Country : The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

Commite : SOCHUM
Topic : Combating Xenophobia and Bigotry in Sovergein Countries

Despite its widespread usage, xenophobia is an ambiguous and contested term in popular, policy and
scholarly debates. The interchangeable or complimentary use of similar terms such as nativism,
autochthony, ethnocentrism, xeno-racism, ethnic-exclusionism, anti-immigrant prejudice and immigration-
phobia While these approaches are unified by a generalized acceptance that xenophobia is a set of attitudes
and/or practices surrounding people’s origins, the specific locus of debate and work is highly contextualized
and often generally incomparable. Xenophobia for one analyst may be only tangentially tied to the
xenophobia discussed by another. Bigotry as “individual, interpersonal acts of meanness” directed by one
individual (or small group) to another. These individual acts can be intentional or unintentional. What makes
them bigotry, not just meanness, is that they’re based on the recipient’s racial, ethnic or cultural identity (or
what the bigot thinks is their identity). By this definition, anyone can be bigoted. Black people can say and
do nasty things to White people because of their Whiteness, White people can say and do nasty things to
Black people because of their Blackness, Latinos can be bigoted towards Asians, Japanese can be bigoted
towards Chinese, and so on. Bigotry doesn’t feel good to those on the receiving end no matter what their
race or identity, and bigotry is not acceptable from anyone. However, bigotry is not racism.
Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic multi-religious country. Sri Lanka is the home of followers of the four
major world religions. The country has become a fertile field for cross-cultural pollination - open for years
to neighboring influences and a succession of colonial powers. we are a pluralistic society and face the same
challenges of diversity. We were sad to see the ongoing armed conflict. As was the case in Kandy during the
anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka that occurred in 2018. This communal violence in Kandy was the first since
the Black July violence that occurred in 1983 between Tamil and Buddhist Sinhala. This violence was also
the first time communal violence between Muslims and Buddhists in the Kandy district since the 1915
Ceylon riots sparked by the British government. This event really caused a great loss to our country. The
events that have occurred in the Sri Lankan state are events caused by external factors in which the external
party created a riot that caused Sri Lankan citizens to fight ethnicity. The mandate of the Sri Lankan Human
Rights Commission includes fighting discrimination. We believe that racism, xenophobia and similar formof
intolerance damage human dignity and consequently erode all human rights.
The consensus among the National Human Rights Institutions, arising from our consideration, is that
there must be an effective legal regime to combat racism. But we are also aware of the fact that legal and
administrative solutions alone will not be enough. They must be equipped with education and persuasion
designed to advance human rights values to effectively fight racism and other forms of intolerance. We are
also aware of the fact that poverty arises from, and accentuates racial differences. We therefore urge
affirmative action for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Other workable solutions include economic
improvement for the whole community. As we know, one of the causes of the existence of racism,
xenophobia and bigotry in some countries is because of the imbalance in the economic situation between
one community and another. economic difficulties usually occur because of rising costs of living, taxes,
economic difficulties, causing social tensions, division, and disharmony with other communities and giving
birth to hatred. Economic problems and difficulties not only affect one community, but are also common to
all communities.

Bibliography
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Missago, Jean Pierre. 2015. Protection From Xenophobia: An Evaluation of UNHCR’s Regional Office for
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https://www.academia.edu/37563991/Xenophobia_and_Ethnic_Violence_Colombo_in_Naomi_Munaweera
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/world/asia/sri-lanka-attacks-hate.html
https://world.einnews.com/news/sri-lanka-racism-xenophobia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_anti-Muslim_riots_in_Sri_Lanka