Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human Rights as a Cultural Practice: An Ethnographic Study of a Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka

本论文的研究将探讨在最近结束的斯里兰卡失踪问题委员会的背景下，当地对人权的理解。共同首席调查员将对基层一级理解、解释、使用和实践的人权概念进行人种学分析。此外，这项研究还审查了斯里兰卡地方和国家一级关于人权的讨论，以使人们了解该委员会是这些不同观点的交汇点。这项研究将通过深入访谈、观察和记录参与斯里兰卡南部失踪问题委员会工作的人的叙述，研究当地人权概念的形成。将通过对档案来源的仔细调查，分析国家与委员会之间关于人权的对话。这将与当地的讨论并列，以提供对委员会的科学理解。这项研究有助于了解当代斯里兰卡，并从人种学角度了解人权和已成为跨国法律的进程组成部分的“委员会”。

This dissertation research will examine the local understanding of human rights within the context of the recently concluded Disappearances Commission in Sri Lanka. The Co-principal investigator will provide an ethnographic analysis of the concept of human rights as understood, interpreted, used, and practiced at the grass roots level. Moreover, this research examines the local and national level discourses on human rights in Sri Lanka to provide an understanding of the Commission as a site of convergence of these different perspectives. Through in-depth interviews, observations, and recording of narratives of those who were involved in the Disappearances Commission in southern Sri Lanka, this research will study the conceptualization of human rights within the local context. The national discourse on human rights vis-a-vis the Commission will be analyzed through a careful investigation of archival sources. This will be juxtaposed against the local discourse to provide a scientific understanding of the Commission. This research contributes towards an understanding of contemporary Sri Lanka and provides an ethnographic understanding of human rights and "commissions" which have become an integral part of transnational legal processes.