the Law & Society
Trust as an article in a special edition of LST
Review on the theme The Right to Educationin Sri Lanka and Reforms Thereto.12
Apart from the above, to date the HRCSL
has conducted different types of human rights
education programs for different segments ofthe society: for the plantation and other youth
leaders, university students, students of the
Sri Lanka Bible College in Kandy (Central
Province), school teachers, judicial medical officers, students, members of different societies
including the disabled. A discussion was heldon the Torture and Anti Ragging Bill with theuniversity students at the University of Colombo in 2005.

Human Rights Education in Schools
Though the HRCSL does not focus onchildren per se, it has recognized children as
an important segment of the society who needs
special attention as well as a vulnerable group.
These justify the special attention to their rights
in all activities of the HRCSL including humanrights education activities.
For human rights education in schools, the
HRCSL focuses on different groups including
the pre-school children, school children (junior
and upper secondary schools that include theage limits of 13 to 18 years) as well as the educators (school principals, teachers, and others).
The HRCSL has defined the vision, mission
and goals regarding the education of children
and the educators on human rights in the following manner:
Our vision for the school children (between 1318 years old) is to see the dawn of an era whenchildren live in total peace and security; when
they are provided all opportunities to gain the
maximum fulfilment of their aspirations; when
they are treated with great compassion and protective care so that they can take on the futurewith great confidence, physically and emotionallyunharmed, toward enhancing the human condition for coming generations.
	Our mission in achieving this mandate is toensure that all members of the society respect thefact that the human rights of children are vitalto their future health and prosperity; provide

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka: Human Rights Education in Schools Mandate  23

them all their basic needs – food, shelter, healthservices, educational opportunities, and a clean
environment – and that they may enjoy thesebenefits without any discrimination; infuse in
adults the spirit of respect for each child, protecting them from all physical and mental abuse
since they are the most vulnerable and [weakest]
in society and build a certain degree of awarenessof their rights so that they may raise their voices
against any injustice or harm caused to them andto others while performing their responsibilities
to society.
	Relating to the educators, we envision a State
where the educators will once again regain theirdignity and respect as in the past, enjoying tofull capacity all their human and fundamental
rights without any discrimination, so that theywould be able to engage in the edifying task of
empowering and enabling all citizens in achieving
full enjoyment of human rights in an atmosphereof peace and progress.
	Our mission is to enable the crème of society
to be trained as teachers to propagate the envisioned culture of human rights, provide all enabling facilities so that they will be compensatedadequately for their contribution to society. To
enlist them in the task of changing the society
from one of corruption, crime and conflict toone of peace, parity and plurality, conducive tothe growth of the future generation into usefuland virtuous citizens, as living embodiments ofa human rights culture.

In addition, when conducting human rights
education programs for other segments of thesociety (be they the officials of the governmentor the private sector), the importance of protecting and promoting the rights of children isemphasized.

School Activities
Public awareness on fundamental and otherhuman rights and a willingness and capacity to
enforce them are some of the goals set out inthe HRCSL Strategic Plan. Making students
become aware of human rights is an investment
for the future, in building the future society that
respects human rights. This gives the opportunity to have an island-wide network of activities
and has justified the possibility of promoting
human rights at the school level.
The HRCSL has adopted different methodologies to educate students in a sustainable
manner. One method is the introduction ofhuman rights units in schools. Being a usefulway to educate the students, school principals supported this initiative. The students
in higher grades were chosen to form humanrights units. The intention was for them toobtain better knowledge on human rights, andthrough them carry out educational activitiesin schools relating to human rights to educate
the younger students as well as to equip themwith the knowledge concerning human rights
before they leave school. For example, on 17
March 2009 the HRCSL conducted an awareness program for the Advance Level school students in a school in the Western Province. The
HRCSL encouraged the students to establish
a human rights unit by informing them of its
importance in the school as well as by donatingbooks relating to human rights as a token of
encouragement to start such unit.
In 2004, a special concert on the Indivisibility of Human Rights was staged in Badulla(South-Eastern part of Sri Lanka). This concert
was organized with the participation of students
who belonged to multi-ethnic groups. This
program included dramas and cultural activities. Students expressed social, economic andcultural problems. The students of a special
school for children with disabilities performedin this concert.
An art competition entitled Equality andPeace for students in the North & East was
conducted in 2005. There were about five
hundred paintings that expressed valuable andmeaningful messages about what the students
think about peace and equal treatment. To share

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

the views of the students, an exhibition andan open dialogue was organized in Colombo.
To make the students from other parts of thecountry understand the expectations and viewsof the Northern and Eastern students and for abetter understanding of what equality and peacemeans, ten selected students from schools in
Colombo were requested to look at the pictures
and to engage in an open dialogue. Different
experts, lecturers, peace activists, human rights
activists, journalists, psychologists, legal professionals were invited to the open dialogue toshare their opinions and views with the students
who attended the exhibition.
Every year, HRCSL hold activities to educate the different government and other stakeholders in the society relating to child rights.
In 2006, HRCSL held a number of activitiesin schools. In the table below are some of theschools where these activities were held.

components with the international norms andstandards of human rights education.
In 2009, the Secretary to the Ministry ofDisaster Management & Human Rights facilitated a meeting with the Ministry of Education, the NIE, the HRCSL and other involved
institutions concerning education. The plan
was to prepare and work jointly on a humanrights education program for the teachers,
university students and school students. This isan ongoing project with some of the activities
having been commenced already. The HRCSL
undertook the formulation of guidelines/handbooks for the teachers, university students andschool students as supplementary materials forthe curriculum-based human rights education,
which allocated only a limited number of hours
for human rights education.

Commemorating International Days
Curriculum Development
The HRCSL has held discussions in 2005
and 2007 with the National Institute of Education (NIE) on the integration of human rights
education into the general school curriculum
and the subscription of the human rights

The HRCSL has used the commemorationof international days as occasion to promote
human rights in the schools. The celebration of
the Universal Children’s Day has been used forseveral years now as an opportunity to promote
human rights, as in the following events:

Some of the schools involved in HRCSL activities
on the topic “Protecting and Promoting Child Rights”
01

12-13 September
2006

Sakura Pre-school Teachers’ Training Centre
Auditorium – Kurunegala

02

17-18 October
2006

Madampe Divisional secretariat Auditorium- Chilaw03

28 February 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Mahara

04

2 March 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Kebithigollewa

05

17 March 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Tangalle

06

21 March 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Ambalangoda

07

28 March 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Putthalam

08

6 April 2006

District Secretariat, Badulla

09

30 May 2006

Divisional Secretariat, Kalutaraa.	S t . V i n c e n t S e c o n d a r y
School – since finding outthat except for three all theother children that attend St.
Vincent Secondary Schoolin Maggona (in the Western
Province of Sri Lanka) arefrom childre’s homes in the
Kalutara District, the HRCSL support the celebrationof the Universal Children’s
Day in 2005 by holding a art
competition in the school.
This event helped the school
identify the talents of thestudents, who were given

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka: Human Rights Education in Schools Mandate  25

freedom to choose any topic under thetheme “My Bliss.” Most of the students
drew paintings about the family and household environment. This correctly showed
the mindset of the students who were deprived of their normal family life and living
in children’s homes without receiving thelove and care of their parents and siblings.
b.	Colombo Educational Zone - the HRCSL
celebrated the 2006 Universal Children’s
Day by organizing an art and essay competition for students from thirteen schools(Tamil- and Sinhala-speaking students) in
the Colombo Educational Zone.
c.	 Homagama Educational Zone - in celebrating the 2007 Universal Children’s Day, the
HRCSL held a workshop on fundamental
and human rights of the children for the
principals and heads of Disciplinary Committees of schools in the Homagama Educational Zone.
d.	Badulla and Ampara regions – the HRCSL
actively participated in a series of activities
to celebrate the 2008 Universal Children’sDay upon the invitation of the Ministryof Child Development and the Women’s
Empowerment and the NCPA. The seriesof activities was held under the theme “Let’s
Make the Children’s World More Beautiful,by Listening to Them.” The officers of the
Badulla and Ampara Regional Offices took
part in the program. The HRCSL received
financial support from the Save the Children
Sri Lanka for its exhibition activity.
Whatever children see in the classroom becomes a part of their experience and a part of
the growing process.

Impact of the Program
So far, the human rights education programof HRCSL has positive impact. The generalpublic as well as all other stakeholders have be-

gan to expect the HRCSL to be more involvedin the human rights protection and promotional
activities relating to children. The HRCSL
therefore takes the initiative of promoting human rights at every possible opportunity. In one
case, upon the information supplied in 2008
by its Ampara Regional Coordinator aboutchildren of the Ampara District who have been
most affected by sexually transmitted diseases,
the HRCSL decided to educate children on thisissue and forwarded proposals to donor agencies to conduct awareness programs to school
children in the district.
The HRCSL introduces programs creatively
to influence the beneficiaries to think differently. While protecting the vulnerable and thedisadvantaged, the HRCSL make the efforts
to make the people understand the need for,and their ability to participate effectively in,
the protection and promotion of human rightsof everyone.
The participants in HRCSL activities give
positive response. They see human rights
education programs (especially on preventionof crimes such as human trafficking) for all inthe society as a must. They see such education
activities as opportunities to better equip themselves against perpetrators.
Government officers, NGO workers and thegeneral public alike have identified the lack of
coordination and cooperation between different stakeholders, be they government agencies
or the NGOs, on human rights work. HRCSL
tries to coordinate the work of the different
stakeholders for more effective human rights
protection and promotion.
While human rights are universal, they haveto be understood within the context of the cultural values of everyone. The HRCSL therefore
uses different strategies in promoting humanrights. What the society requests is to makethe law enforcement officers do a better job
in implementing laws. The HRCSL promotes
human rights towards this end.
One has to blend cultural and social expecta-

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HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

tions with human rights education. Majority ofthe students are aware of the HRCSL and its
functions. Some students commented that what
were taught by HRCSL about drug addiction
made them realize that they have a responsibility to keep away from such circumstances. Theyrequested more educational programs relating
to human rights education since they saw its
great influence on shaping their (and especiallyof children’s) lives in a positive manner.
Though the efforts are slowed down due tonumerous reasons, such as financial constraints,
lack of resources, and lack of government assistance and understanding of the importanceof the HRCSL, the results have been positiveand progressive.

Conclusion
In 1996, the HRCSL adopted a wider
mandate to protect and promote the rights ofeveryone in the country. Since its establishment,
the HRCSL has fulfilled its obligations, and set
goals on human rights education for children
and the educators as well. Looking back at thepast nearly seven years since it gained full power
to fulfil its mandate, the HRCSL has done what
it was mandated to do.
The HRCSL has undertaken various educational activities on human rights education, andcarried out research on various human rights
issues amidst restricted financial and humanresources. The HRSL aims to make humanrights education take root in Sri Lankan society,though in a slow pace, to make sure that it does
not reject the idea of human rights.
Though human rights education is integrated into the school curriculum only to alimited extent, it has a great influence on thestudents. The HRCSL aims to ensure that theknowledge of students on human rights is complete, with no misunderstanding. This is why
the HRCSL has a greater role to play in making
the decision-makers understand the importanceof human rights education for all segments ofthe society, and to protect and promote thehuman rights of all in a pluralistic manner. In
this effort, the HRCSL hopes that everyone will
join hands with it in making the world a betterand peaceful place for all children.

Endnotes
1‘Historical Overview of Education in Sri Lanka’,
www.moe.gov.lk, visited on 31 December 2005, andcited in S. Rajapaksa, “The Human Right to Educationof the Vanniyala-etto Community (the Forest-dwellers)in Sri Lanka as an Empowerment Right”, Masters
thesis (2006), Chapter 4.4, pages 41,42.
2Regulation No. 2, Government Notifications
under the Education Ordinance, No.1003/5, dated
25th November 1997.
3‘Government Policies and Programs to Eliminate
the Worst Forms of Child Labour - Sri Lanka,’ U.S.
Department of Labour, Bureau of International
Labour Affairs, <www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/
iclp/tda2001/sri-lanka.htm>, visited 1 April 2009.
4
Articles 10 and 11 of the HRCSL Act.
5
Chapter III of the Sri Lankan Constitution.
6
Under the 17th amendment of the Constitution,
the President appoints the Chairperson and Membersof the HRCSL based on the nomination of theConstitutional Council.
7
Article 3 of the HRCSL Act No. 21 of 1996.
8
Regional Offices in Anuradhapura, Ampara,
Badulla, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Kandy, Matara, Kalmunai,
Trincomalee and Vavuniya. Sub-Regional Office in
Nuwara Eliya. See also www.hrcsl.lk for the map of the
HRCSL offices in various parts of the country.
9Sinhalese, Tamil and English.
10
2004 - 2005 HRCSL Annual Report.
11
LL.M. in International & Human Rights Law,
Faculty of Law, Lund University, Sweden (2004-06)
12
LST Review 18/248, June 2008.