Abstract
This paper takes a look at the social turbulence, political instability and human rights violations that are a part of life in the country of Sri Lanka. The paper presents a brief history of the country, some background information on human rights violations there and then takes a look at how minority grievances, claims and rights are central to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. The paper proposes that though the Tigers are the minority, and have been oppressed in significant ways for many years, both sides in the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka have committed - and continue to commit - egregious human rights violations; as long as this continues, so will the suffering and killing of all ethnicities.

Human Rights and Political Realities in Sri Lanka Today:
Facts and Background
What do the Tigers (LTTE) Say is their Main Issue?
What are the Main Minority / Ethnic Issues that History will Show
are Legitimate, Insofar as the Tigers (LTTE) Grievances are
Concerned?
Evidence that the Sinhalese Government Commits Human Rights
Violations
Evidence that the LTTE Commits Human Rights Violations

From the Paper
"The island nation of Sri Lanka is located in Southern Asia, in the Indian Ocean south of India. The island's size is 64,610 square miles (which about the size of West Virginia) and its coastline is 1,340 km. The population of Sri Lanka is approximately 19,905,165, of which 68.2% are between the ages of 15 and 64; only 7% are over 65 and 24.8% are fourteen years of age or less, according to CIA data. The main environmental problems facing the island's peoples include: heavy deforestation; soil erosion; wildlife species threatened by urban sprawl and poachers; pollution caused by mining activities, sewage and industrial wastes; coastal degradation and serious air pollution in Colombo."

Tags:sinhalese, native, cultures, indian, dynasty, tamil, kingdom, portuguese, occupied, dutch, dominated

Abstract
The paper outlines a study that will look at primary education in the plantation industry in India and Sri Lanka in order to highlight the role of education in the improvement of the social order. The paper provides a literature review that explores historical developments, policies and programs of the governments and how these have been implemented in the fields. The paper explains the research questions and the methodology to be used.

Outline:
Introduction
Review of Literature
The Research Methodology

From the Paper
"Despite the progress that society has registered through the ages the goal of universalising primary education (the basis of a sound and secure social order) continues to remain as elusive as ever. In this light, this study desires to undertake an analysis of the state of primary education (in the context of lack of, access to, retention in, completion of primary education) in the Plantation Industry in South India as this industry suffers from exploitation in various forms. In doing so the study will focus on historical developments, policies and programmes of the governments and how these have been implemented in the field (in the form of national level policies and in local level management). In contrast to India, the Sri Lankan experience, despite rather modest levels of economic growth has been hailed internationally for high standards of education, possibly due to the policies that have been adopted by them. Historically, much of this achievement was underpinned by economic revenues generated by the labour of the plantation community whose own achievements in education fell well below the national norm. In recent years, however, educational participation among this community has increased."

Tags:exploitation, child, labor, schooling, literacy

Abstract
The paper begins by presenting an overview of the U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It then examines the background of the conflict between the Tamil ethnic minority and the government of Sri Lanka. The paper looks at the different points of view on this conflict and the consequences of these differing opinions. The paper then looks at rape as a form of torture used by government officials against Tamil women.

From the Paper
"The government encourages its soldiers to use rape as a weapon against the Tamil, because it is aware that this is a very powerful weapon of war. As a proof of the fact that rape is used and encouraged as a weapon against the resistance, the Tamil women are raped in the most inhumane ways possible, with the head of the victim "covered with a polythene bag filled with chilli powder and petrol" or, in the case of one victim, after "pins were inserted under the nails of her fingers and toes" ("Rape in Custody"). Wendy McElroy, a former victim of rape and a scholar on the effects and even the uses of this special form of violence, explains these horrible practices by saying that "rape is a political matter" ("Rape in Custody"). By using this method of torture, the Sri Lankan is not really only fighting a war of weapons. but a war of psychology."

Tags:Al, Qaeda, FBI, Tamil, Eelam, Amnesty

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine, compare and contrast the arranged marriage practices in two specific cultures: a rural Sri Lankan village and metropolitan Japan. The subsequent discussion not only reveals some of the basic practices in arranged marriages in each culture, but also suggests conclusions about the basic commonalities in such practices and how development has had an effect on the practice.

From the Paper
"Of all of the anthropological concepts routinely studied in ethnographic analyses, marriage is probably one of the most ubiquitous. All human societies demonstrate some form of marriage even though anthropologists cannot necessarily agree upon how marriage should be defined in a universal fashion. Nonetheless, marriage is an important part of every human society because it helps dictate kinship organization and determines individual roles within the community. Understanding the ways in which cultures treat marriage can be extremely important in understanding the most basic operations of that culture."

Tags:arranged, marriage, comparison

Abstract
In this article, the writer explores how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been recruiting and using underage soldiers in their battle against the Sri Lankan government, violating obligations under international law. Further, the writer examines how the issue of child recruitment in Sri Lanka can be rectified by international and domestic laws by studying various cases of child recruitment that have taken place in other countries. To examine and analyze the issues of the LTTE's forcible recruitment of underage soldiers to the fullest extent, this paper first explores the historical and social background of the LTTE's battle against the Sri Lankan government. The writer also examines how applicable domestic and international laws make the LTTE's recruitment of child soldiers illegal. By analyzing how the issue of child recruitment has been alleviated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, this paper proposes potential solutions to the LTTE's recruitment and use of underage soldiers.

From the Paper
"The LTTE has long been known for recruiting children to take up arms in its 22-year independence struggle against the Sri Lankan government. In the wake of the tsunami, which devastated Tamil majority areas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, new reports of abductions and missing children have reaffirmed concerns of international human rights organizations of the LTTE's continued recruitment of underage soldiers. Despite the LTTE's pledge in April 2004 that it would release the children in its troops, its child recruitment was reported to have increased in June 2004. In April 2004, the LTTE officially released 269 child soldiers and expressed its willingness to provide formal release letters for over 1,300 other children who went home. Since the start of April 2004, however, UNICEF received 159 reports of children being recruited by the LTTE, mostly in the North of Sri Lanka. The LTTE, according to Amnesty International, has also been re-recruiting child soldiers by force. In May 2004, it was reported that four children who had left the LTTE were taken away from their homes in the middle of the night."

Tags:war, armed, conflict, enemy

Abstract
This paper analyzes Sri Lanka as a foremost country of Theravada Buddhism with several very important and many more local stupas found in most parts of an officially Buddhist country. It specifically discusses the ongoing importance of stupas in everyday popular Sri Lankan Buddhism and describes the more colloquial meaning and popularity of stupas of different descriptions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Stupas as Architecture
Popular Buddhism and the Stupa
Symbolism and Stupas
Concluding Discussion

From the Paper
"One sees that the stupa has terrific and varied significance in Sri Lanka's Theravada Buddhism whether in formal observances as can involve festival times or traveling to very important sites or what occurs locally involving what may be a very small district stupa, perhaps situated near a temple or upon a hill. In the upcountry areas of Sri Lanka, stupas may dot hillsides and with each, however small, having particular importance to someone or to residents of a particular village, rather like the roadside crucifixes or other religious statues one expects to see in Roman Catholic countries and implying the same sense of daily awareness and frequent related observance. There is the same contrast too between Christians viewing art as merely representing a saint or the divine, as opposed to persons who can actively worship an image or attach special powers to it. The smallest of white stupas can remind the Buddhist of how he or she is to live, develop the self, of the example of the Buddha's mind, the helpfulness of veneration. Preparing this paper has been a good exercise in seeing the different levels on which Asian religious phenomena need to be assessed, the understanding of an educated monk in Sri Lanka or a Buddhist historian of antiquities obviously rather different from the homespun understanding of a person who may be a very devout Buddhist citizen. In this sense the stupa offers different kinds of symbolism that can unite diverse members of a philosophical tradition."

Tags:symbolism, tradition, mound

From the Paper
"This research examines literacy in Sri Lanka. Topics discussed include background information on the Sri Lankan educational system, Sri Lanka's literacy rate and the reasons there for, Sri Lanka's literacy rate and other socioeconomic measures compared to other countries at a similar stage of economic development, and the relationship between Sri Lanka's literacy rate and macroeconomic measures.

Background Information on the Sri Lankan Educational System"

Abstract
The author analyzes the reason why some conflicts do not receive a response, despite an urgent need for such a response. More precisely, through the use of both liberalism and realism, the Sri Lankan conflict is analyzed, with the goal being to understand why, despite almost fifty years of obvious oppression, civil war, and apartheid by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil, there has been no international response.

Outline
The Civil War
The Conflict from the Liberalist Perspective
The Conflict from the Realist Perspective
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Within the greater field of political science, international relations comes out as one of the more interesting areas of study. International relations is fascinating both to observe and two analyze for a number of reasons. First of all, although we often see international relations as referring only to the relationship between nations and different world governments and, hence, think of it as something which is remote from us, as individuals and citizens, it has a profound impact upon our lives. For example, the Syrian government's isolation from the non-Arab international community and the recent threats expressed by the United States regarding the consequences of refusing to withdraw from Lebanon, affect the lives of the average Syrian citizens. It affects them economically since trade and economic sanctions reduce investment and employment opportunities in the Syrian economy and affect their educational and even leisure opportunities as political sanctions make traveling all the more difficult for these citizens because they confront stricter visa requirements. The purpose of this particular example is to show that even though international relations appear remote, it is not. International relations is a part of our lives."

Tags:realist, liberalist, civil, war, tamil

Abstract
This paper explains how Sri Lanka's Theravada monks have been a faction to promote the ongoing ethnic war. The paper provides an account of the role played by monks in politics and explores ethnic chauvinism and the idea of a true Sri Lankan as Sinhalese and Buddhist.

From the Paper
"Sri Lanka's Buddhist monks have always had an important place in social and political life. In the ethnic war has unfolded since the anti-Tamil riots of July 1983, monks have had a strong voice in politics also, many backing the government's military `solution' to the Tamil separatist problem. In September of 2006, bikkus joined Christian nuns and priests and leaders from the Muslim and Hindu communities in a peaceful demonstration in Colombo. They were interrupted by fiery pro-war bikkus who began shouting that the pacifists should go to Sri Lanka's east coast..."

Tags:sri lanka, bikku politics, violence

Abstract
Examines Sri Lankan political parties after independence, including the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP). Discusses minority activism, the rise of smaller parties, and the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF).

From the Paper
"More than five decades of independence for Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, has witnessed the rise of a political system with basically stable political parties. Before..."