In December 2005, The Asia Foundation invited Women’s Rights International (WRI) to Sri Lanka to conduct an assess­ment of the infrastructure for support­ing a population-based random-sample survey of the impact of the conflict on Sri Lankan women. The goal of the survey would be to use statistical sampling methods to interview women selected at random in order to estimate the scope of human rights violations, including sexual violence, as well as a broader scope of long-term direct and indirect economic and health conse­quences of the conflict. The survey would complement ongoing efforts by the Human Rights Accountability Coalition to document political and ethnic violence in Sri Lanka.

The December 2005 assessment addressed the following issues:

• The level of need for initiating a new effort to document the impact of the conflict on women
• The quantity and quality of existing documents or records that reflect the impact of conflict on women
• The current capacity among local organizations for supporting a docu-mentation effort

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