The Beijing Plus 5 review of the NPA and the updating of the NPA for the period 2001 to 2005 were done by the NCW in 2001. At present, in 2009, an updated version of the NPA is being prepared by the NCW through a collaborative effort of the government, NGOs, researches and academics. Handouts Gender Based Violence In Sri Lanka, gender based violence ranges from sexual harassment in public spaces to acts of violence within the privacy of the home or at workplaces. It is acknowledged that the issue of who or which group in society has more power than others and who can exert acts of gender based violence is not restricted to economic power but is very much rooted in notions of social power and hierarchies in access to exercising such power. Thus the concept of gender based violence necessarily includes two aspects - violence which arises out of asymmetrical power relations resulting from socialisation processes, as well as gender based discrimination arising from structural violence against women, as can be seen, for example through the impact of violence against women as a result of armed conflict. Sri Lanka recognises the definition of GBV set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW) as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.1 It also accepts that violence against women encompasses but is not limited to “physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution and physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs”.2 1 2 Article 1 Article 2 79