Confronting the Complexity of Loss

British colonial model of justice, and unambiguously contemplates the punishment of
offenders. Furthermore, the current system of punishment has strong punitive leanings. In
fact, a recent study on the prisons system in Sri Lanka concludes that ‘the rehabilitation
model [in Sri Lanka] was overshadowed by judicial as well as executive inclination
towards a punitive model’ and that the ‘current crisis of prison overcrowding may be a
direct result of this inclination’. 112 Thus, despite Sri Lanka being a majority Buddhist
country, there appears to be no real traces of an overarching Buddhist influence on the
criminal justice system. The influence Buddhism may have on the views and attitudes of
victims and survivors, however, remains hitherto untested, and should not be ruled out.
Meanwhile, a variety of other religious convictions may shape the views of victims and
survivors in Sri Lanka—particularly those from non-Buddhist backgrounds. Therefore, it
is perhaps useful to briefly discuss alternative religious sources that might support the
idea of justice. Justice in Islam encompasses important ideas including equality,
moderation, trust and solidarity, and is said to cover ‘all aspects of life’—particularly
socio-political life. 113 Tufail Ahmad Qureshi concludes: ‘with the advent of Islam, the
Qur’an insistently calls upon Muslims and others alike that, as rulers, judges and as
members of society; they should never deviate from the path of Justice…’ 114 He cites a
crucial verse in the Qur’an, which enunciates the following principle: ‘Do not wrong
others, nor allow yourselves to be wronged’ (emphasis added). 115 Certain notions of
justice also feature in Hindu teachings. In addition to the idea of karma, concepts such as
rita, a cosmological principle that governs human ethical conduct, and dharma, a
principle which contemplates political and social order, suggest that Hindu doctrines
accommodate notions of justice. 116 Christians may also draw from Biblical and canonical
teachings to arrive at their own understanding of justice. Justice or ‘justness’ is
articulated in numerous Biblical passages as being part of the essential nature of God. 117
The role of humans in the administration of such divine justice is also evident—first in
Old Testament accounts of the responsibility of the political ruler, and later in New
Testament and early-Church teachings on the semi-divine nature of civil government. 118
112 Centre for the Study of Human Rights (University of Colombo), A Study on Streamlining Rehabilitation
Programmes in Prisons (2013). According to the study, the extent of overcrowding is a cause for serious
concern, given the fact that nearly 26,000 inmates are serving sentence in prisons equipped to
accommodate only 11,700 persons. Additionally, a staggering number (some estimates suggest a figure of
100,000) of persons occupy these prisons as ‘remandees’.
113 See Tufail Ahmad Qureshi, ‘Justice in Islam’ [Summer 1982] 21.2 Islamic Studies 35-51, at 40.
114 Ibid. at 50.
115 Ibid. See Al-Qur’an, 57:25.
116 See Berkeley Centre for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, Georgetown University, ‘Hinduism on
Justice and Injustice’, at http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/hinduism-on-justice-and-injustice. It is
noted that dharma has ‘no direct semantic equivalents in western languages’ and may be translated as
‘duty’, ‘religion’, ‘justice’, ‘law’, ‘ethics’, ‘religious merit’, ‘principle’ and ‘right’. See Gavin D. Flood, An
Introduction to Hinduism (1996), at 52.
117 See Alexander Cruden, A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
(1824). Also see James Wood, A Dictionary of the Holy Bible (1813), at 68, entry on ‘Justice’: ‘That
essential perfection in God, whereby he is infinitely righteous and just, both in his nature and in all his
proceedings with his creatures.’
118 King, op. cit. at 72.
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