The Pathfinder Foundation’s Repository for Sri Lanka Peace Initiatives was inaugurated by Erik Solheim — former Norwegian Special Envoy to the Sri Lanka peace process, former Minister of the Environment and International Development of Norway, and former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — at the invitation of Milinda Moragoda, Founder, and Bernard Goonetilleke, Chairman of the Pathfinder Foundation, both among the principal negotiators of the peace process.
Over several decades, Sri Lanka repeatedly sought to resolve the separatist conflict through negotiations. Despite several initiatives, none succeeded in bringing the conflict to a negotiated conclusion.
Over the years, numerous publications — both local and foreign — have examined Sri Lanka’s conflict. SCOPP maintained a substantial body of documentation on the peace process from January 2002 to January 2008, and the Norwegian facilitators also hold an extensive collection of records. Nevertheless, a major gap remains: the absence of a consolidated repository that brings together available documentation on the peace process, particularly one that preserves material relating to negotiations that did not reach a conclusive settlement.
Responding to this gap and encouraged by many associated with or studying the process, the Pathfinder Foundation has taken steps to establish a dedicated repository to collect and preserve documentation on Sri Lanka’s peace initiatives. Under this project, the Foundation will gather relevant information on the peace process from local and international sources.
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