This manual was developed with feedback of 40 trade union female members of 20 trade unions who belong to the Trade Union Women United network coordinated by Women and Media Collective. The manual is available in the Sinhala and Tamil languages. Through this manual users can obtain similar levels of knowledge, attitudes and skills and … Continue reading Training of Trainers manual on leadership for women in Trade Unions of Sri Lanka

A consultation with Kare Vollan, an expert on electoral reforms, was held yesterday to discuss the prospects of increasing political representation of women in parliament in the current context of constitutional and electoral reforms. For the first time the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe has proposed reforms that will ensure a substantive increase … Continue reading Increasing women’s political representation: a discussion on current reforms

The Action Network for Migrant Workers (ACTFORM) met with the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Employment, Thalatha Athukorala to discuss the current status of women migrant workers and the measures that need to be taken to further improve their status at home and abroad. This was the first meeting between Sri Lanka’s ACTFORM network and … Continue reading ACTFORM meets Minister of Foreign Employment, Thalatha Athukorala

This film documents the electoral struggle of Aynoon Beebi, a 39-year old Muslim woman from Kinniya, in Trincomalee, at the 2011 local government elections. While celebrating Aynoon’s political ambitions, the film explores the ways in which she challenges mechanisms of power and dominance that are naturalised within her community and political party structures. Women account … Continue reading Film: Don’t think of me as a woman, an election story from the margins

Source: Search for Common Ground Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe spoke at an event to mark International Women’s Day organized by the Women Parliamentarian’s Caucus in partnership with us, UNFPA, UN Women and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office. During his speech, he pledged to increase the political participation of women by 25% at the … Continue reading Prime Minister Wickramasinghe Pledges to Increase Women Participation in Politics

Women’s rights groups from all parts of Sri Lanka made it happen on the streets of Colombo to mark International Women’s Day 2015. On the 9th of March, women’s groups were demanding for an increase in political representation for women by introducing at least a 25% quota in all political bodies and to establish an … Continue reading IWD 2015: International Women’s Day March

On International Women’s Day as Women and Media Collective celebrates 30 years of activism we take a moment to celebrate the life of founder Sunila Abeysekara. Source: Isis International Why Sunila loved March 8th I visited Sunila around 8th March 2013 to spend some time with her after she’d been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. … Continue reading IWD 2015: Celebrating the life of our founder Sunila Abeysekara

For International Women’s Day 2015, a sticker and poster campaign was carried out by women’s rights groups with a message to increase women’s political participation by at least 25% within all political bodies of Sri Lanka. With this women’s groups also see a dire need to establish an Independent Women’s Commission to ensure the promises made in … Continue reading IWD2015: Sticker and Poster Campaign

Petition The establishment of an Independent Women’s Commission was first proposed by women activists and advocates as far back as 1991. Since then a number of proposals have been made by successive governments to statutorily establish such a Commission. In 2003, the United National Front government, headed by the UNP, drafted a Women’s Rights Bill. … Continue reading A New Sri Lanka for Women: establishing an Independent Women’s Commission

මීළඟ පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ජන්දය මිශ්ර ක්රමයකට පැවැත්වීමට නියමිත බැවින් පළාත් පාලන ආයතන ජන්ද විමසීම් (සංශෝධන) පනතට, ස්තී්රන්ට 25%ක ආසන වෙන්කිරීමක් සිදුකරන ලෙසට සංශෝධන ගෙන එන ලෙස දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලින් ඉල්ලා සිටීම. පළාත් සභා මැතිවරණවලදී නාමයෝජනා ලබාදීමේ දී හා ප්රසාද ආසන ලබාදීමේ දී ස්තී්ර පුරුෂ සමාජභාවීය සමතුලිතාවයකින් යුතුව ආසන වෙන්කරන මෙන් දේශපාලන පක්ෂවලින් ඉල්ලා සිටීම. දේශපාලනයේ … Continue reading දේශපාලනයේ ස්ත්‍රි නියෝජනය වැඩි කිරීම සඳහා ස්ත්‍රින්ගේ ඉල්ලීම