Special Archive on VAW

Radhika Coomaraswamy is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence. In her reports to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights she has written on violence in the family, violence in the community, violence against women during armed conflict and the problem of international trafficking. She has made field trips on behalf of the United Nations to Japan/Korea on the problems of comfort women, to Brazil on domestic violence, to Poland on trafficking, to South Africa on rape in the community and to the US on women in prisons. She has also visited Rwanda and East Timor to investigate the issues of violence against women during armed conflict, to Afghanistan to look at issues of religious extremism and India, Nepal and Bangladesh on the problem of the trafficking of young girls. After each visit, she has written a report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. She has also intervened on behalf of countless women throughout the world seeking clarification from governments in cases involving violence against women.

Radhika Coomaraswamy is also the Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo. As Director of the Centre, she oversees projects and programmes on multiculturalism, federalism and constitutional reform as well as education policy, and judicial approaches to pluralism. The Centre also conducts research into language policy, cultural studies, women and governance, women and religion, election monitoring, protection of minorities at the international and regional level and the development of social theory. The Center has been in existence since 1982 and is involved in research and policy formulation. In addition The Centre is active in the holding of workshops and conferences, the development of a media focus and an internship and fellowship programme. The Centre also houses a large library specialising on the themes of ethnic studies, constitutional law and women.

Radhika Coomaraswamy is a member of the Global Faculty of the New York University School of Law and teaches a summer course at New College Oxford University every July. She has published widely. She is the author of two books on constitutional law. The first is A Crisis of Legitimacy: - The Anglo-American Constitutional Tradition in Sri Lanka and Ideology and The Constitution: - Essays on Constitutional Jurisprudence. She has co-edited two books with Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, The Ethical Dilemmas of

Development, and The Judiciary in Plural Societies, She has also co-edited a book on social theory with Nira Wickremesinghe entitled Introduction to Social Theory. She has two forthcoming books, one called "Born Free and Equal: Women's International Human Rights and the other entitled Dharma and Conscience, a book on Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict. She has also published numerous articles on ethnic studies and the status of women.

Radhika Coomaraswamy has been appointed to many Boards and Committees. She is a working committee member of the Civil Rights Movement, a member of the University Council of Colombo, and a member of the National Committee on Women. At the international level, she is a member of the Board of Minority Rights Group and The International Human Rights Policy Group. In Sri Lanka she is also a Board member of the Family Rehabilitation Center, The Women's Education and Research Center, and the Center for the Study of Human Rights in Colombo.

Radhika Coomaraswamy has won many awards. These include; The International Law Award of the American Bar Association, The Human Rights Award of the International Human Rights Law Group, The Bruno Kreisky Award of 2000 and The Leo Ettinger Human Rights prize of the University of Oslo.