Since April 2006 His Excellency the President and the Government of Sri Lanka have taken a number of initiatives to facilitate the realization of a negotiated settlement to resolve the national problem. Significant among them is the endeavor to develop constitutional proposals with broad support. The main aim has been to find an indigenous solution to end decades of internal strife, and enable all people to live in dignity and peace in Sri Lanka.

The Government has emphasized the fact that the task of finding a political solution to the national question requires a multi-party effort and an inclusive approach. This involved the formation of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) and the appointment of a Panel of Experts on 11 July in the hope of reaching a national consensus among political parties.

The mandate given to the APRC and the Panel of Experts as outlined in the President’s speech is to “fashion creative options that satisfy the minimum expectations…as well as provide a comprehensive approach to the resolution of the national question”.

The aim of the Government is to engage the various political parties, discuss their different approaches and through their deliberations arrive at a broad framework that will generate consensus. The APRC and the Panel of Experts met on a regular weekly to bi-weekly basis from July 2006 and confirmed that they made significant progress in their deliberations.

The members of the APRC visited India in October 2006 at the invitation of the Indian government, with a view to gaining an understanding of the Indian constitution, centre-state relations and the working of grass roots level self governing institutions such as the Panchayati Raj system.

The Panel of Experts presented their preliminary reports to the APRC on 6 December 2006. The Chairman of the APRC presented a discussion paper to the APRC members on 8 January 2007, taking into consideration the views expressed by members during the APRC deliberations and also views expressed by the Expert Panel in preliminary reports.. The UNP began to participate in APRC deliberations and presented their party views to the APRC on 8 January 2007. The SLFP submitted their party views to the APRC on 25 May 2007.

All APRC members have submitted their views on the Chairman’s discussion paper to the APRC, except for the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) who withdrew from the APRC in December 2006 and the Western Peoples Front (WFP) who withdrew in August 2006. The latter has resumed participation in the APRC meetings since 4 June 2007 and the JVP has also been invited to return.

The APRC continues with discussions and its Chairman believes they will soon be able to formulate a proposal to submit to the All Party Conference (APC).

The Government initiated discussions with the main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), on 15 September 2006 primarily to facilitate reaching political consensus in the South. Discussions were based on a 6-point common minimum national agenda put forward, which involved peace, good governance, electoral reform and social development. The two parties signed an MOU on 23 October 2006. The UNP in the MOU extended its support to the government “in its pursuit of a negotiated settlement to the on-going conflict while opposing terrorism in all its manifestations and upholding human rights”.

A group of UNP members have now joined the government and accepted cabinet positions, stating that this would facilitate the implementation of the MOU.  However, they do not participate in the APRC, which is the prerogative of the official UNP. The breakaway group, along with other parties such as the EPRLF and PLOTE, have submitted suggestions, though these do not have the status of official proposals. The APRC engages in discussion with such groups in its consultative process.

Meanwhile, the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process has established a steering group to look at ‘Confidence Building Measures through Constitutional Reform’, to suggest areas in which consensus might be relatively easily obtained, as opposed to the more complex question of units of devolution and their powers. Examples include reform of the electoral system and the establishment of a second chamber, along with increasing recruitment of minorities to the public service and the armed forces.

The Secretariat has established links with the Muslim Peace Secretariat and has attempted to renew links with the LTTE Peace Secretariat, at least to obtain their views on the above easily agreed topics. Meetings with representatives of minority parties and interests have indicated areas in which confidence building measures might be pursued. Discussions on this have commenced with the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs as well as the APRC, and exemplars have been sought from relevant bodies.