Peace Agreements Database

Country/entity

Sri Lanka

Region

Asia and Pacific

Agreement name

Declaration in Support of the Peace Process in Sri Lanka (Oslo Declaration)

Date

25/11/2002

Agreement status

Multiparty signed/agreed

Interim arrangement

No

Agreement/conflict level

Interstate/intrastate conflict(s) (Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 - 2009)

The roots of the Sri Lanka conflict lay in British colonial policy which controlled the island from 1802 until 1948. During the early 1800s, the British brought Tamils from mainland India to work on the various plantations for tea, coffee and rubber, changing Sri Lanka's the demographic make-up. Upon independence, Sinhalese nationalism dominated the political sphere and introduced discriminatory policies against the Tamil minority straining relations and sparking protests. Armed Tamil resistance first came in the form of assassinations of moderate Tamils and opposition politicians in the mid-1970s. However, it was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) attack on checkpoint Four Four Bravo, which marked the turning point, sparking pogroms against Tamils in Sinhalese majority areas. This incident, known as Black July, is widely considered to the beginning of the civil war.

The first round of peace talks were backed by India, which had deployed the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1987, and led to the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. The Accord was successful in persuading the majority of insurgency groups to lay down arms. However, the strongest Tamil insurgency group, the LTTE, was not party to the talks and refused to disarm, sparking direct conflict between the IPKF and the LTTE until IPKF withdrawal 1990. Following the withdrawal, the LTTE consolidated their power in the North and East sparking another intense and bloody war with the central government that lasted until 2002 when another peace process was launched under the auspices of Norwegian negotiators. The second round of peace talks, however, only continued until April 2003 and in March 2004, a large faction of LTTE cadres split from the main organization damaging LTTE unity. The LTTE were defeated militarily by a large-scale government assault in 2009, however, the conditions for peace remain uncertain.

Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 - 2009) )

Stage

Pre-negotiation/process (Other: Donor support)

Conflict nature

Government/territory

Peace process

114: Sri Lanka LTTE 2002 onward process

Parties

Not signed but expressed to be: 'We, government representatives from the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe, meeting in Oslo on 25 November 2002'. . .

Third parties

Description

Multilateral donor statement expressing support for the ongoing peace process and the arrangement of a donor conference to help reconstruction (see later Tokyo Declaration).

Agreement document

LK_021125_Oslo Declaration.pdf []

Main category

Page 2, ... Building a national consensus for the difficult steps ahead in the peace process will require particular efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable, such as the poor, the unemployed, especially in the rural areas, and women and children.

Page 3, ... The Sub- Committee has issued an urgent appeal to the international community for immediate assistance to begin to resettle and rehabilitate internally displaced persons, address the needs of women and children and help the population to resume their economic activities.

Women, girls and gender

Participation

No specific mention.

Equality

No specific mention.

Particular groups of women

Refugee/displaced women

Page 3
...
The Sub- Committee has issued an urgent appeal to the international community for immediate assistance to begin to resettle and rehabilitate internally displaced persons, address the needs of women and children and help the population to resume their economic activities.

International law

No specific mention.

New institutions

No specific mention.

Violence against women

Protection (general)

Page 99 of 128 Page 2, ... Building a national consensus for the difficult steps ahead in the peace process will require particular efforts to meet the humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable, such as the poor, the unemployed, especially in the rural areas, and women and children.

Transitional justice

No specific mention.

Institutional reform

No specific mention.

Development

No specific mention.

Implementation

No specific mention.

Other

No specific mention.