07 January 2011 | Colombo, Sri Lanka
Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), organized a seminar titled Role of Civil Society Organizations in Peace building Activities in Post-War Sri Lanka on the 9th December 2010. The two main objectives of the seminar was to strengthen the network of Civil Society Organizations engaged in post-war activities and to discuss the various challenges and problems CSOs face when carrying out peace building activities. The participants were various civil society actors who are engaged in post-war activities especially in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The seminar covered aspects such as: analyzing the space available for civil society within the evolving political situation in Sri Lanka; maximizing civil society’s impact; role of women in peace building activities; specific issues pertaining to working in the Northern and Eastern Provinces; and the anticipated future trajectory.
RCSS organized this seminar in its capacity as the South Asia Regional Secretariat fort the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). GPPAC is a world-wide civil society-led network that aims to build an international consensus on peace building and prevention of armed conflict. It was established in 2003 in response to a call made by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for an international conference of civil society organizations working in the field of conflict prevention in his 2001 report Prevention of Armed Conflict. Since holding its Global Conference in 2005, it has been working on strengthening civil society networks for peace and security by linking local, national, regional and global levels of action and effective engagement with governments, the UN system and regional organizations.
