Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human Rights as a Cultural Practice: An Ethnographic Study of a Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research will examine the local understanding of human rights within the context of the recently concluded Disappearances Commission in Sri Lanka. The Co-principal investigator will provide an ethnographic analysis of the concept of human rights as understood, interpreted, used, and practiced at the grass roots level. Moreover, this research examines the local and national level discourses on human rights in Sri Lanka to provide an understanding of the Commission as a site of convergence of these different perspectives. Through in-depth interviews, observations, and recording of narratives of those who were involved in the Disappearances Commission in southern Sri Lanka, this research will study the conceptualization of human rights within the local context. The national discourse on human rights vis-a-vis the Commission will be analyzed through a careful investigation of archival sources. This will be juxtaposed against the local discourse to provide a scientific understanding of the Commission. This research contributes towards an understanding of contemporary Sri Lanka and provides an ethnographic understanding of human rights and "commissions" which have become an integral part of transnational legal processes.