A
month for justice
 Women’s Action Network dismisses International Women’s Day as a
useless event and declares March a Dark Month:
International Women’s Day, supposedly a day to reflect on women’s
achievements and celebrated the world over with uplifting themes of
empowerment and equality, was tagged a dark day/month by the Women’s
Action Network (WAN) in Sri Lanka, who in a bold move, boycotted the Day
altogether, deeming it a useless event.
The Network representing North, South, East and up country women’s
collective, claimed there was no reason to celebrate International
Women’s Day when Sri Lankan women and children are brutally raped and
murdered on a day to day basis and nothing concrete has been done to put
a stop to it.
Declaring March a ‘Dark Month, WAN and its members have chosen to fly
black flags outside their homes, shops and offices, to highlight the
situation and call for safer society for Sri Lankan women. WAN women and
their supporters also wore black arm bands on March 8 and held protests
in various parts of the island demanding justice for the wrongs done to
them.
According to WAN there is no reason to celebrate International
Women’s Day in Sri Lanka as violence against women and children;
particularly sexual violence has been increasing at an alarming rate in
recent times with often justice not being served for women and children
who have been victims of such acts.
Issuing a media statement, WAN pointed out that thousands of women,
their families and activists who have been fighting for their rights
have now lost faith and hope waiting for justice that has never arrived.
  WAN
highlighted the following incidents:
* Batticaloa 2009- a 24-year old woman was raped and murdered, her
mother is still going to the court and asking for Justice
* Hatton (April 2015) - a 5-year-old girl was raped
* Puttlam (January 2016) -a 26-year-old woman faced attempted rape,
* Gampaha (February 2016) - an 18-year-old girl raped and a mother of
7-month old baby was gang-raped by 10 men
*Vavuniya (February 2016) - a 14-year- old girl was raped and
murdered
* All over the country women and children face sexual violence on a
daily basis.
WAN also handed over letters to President Maithripala Sirisena and
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with several demands, including
declaring violence against women and children, particularly sexual
violence and murder, a national crisis; excreting pressure on all levels
of government to put in place reforms and processes to ensure timely
justice for sexual violence against women and children; allocating
sufficient resources to State services to strengthen preventative
measures to reduce violence against women and children; and providing
strong powers and resources to the National Task Force on Violence
Against Women established by the Prime Minister’s office on the March 8
2015 for International Women’s Day to drive and oversee this process.
They also called for compliance with a guiding standard of victim
centeredness to be required of all judicial, law enforcement and service
providing officers (including JMOs) to secure the safety, protection and
dignity of women and ensure equal access to available services.
WAN claimed a country that is violent against women is dark, hence
their decision to declare March 8 a Dark Day. |
