This paper is an attempt to introduce how one regional human rights organisation, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), has evolved to develop a local network of grassroots level organisations in Sri Lanka, to resist and overcome the repression faced by the people of that country.

The particular form of repression that evolved in Sri Lanka since the election of a new government in 1977 by an overwhelming majority, and which virtually displaced parliamentary opposition in the country, is well documented. The period beginning from that time and prevailing until about 1994 -- when the political party that ruled the country for 17 years was defeated at a general election -- is popularly known as the 'period of terror'. The term applies mostly to the statesponsored violence, systematically organised by the then-government with the use of emergency powers, to suppress all opposition to its political power as well as to its policies of creating conditions for attracting investments. The immediate pretext for the unleashing of the terror was the suppression of a political group known as the Janatha Vimuthi Peramuna (J.V.P.).

The subsequent government appointed three Commissions to inquire into the large-scale disappearances, which took place during this time. The three reports published by these Commissions record the extent of violence during this period. There are also reports made by the UN Working Group on Forced Disappearances on events that occurred in the south of the country.

Meanwhile, this period also marked a serious conflict between the Sri Lanka Army and the Tamil militant groups that later came under the leadership of the LTTE. That conflict escalated into a state of virtual civil war in the North and the East. This was also a period of enormous violence affecting these two areas but also shaping mentalities in the rest of the country. This conflict often referred to as an 'ethnic conflict' is quite widely publicized throughout the world.

The purpose of this paper is not to revisit research into this period. This paper concentrates on the perception of one group of human rights activists on the impact of the violence that spread throughout the country during this period, on the legal system of the country and its impact on human rights. The AHRC's work in Sri Lanka has been based on the perception that there is an exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country and that all attempts to improve human rights must be centred on addressing this issue. Beginning from this postulate, the organisation has evolved its prevention of torture programme as an attempt to expose the depth of the collapse of the rule of law, particularly manifested in the policing, prosecution and judicial systems. The organisation's express strategy has been to highlight this situation through the documentation of actual torture cases and to work towards the provision of services to torture victims. For instance, legal and medical assistance, essential financial support, and also by providing protection and security for such victims. The organisation's attempt has been to write the narrative of the collapse of the rule of law by documenting the legal struggles of its victims.

For the aforementioned purposes, it was essential for the regional organisation, which is based in Hong Kong, to have human rights groups based in different parts of Asia, to work as clinics in documenting, transmitting information, providing protection and engaging in assisting victims to search for legal remedies. Thus, a network of organisations have risen up around this project and they are themselves part of the narrative of this work.

Given the highly comprehensive nature of the repression it was also an assumption of the AHRC that international lobbying based on the use of email and electronic facilities should be an important component of the project. Thus, the cases of victims recorded by the local organisations are transmitted to a very large email network with a view to create awareness of the problem and also to increase intervention in these cases. Among the recipients of this information are also the UN agencies and international human rights groups.

A further component of this work is to develop generalizations based on the experience of these cases and to circulate the views thus arrived at widely both locally and internationally. For this extensive media ventures have been undertaken locally and the UN and other forums have been used to spread such views. All such materials are preserved in websites maintained by the organisation.

Thus, this paper will not attempt to engage in a fresh study of the history of the period, or even to give a comprehensive synopsis of such history. It is merely an attempt to study how civil society organisations such as human rights groups can evolve strategies to fight against conditions created by widespread and extensive repression lasting for several decades. The scope of the study is limited to giving some insights to such a process of action. This is also not an attempt to write a detailed description of the work of the AHRC or its network.

This paper belongs that to category of writing which tries to give some illumination into the difficult path of trying to rebuild space for freedom and human rights after a period of dark and harsh repression.