Culmination
of the Campaign to Sign a Petition
Savisthri,
convener of Women’s Action for Social Justice (WASJ), a network of women’s
organizations launched a campaign to sign a petition demanding action against
escalating incidencts of violence against women. This commenced on 14th
of December 2012 at a function to commemorate Women’s Day at Viharamahadevi
Park in Colombo. The objective was to request international and national
authorities for organized action to combat this menace.
The
petition had been signed by the public in the districts where Savisthri and
WASJ members implement their programmes. Over the last five months this
activity managed to raise public
awareness and it seemed that people appreciated the idea. The response had been
encouraging. The final discussion was held at the Public Library Auditorium Colombo
on 23rd of May 2013. after which a petition had been handed over to
the UN representative in Colombo and action already taken to hand over the
petition to this Excellency the President of the Republic of Sri Lanka and Hon.
Ministers of Justice and Womens’ Affairs.
This discussion
included a panel discussion with the participation of four leading activists. The
agenda included a panel discussion with the participation of Ms. Menaka Kandasamy (Trade Union Leader) who
discussed about protection of women with
more respect in professional domains in a country where women contribute their
labour immensely and unreservedly; Dr.
Damayanthi Perera (Educationist) on the organizing
of educational system to enable combating violence in society; Mr. Dharmasiri
Bandaranayake (award winning Veteran Film Director and Talented Actor)
discussing as to how arts and media could be utilized to generate a cultural
mind and Mr. S G Punchihewa (Attorney at
Law) on the responsibility of a citizen for a wholesome social change.
Following the presentations, the audience had the opportunity to request
clarifications from the speakers.
This event was attended by more than 250 representatives from
member organizations of WASJ who arrived from far and near representing women
from all ethnic groups and economic sectors. Presentations were interpreted in
Tamil language for those from Jaffna and plantations. Savisthri took the lead
in organizing this event. There were journalists from
both print and electronic media which included BBC (Sinhalese sevice), Derana
TV, Swarnvahini TV, The Nation newspaper, to cover the event.
Later
Miss Padma Pushpakanthi National Coordinator Savisthri and Sister Noelle
Christine handed over the petition to the UN Representative, Colombo.
National Secretary delivering the
inaugural speech.
Veteran film Director Dharmasiri Bandaranayaka
delivering his speech.
Some of the participants at the discussion.
The petition being presented to the representative
of
the UN Country Director.