State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID-19 Disease Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle has been unanimously elected as the Chairperson of the Women Parliamentarians Caucus, stated the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, State Minister of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research and Innovation Dr. Seetha Arambepola and Parliamentarian Rohini Kumari Wijerathna were appointed as Deputy…
The Women Parliamentarians Caucus of the Parliament of Sri Lanka has called on Speaker of the House Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to appoint a special select committee to address issues faced by women in the country. The female Members of Parliament have made a request in writing to the Hon. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to appoint…
The Caucus reached out to civil society groups including trade unions from various sectors including the free trade zone workers, plantation sector workers to name a few, to hear their stories and experiences on sexual harassment in the workplace. These members of the diverse communities of women workers provided testimonials that supported a qualitative study…
During the recent budget debate in November 2020, the Women’s Caucus of the Ninth Parliament, took the lead to aggressively debate the issue of Period Poverty in Parliament. They had round table meetings to discuss the issues surrounding period poverty and addressed the State Minister in charge to protest this taxation, and alternatively proposing that…
The Women Parliamentarians Caucus of the Parliament conducted several outreach programmes to increase the political participation in Colombo, Gampaha, Jaffna, Kandy, Batticaloa, Nuwaraeliya, Matale and Anuradhapura during the 08th Parliament. The ‘Outreach Training Programmes’ were organized by the Caucus in every district to motivate women to enter the politics and to train them to engage…
The Women Parliamentarians Caucus of the Parliament conducted a women empowerment programme for women in Nothern Province in Killinochchi on 22.03.2017 to mark International Women’s Day. At that programme, the Ministry of City Planning and Water Supply donated 100 Toilets for the area and the Ministry of Primary Industries conducted an awareness programme to increase…
The Women Parliamentarian’s Caucus (WPC) of Sri Lanka, held a program called ‘Embrace Her for a Real Change’ to mark the International Women’s Day in Kilinochchi at the Cooperative Hall on the 22nd of March 2017. Given that there are a unique sets of issues faced by women in the North, who have had first-hand…
The Women Parliamentarians Caucus and 3 male champions participated in a discussion with Australia’s Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and gender equality advocate, Elizabeth Broderick, founder of the “Male Champions of Change” initiative on August 15, 2017, Male members from the Gender Sectoral Oversight Committee were invited for the discussion in an effort to formalize and…
From March 21 to 29, 2018, six women ministers from Sri Lanka undertook a one-week study tour in Australia at the invitation of the Government of Australia (GoA). Australia’s Government-sponsored the study tour as part of its overall support to strengthen the role of women in politics in Sri Lanka. The aim of the study…