Seeking Linkages

1. Manoharan prefaces his book with the lament that not one study links ethnic violence and human rights in the Sri Lankan context. This is exactly what he then sets out to do. The relationship between escalating (or de-escalating) ethnic violence and levels of human rights protection is both an obvious and challenging subject of study. In and of themselves, both violence and human rights are tricky, sensitive research topics and Manoharan is first and foremost to be congratulated for pulling off a carefully researched case study that looks at both.

Structured in the manner of a social science dissertation, this book begins with a detailed literature review through which the author seeks to define the concepts whose relationship he studies: human rights, ethnicity and violence. The author briefly outlines a range of approaches to studying ethnic violence and justifications offered for it. The same chapter goes on to map human rights violations and international human rights regimes.

Having set out the intellectual and legal context for his case study, Manoharan’s next stop is his case study: ethnic violence in Sri Lanka.