Session
National Report
Para 75) During the period under review, the Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment (MWCASE) continued to engage in developing and implementing policies and action plans to promote gender equality and women empowerment. MWCASE is mandated to coordinate with all relevant Government authorities to ensure gender equality in their programmes and plans. A monitoring and accountability checking methodology is in place to ensure that the planned activities are properly implemented and benefit women.
Para 76) A circular has been issued in November 2022 by MWCASE in consultation with the Department of Budget to incorporate gender responsive budgeting in preparing budgets for 2023. Gender Responsive Budget guidelines were drafted by the Finance Commission to be used in preparing the annual action plans of Provincial Councils. MWCASE continues to ensure 25% of the annual rural development budget for economic empowerment of women.
Para 77) The Government continues to make progress in achieving gender equality and women’s advancement in social, economic and political settings through law reforms, formulating gender responsive policies and action plans by addressing gender-related issues. In line with the Beijing Platform of Action and relevant declarations, a draft National Women’s Rights Policy was developed during the reporting period (2017-2022). The policy provides an overarching framework to guide the process of developing laws, policies, programs, projects and mechanisms to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women in all spheres of Government and society.
Para 78) A policy for Gender Mainstreaming was introduced in all sectoral Ministries that includes the establishment of gender focal points, gender-responsive budgeting and anti-sexual harassment committees.
Para 79) Sri Lanka Women’s Bureau under the purview of the MWCASE has provided financial and technical assistance for selected women in the estate sector to carry out self-employment projects in the years 2021 and 2022.
Para 80) A Government circular was disseminated to all sectoral Ministries and related Agencies to guarantee the collection of age and sex disaggregated data and to establish a gender-sensitive monitoring system to track Government expenditure and ensure equal distribution of benefits to all.
Para 81) The Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus discussed the proposals presented to the Parliamentary Select Committee with the objective of ensuring the rights and protection of Sri Lankan women as well as gender equality. These proposals include establishing an independent “National Women’s Commission”, for which the text is being drafted through an Act of Parliament with the mandate to provide leadership on legal and policy reform, monitor the implementation of laws on women’s rights and gender equality, and make recommendations to Parliament for intervention on issues of gender equity and equality. The proposals also include the establishment of an independent Ombudswoman on gender issues under the office of the Ombudsperson to investigate and provide redress for injustice against individual women in the public sector, to legislate for the purpose of expediting cases of violence against women and girl children, incorporating internal monitoring mechanisms within the relevant line ministries to ensure that the security forces and the police adhere to prohibitions of torture, rape and other human rights violations etc.
Para 82) Training on strengthening multi-stakeholder capacity and engagement for localizing SDGs with specific focus on gender equality were held in six districts – Jaffna, Vavuniya, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kalutara. The target groups included senior planning officers of District Secretariats, Women Development Officers, counselling assistants, members of women’s societies, local elected members and representatives of CSOs.
Para 83) The MWCASE in collaboration with the University of Peradeniya has conducted leadership courses in Sinhala and Tamil for the local women's societies and women's federation to encourage women’s participation in decision-making processes and in public life. Allocating a 25% quota for women candidates has been accomplished in the local government elections and as a result, representation of women in the local government bodies increased from 2% to 22% (less than 100 seats to 2200) at the elections held in 2017 at which 14,826 female candidates contested. Measures are being taken to encourage the representation of women in provincial and national levels as well.
Para 88) The National Action Plan on Women Headed Households (WHH) presented in 2019 is being amended considering observations from the Ministry of Finance. Accordingly, a systematic study was done on WHHs to identify family-focused activities for each different vulnerable group of WHHs and to develop specific actions to support each group.
Para 89) The National Committee on WHH and a National Centre for WHHs in Kilinochchi help integrate WHHs into the workforce and access sustainable livelihoods. The main objective of this Centre is to introduce a special care system for war widows of all communities and their dependents. It also collects data on widows and WHHs in the Northern Province and implements and coordinates projects in all Divisional Secretariat Divisions in the Northern Province including referring for counselling services.
Para 90) The National Action Plan recognizes ex-combatants as a group with special vulnerabilities and in need of support. The Government has absorbed 654 ex-combatants to the Civil Defence Force of which 140 are women and 136 are disabled ex-combatants.
State under Review
Issues
National Report
Stakeholder Summary
Para 39) GAATW stated that during the reporting period, Sri Lanka had maintained discriminatory policies and laws that inhibited equal access to the right to work for women,
Para 56) Just Atonement emphasized that Sri Lanka was particularly vulnerable to climate change, due to a combination of factors, including geography, climate, resource scarcity, and a dependence on agricultural income. It expressed concern that climate change was likely to create an undue burden on women and ethnic minorities, due to historical exclusion, societal norms, and their outsized presence in climate-vulnerable industries.
Stakeholder Summary
UN Compilation
UN Compilation
Para 14) .. The [UN] country team also noted … that a national policy on gender equality was in development.
Para 56) The United Nations country team expressed concern about the prolonged school closures in 2020 and 2021, which had worsened a pre-existing learning crisis and had widened learning disparities across socioeconomic classes and between girls and boys.
Para 59) The Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, noted that human rights must be at the centre of measures by Sri Lanka to promote economic growth that would include everyone, while regretting that Sri Lanka had not conducted a human rights impact assessment of the economic reforms aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit, which notably led to the significant rise in the value-added tax rate, affecting the livelihoods of women.
Para 61) The United Nations country team regretted the slow progress in protecting the rights of women, largely underpinned by social norms on gender; the low representation of women in formal leadership to drive transformation, with women making up less than 6 per cent of the parliament; and the lack of investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Para 62) The Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, was alarmed that the microfinance system put pressure on borrowers, women in particular, who are sometimes exposed to psychological and physical violence and pressured to exchange “sexual favours” by collectors. Some women borrowers even offered to sell their kidneys to repay loans.
Para 65) The United Nations country team expressed concern about the absence of legislation prescribing equal pay for work of equal value and of legal prohibition of discrimination in hiring, while the gender pay gap between men and women was reported to be 24 per cent as of 2020.