First NWG Meeting in Sri Lanka

Today marked the first national working group meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The meeting was attended by 6 participants, representing national intelligence institutions, NGOs and think tanks, the human rights commission, and the police.

The meeting had two fundamental objectives, namely to brief about the initiative and explore its potential, and to think about the SSG challenges in Sri Lanka. Focus institutions for the discussions were the police, the armed force, and several associated areas and issues (such as national security policies, countering violent extremism, and missing persons). The discussion culminated in a list of SSR challenges and pushbacks in Sri Lanka, and potential opportunities to work on this. This resulted in several proposals, including capacity-building of parliamentarians, sectoral mapping for the design of a National Security Policy, and a broader consultative process for SSR.