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| Sunday, 22 May 2005 |
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D.Phil. in Law from Oxford Many Sri Lankans have brought honour to their country in various fields in diverse ways. Charika Marasinghe is the latest to join this select group. Yesterday (21.05.2005) she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in Law from Balliol College, University of Oxford. She becomes the first Sri Lankan woman to obtain this rare academic distinction. While she has displayed her scholarly abilities from the time she was at school and later in the University of Colombo and at the Law College and won many academic distinctions both locally and abroad, she is not the academic living in an "ivory tower". On the contrary it is her abiding interest and very deep concern for her fellow human beings, in particular for "children" and the "children of the poor", which has motivated and directed her academic pursuits. The thesis for her doctorate was on, "A Child's Right to Privacy in International Law". She has been and still is, a very active campaigner in promoting Children's Rights in Sri Lanka. She is a Member of the National Child Protection Authority of Sri Lanka and she has many publications to her credit relating to Child Rights and Child Abuse. It is noteworthy that many of these publications are in Sinhala and in Tamil and meant for use by field workers. She has also been instrumental in developing and publishing a series of booklets for use at community level, on such topics as what to do if you are arrested by the police, land disputes, etc. Amongst her own publications are ones on human rights and a manual on dealing with Violence Against Women published by the Ministry of Women's Affairs. In the immediate aftermath of the unprecedented disaster, she put aside her preparations for her impending doctoral interview and was working day and night at the Sarvodaya Headquarters assisting in the relief work. She is the main inspiration for the Sarvodaya programme for psychosocial and spiritual healing for the tsunami-affected. Now that her doctoral study on a child's right to privacy has been completed, she has indicated that she intends devoting her life to improving the lot of children in Sri Lanka and unfortunately there is much for her to do. Charika is the eldest child of Dr. and Mrs. A. T. Ariyaratne. She is married to Dr. Upali Marasinghe of the Colombo South Hospital. Charika has two children, a son of 19 years and a daughter aged 15 years. |
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