Que(e)rying the Debris of (Neo)Colonialism in the Field of Transitional Justice (Region Focus: Sri Lanka)

ABSTRACT∞ This note from the field explores how queering transitional justice in Sri Lanka reveals the (neo)colonial debris embedded within its legal, institutional and moral order. Through the lens of Rosanna Flamer-Caldera v. Sri Lanka (CEDAW, 2022), it examines how colonial-era laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships persist as mechanisms of postcolonial governance and exclusion. It argues that transitional justice in Sri Lanka, while focused on wartime atrocities, disregards the structural and identity-based harms that outlive conflict, particularly those rooted in colonial legality and heteronormative nationalism. By reading the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women as a parallel site of justice, it contends that international human rights and transitional justice are not separate but are continuous struggles for recognition and dignity. It reimagines transitional justice beyond institutional reform as an evolving, transformative practice that challenges the moral and epistemic hierarchies defining whose suffering counts within post-war Sri Lanka.