An educational Program towards building up a People based Constitution On 13th January 2022

 

The educational Workshop organized by the Movement for the formation of People based Constitution, under the theme of “Let us build a social movement to initiate the process of People based Constitution” was held at the Auditorium of  National Fisheries Solidarity Movement on 13^th January 2022.This program was of three  main sessions. First session in identifying the current crisis and its root causes  was  facilitated by Mr. Herman Kumara  and Mr. Britto Fernando. In this session the  crisis and its impacts were analyzed from the Economic perspectives by Dr. R.S. Samarathunge, the need of initiating 
a people based consultative process for a new constitution in order to respond to this crisis was shared by Mr.Basil Fernando (Attorney at Law @ AHRC)via Zoom as well as a way forward in overcoming this crisis was shared by Mr.Victor Ivan( Senior Journalist/Former Ravaya Editor) . There was an open discussion as a response to these presentations.   

Professor Deepika Udugama joined the floor via Zoom and shared her reflections on the need and value of the people based Constitution at this moment and a short video by Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda on the meaning and the formation process of people movement was screened. Based on  the above inputs the second session, an open dialogue on the formation of a people movement in building a people based Constitution was carried out. Mr.Saman Seneviratne and Mrs.Thamara Dayani facilitated this second session.

The third session on exploring the  possibilities and avenues of legal aids and proceedings as response to this crisis. It  was facilitated by Mr.Vincent Bulathasinhala (Attorney at Law) along with a panel of eminent lawyers. The main focus was to look for the legal justification and filing of a court case or number of cases  based on the cries and appeals of the people in general, who are  being victimized day by day  under this evolving crisis. A brief introduction on the possible legal proceedings was shared by Mr. Basil Fernando , the importance of collective effort and filing of court cases as a group based on the burning issues of people was shared by Mr.Sreenath Perera (Presidential Counselor)  and the possibility of proceeding with a court case to overcome this crisis through a rectification process within the legal framework while exploring the possibilities of obtaining help from different persons and sectors ,  was also shared by Mr.Janaka Edirisinghe (Attorney at Law) . The days program was concluded with recapturing of the days proceedings and identifying  the possible follow up actions.