People

Thyagi Ruwanpathirana is the 2024 Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Fellow, hosted jointly by the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School. As the Tiruchelvam Fellow, her research project will focus on the creation of an enabling environment for a post-conflict Truth Commission that meets the needs of the victims of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict.

Thyagi works as Amnesty International’s South Asia Researcher since 2018. After having completed her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Warwick, UK in 2010, Thyagi obtained her Master of Law (LLM) in Human Rights in 2011 from Birkbeck College, University of London. From 2012 to 2013, Thyagi worked as an Associate with the Global Policy Forum in New York, where she conducted research on social and economic policy, international justice, and globalization, while also representing the organization at the UN-NGO Working Groups on the UN Security Council and Food and Hunger.

In 2013, Thyagi returned to Sri Lanka and joined a local think tank. As a Researcher with the Centre for Policy Alternatives from 2013-2016, Thyagi published research papers, commentaries and statements for the organization on legal and policy issues with a special focus on conflict resolution, transitional justice, and human rights, while supporting the organization’s submissions for UN treaty body reviews. In 2015, following the end of the decade-long rule of Sri Lanka’s wartime governing party and the formation of domestic transitional justice institutions, Thyagi joined the Consultation Taskforce of civil society members as a UN Consultant. She was involved with drafting the Taskforce’s final report, especially on the Truth Commission and the Office on Missing Persons.

In 2016, Thyagi joined the International Commission of Jurists as National Legal Advisor for Sri Lanka. Between 2018-2019 Thyagi was also a Lecturer with the Centre for the Study of Human Rights with the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo where she delivered lectures for the postgraduate course on Human Rights and Democratization.

Thyagi joined Amnesty International in 2018 as a Researcher with the organization’s South Asia Regional Office, which oversees human rights work in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. She led Amnesty’s Sri Lanka work on issues ranging from transitional justice, enforced disappearances, reparations, counter-terror legislation, and freedom of expression and association. She also held the position of interim deputy Director, overseeing Amnesty’s South Asia’s regional research.

Her publications include: Still no answers: An update on the rights of victims of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka(Amnesty International, 2022), Old ghosts in new garb: Sri Lanka’s return to fear (Amnesty International, 2021), Challenges to Accountability for Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka (International Commission of Jurists, 2017), Memorialization for Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka (Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2016) and The Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons: Trends, Practices and Implications (Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2014).