Browsing by Author "Jayawardena, D.S.R."

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An appraisal of the legal regime governing the protection of women and children in the context of armed conflicts
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jayawardena, D.S.R.
Inhistory, war was interpreted as a military combat between two or more opposing parties. Therefore, without any distinction, all the people relating to the opposition group were treated as enemies. As a result, women and children relating to both counterparts became more and more vulnerable in the event of warfare.However, because of continuous development of the concept of humanity and unique jurisprudence relating to norms and customs of warfare, currently there is a specific conventional and customary safeguard to protect disarmed and unarmed women and children during the waging of armed conflict.However, because of the lack of agreement and the debates among states and non-state parties on the current interpretation of the terms “civilians” and “direct participation in hostilities” there are considerable gaps in protection. This apparent contradiction is at the core of the debate on the protection of civilians and direct participation as well as the nature of hostilities, and raises a number of questions about the protection of the rights of women and children during the armed conflict. The main research problem of this paper is to identify the relevant legal regime that governs the protection of people who do not or no longer participating the hostilities and whether the legal provisions and definitions of terms “civilians” and “direct participation in hostilities” as interpreted under the said legal regime are adequate enough to safeguard the rights of women and children in modern armed conflicts situations. This research will examine whether there should be more broad and specific interpretations, for aforementioned terms in order to effectively protect the rights of women and children those who need additional protection in the event of warfare.The researcher aims to present a suitable platform to provide appropriate recommendations to enhance the protection of these vulnerable groups of people caught up in armed conflicts with no direct participation in the said warfare. For this purpose the interpretive guidelines prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the direct participation in hostilities and the relevant principles of international humanitarian law will be critically examined. The research methodology of this work will be mainly a qualitative one and a number of books, journal articles and internet articles were used to gather secondary data on this area.The relevant authorities at Governmental and non-governmental organizations will be interviewed with a view to get their view points in order to see a possible expansion of the definitions and the interpretations of the terminology involved in this research. Few focused group discussions with women and children affected by warfare during the Sri Lankan internal armed conflict will enhance the credibility of the research findings.
The importance of patent regime for the protection of the rights of traditional knowledge keepers in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayawardena, D.S.R.
At present, most of the people believe that the valuing and applying of traditional knowledge developed by indigenous people may give vital importance for moving towards the preservation of the global environment and the bio-diversity. Furthermore, it could bring a valuable insight for the development of multiple sectors including health and agriculture. However, discussion on the above topic could not be completed without recourse to the patent law regime, which significantly changed its direction after the evolution of the TRIPS agreement that aims to regulate all type of knowledge under the existing international intellectual property system. Sri Lanka enriches with various forms of indigenous knowledge relating to many areas including agriculture, indigenous medicinal and health care technology and the technology relating to eco-friendly architecture and construction methods. However, even the existing patent law governed under the intellectual property act protects the rights of the inventors as well as the investors, it does not provide an adequate protection for the indigenous people who improve and develop traditional knowledge from generation to generation. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce an appropriate legal framework under the existing Sri Lankan patent law regime to provide an adequate protection to the knowledge developed by Sri Lankan indigenous community in order to give protection to their intellectual property rights. Therefore, whether the existing patent law regime is adequate enough to protect the rights of the indigenous knowledge holders in Sri Lanka? Or, whether is it needed for sui generis legal framework to provide a necessary safeguard for this group of people? This is the main research problem. The research will be a combination of the quantitative and qualitative research methods and the qualitative part will be based on the use of the primary and secondary sources including legal instruments and text books and scholarly articles. Moreover, interviews with the indigenous knowledge holders and legal professionals will be conducted quantitatively to enhance the credibility of the research findings.