Letter to the Elections Commission, leaders of Political Parties and the Speaker of the House of Parliament DO NOT Default on Implementing the 25% Legally Binding Quota for Women We the undersigned Civil Society Organisations, including women’s groups, and women’s rights advocates are writing to call on the Chairman and Members of the Election Commission … Continue reading Media Release: Letter to the Elections Commission, leaders of Political Parties and the Speaker of the House of Parliament

A media briefing to highlight the importance of the 25% women’s quota brought about for the upcoming Local Government elections was held at the Renuka Hotel in Colombo. With the mixed electoral system and the women’s quota, the elections, which are expected to be held on the 10th of February 2018 will be a historic … Continue reading The importance of the 25% quota for women in Local Government

A meeting to discuss the Local Authorities Elections Amendment Act within the purview of the newly introduced provisions for women’s representation in Local Government was organised by the Women and Media Collective, on Friday 6th of October 2017. The new electoral system and the 25% quota allocation for women were discussed at length among women … Continue reading Discussion on LA Act. – 25% quota for women

The following proposal was submitted by women’s rights activists and groups for the 2018 national budget. The proposal, submitted to the Ministry of Finance, identifies strategies for gender responsive budgeting. Click here to download the proposal  

පළාත් පාලන ආයතන තුළ ස්ත්‍රීන්ගේ නියෝජනය 25%කින් වැඩිකරන බවට රජය විසින් පොරොන්දුවක් ලබාදෙන ලදී. ඒ අනුව පසුගිය කාලය පුරා මේ ඉල්ලීම තහවුරු කරගැනීම පිණිස අප කාන්තා ක්‍රියාකාරිනියන් විසින් අදාළ දේශපාලන නායකයින් සමඟ සාකච්ඡාවට ද ලක්කරන ලදී. පසුගිය අගෝස්තු 25 වන දින පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ඡන්ද විමසීම් සංශෝධන පනත සම්මතවීමත් සමඟ ඒ පිළිබඳ කාන්තාව සහ මාධ්‍ය … Continue reading Comments on the Amended Local Authorities Elections Act (Sinhala)

Source: Daily News When women are in government, the benefits are boundless: corruption lessens, the economy improves, and governance itself is more efficient. One would think such positive results would mean female participation in politics would be high, and ever-increasing. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka, like elsewhere, this is hardly the case. Since 1931, Sri Lankan … Continue reading Fair hand for fair justice – Daily News

The Women and Media Collective (WMC) together with 23 Women’s organisations expressed their concern to the President, Prime Minister and the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government on the reported negotiations to reformulate the enacted 25% quota for women in Local Authorities. In order to ensure that the current provision of a 25% quota … Continue reading Women’s groups move to secure 25% quota

SRI LANKA COLLECTIVE ORAL STATEMENT TO CEDAW COMMITTEE Presented at 66th Session, Geneva Presented by: Thiyagi Piyadasa, Hyshyama Hamin, Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, Shyamala Gomez, Anushani Alagarajah and Kumudini Samuel, on behalf activists and organizations (listed in page 4) working on women’s civil, political, socio-cultural and economic rights in rural and urban parts of Sri Lanka. Madam … Continue reading SRI LANKA: COLLECTIVE ORAL STATEMENT TO CEDAW COMMITTEE

Click here to download report Sri Lanka Shadow Report To the Committee on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (C… by wmcsrilanka on Scribd

Click here to download the report Shadow Report: Discrimination of Lesbian, Bisexual, Women and Transgender Persons in Sri Lanka by wmcsrilanka on Scribd