Shiranee Tilakawardane, Doctor of Laws
The first woman in Sri Lanka to attain virtually every position in your career, you now work for women’s and children’s rights from your seat on the country’s Supreme Court and in roles with law groups around the world. In a country rent by internal violence, you are dedicated to promoting equality as the bedrock of justice, which is itself the foundation of peace. Formal equality, you have said, resides on the books while substantive justice requires the development of police and legal systems that are sensitive to the needs of victims, many of whom already suffer from trauma. As a result you have trained police officers, lawyers, and judges in Sri Lanka and abroad in the fairest, most effective ways to solicit testimony from abused women and children. You have drafted such procedures for proposed international courts and have served on international panels that fight the trafficking in and the sexual exploitation of women and children. Good judges need intelligence and integrity; great judges also require courage, and that you have certainly shown in your many rulings in a country made up of ethnic and religious groups with deeply held and sometimes conflicting beliefs. So valued in fact, is your bravery that you were chosen to lead a recent inquiry into the improper acquisition of weapons that ultimately led to the very highest levels of the government and military. In that bold pursuit of justice, and in your work to protect the most vulnerable members of society, you stand as a model for jurists everywhere.
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 3, 2007