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Recommendations of the International Women's Mission to the North East of Sri Lanka, 12th to 17th October 2002

The LTTE women appeared to be aware of the importance of these issues and the need to adopt a gender focus.

They were setting up Women's Development Centres in the north east. Government officials met expressed little sensitivity to gender issues, with some administrators denying that there was any benefit in adopting a women's perspective and claiming that there was no need for programs targeting women. Recommendations

4.1 The institutions created to carry the peace process forward must be sensitive to gender issues and take steps to ensure that women participate effectively at the level of policy-making. They must liaise with women's organizations representing the many constituencies of women throughout the island to develop and implement programmes, which are appropriate to the needs of these different constituencies.

4.2 Officials and representatives of both the GoSL and the LTTE setting up and working in community level institutions responsible for implementing rehabilitation and reconstruction policies must ensure that both the implementing processes and the implementers are gender sensitive and that women and women's concerns are equitably represented.

4.3 All statistics complied in relation to peace and reconstruction should be dis-aggregated according to gender.

4.4 Existing institutions responsible for public security and welfare must be made aware of gender and human rights issues and compelled to put in place effective mechanisms to address women's concerns.

4.5 Both parties must develop plans for the demobilization of armed personnel and the reintegration into civilian society of former combatants.

4.6 Former combatants should be offered full support in readjusting to civilian life, and be given access to appropriate training and employment opportunities.

4.7 Continuous monitoring of the above must be undertaken in order to guarantee the principles underlying these recommendations.

B. Policy Recommendations Relating to Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

5. Women and displacement

Findings

Thousands of people have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of violence or the threat of violence associated with the war or with episodes of communal violence. The majority of displaced persons are women and children, many of whom have been displaced repeatedly over the years.

The Government and the LTTE were identified, by those met, as the parties overwhelmingly responsible for forcing people out of their homes through intentional attacks on civilian populations or more generalized war-related violence. The displaced population includes Muslim and Sinhala people, although the great majority are Tamil.

All of the Muslims met insisted that they had been forcibly evicted from their homes in the north east and their return must be viewed in this context. Many of them claimed that their community had been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

Recommendations

5.1 People who have experienced prolonged displacement must be given the choice of returning or staying in their current location. The consultation process must be structured in a manner so as to ensure that women's views are heard.

5.2 Displaced people living in camps and temporary settlements must have access to reliable, up-to-date information about conditions in their place of origin and the options available to them. This must be provided in forms accessible to women and include information on the political situation and security considerations, the monetary and other assistance they will receive and how they can access it, the physical conditions they will live in on their return, training and employment opportunities and the access they will have to basic infrastructure such as clean water, sanitation, health care, education and transport.

5.3 Effort must be made to resettle displaced people living in camps swiftly, whether in their host community or as returners. Until such effort are completed, camps must remain open and improved facilities to provide them with privacy, dignity and security. Women in these camps need services, which include proper sanitary facilities, safe access to clean water and cooking fuel, reproductive health needs, and the reduction levels of domestic violence in the camps. Women must have the right to be included in camp decision-making bodies.

5.4 People who choose to remain living with the host community or to resettle in locations other than their place of origin must be ensured full voting rights in their place of residence.

5.5 Policies on displacement must be multi faceted and responsive to the varying needs of the different groups of discalced and be based on full consultations and responsive to their differences.

6. Resettlement and Reconstruction

Findings

It cannot be assumed that everyone who has been displaced from their home wishes to return. The mission met many displaced women who wished to return, and many who did not. Many - including displaced Muslims - wanted strong guarantees that they would never be evicted again and that they would be secure before contemplating returning to their original homes.

Others have chosen to return before adequate infrastructure and material assistance is available placing their faith in the continuation of the peace process and desperate to leave the intolerable conditions in camps for the displaced.

Many of them are women heads of households and widows. They desperately need assistance. Recommendations

6.1 Returnees or people who are resettled elsewhere must be guaranteed adequate assistance and personal security. This must include basic infrastructure in place before re-settlement is effected. Returnees should be monitored to ensure their safety and that the most needy are provided with appropriate assistance.

6.2 All members of families of displaced including their natural increase should be given equal consideration in resettlement plans.

6.3 Rehabilitation and resettlement programmes must take the special circumstances of female heads of households into account and meet their needs.

6.4 Funding must be made available to provide for those who have already returned to their homes since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.

6.5 Alternative resettlement options must be provided to displaced persons who cannot return to their homes because they are being used by the military or the LTTE.

6.6 Resettlement plans need to take into account the particular vulnerability of widows and female heads of households in the allocation of lands.

6.7 Priority should be given to ensuring mobility for women, but with safety, in all areas of the north east.

6.8 Women should be encouraged to participate in the planning and reconstruction of their settlements, so that they can help shape the development of local infrastructure.

6.9 Reconstruction and development strategies must be developed in a way that does not fuel communal competition for resources and works to address basic needs and rights. Women must be included in the development and implementation of these strategies.

7. Land rights

Findings

Land rights appear to be one of the most difficult and contentious issues throughout the north east. The displaced need to reclaim their land and property and receive compensation for loss and damage. Those who cannot return must be resettled elsewhere. Those occupying land and property abandoned by the displaced or evicted must vacate such property and be re-settled. Women and in particular widows and women heads of household must be given titles to land and property. Issues of inheritance for women must be clarified and women's right to land and property protected.

Recommendations

7.1 Land laws must be reformed to ensure equal rights of women to inherit and dispose of land and property.

7.2 Where necessary, lands must be surveyed to establish boundaries.

7.3 Ownership rights should be respected, and persons living in houses owned by others should be provided with alternative accommodation.

7.4 Widows and relatives of the disappeared need assistance in accessing the documentation they require to prove their rights to property and inheritance.

8. Compensation

Findings

Families who lost property and belongings due to conflict and those displaced by conflict need immediate and urgent assistance and compensation to resume some semblance of normalcy in their lives. Recommendations

8.1 Systems for payment of compensation and resettlement benefits must be transparent and well-publicized so that women cannot be pressurized to give bribes or sexual favours in order to receive their dues.

(The Mission comprised Dr. Elizabeth Nissan (UK), Ms. Shanthi Dairiam (Malaysia), Ms. Florence Oduor (Uganda), Ms. Liza Kois (USA), Ms. Sonia Jabbar (India) and from Sri Lanka M/s. Kumudini Samuel, Prof. Sitralega Maunaguru, Anberiya Hanifa, Dulcy de Silva, Saroja Sivachandran, Ksharma Ranawana, Zulfica Ismail, Yumuna Ibrahim, Kamalini Kathirvelaithapillai, Viji Murgaiah, Amara Hapuarachchi, Chandani Herath and Sumangalee Athulugama.)

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