Conference Co-Chairs and Committee

Siri Hettige is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka . He is also an Adjunct Professor at the RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Professor Hettige was recently appointed as the Chairman, National Police Commission, Sri Lanka. He is also the Honorary President of the Association of Sri Lankan Sociologists and Chairman, the Working Committee on Social Sciences, National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka. He has published widely on such themes as youth, education, social and political conflict, social policy and governance and development. He has also served as a Visiting Professor/ Researcher at a number of overseas universities such as University of Zurich, Switzerland, University of Kuopio, Finland, Melbourne University, and University of Adelaide, Australia. His most recent publications include: Globalization, Employment and Education, co-authored with Angela Little, Rutledge, London (2013), Governance, Conflict and Development in South Asia, co-edited with Eva Geherz, Sage publications, Delhi, (2014), Towards a Sane Society, Sarasavi, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka (2015).

Human societies across the world face diverse challenges today and how these challenges are faced by societies will have a bearing on the life chances and well-being of children and youth. While there is considerable diversity among societies in terms of their political, economic, social and cultural characteristics, some of the challenges they face are similar. It is against this backdrop that exchange of knowledge and experiences across countries is necessary to understand issues and find appropriate solutions to various issues pertaining to children and youth. It is in this sense that 2020 Children and Youth conference is an exciting prospect for researchers and many other stakeholders dealing with children and youth issues. We hope that this conference will attract a wide array of participants and contributors from different parts of the world so that the event would be a truly global event taking place in Colombo.

 I, as Co-Chair of CCY2020 wish to invite senior and young researchers, practitioners, policy makers and service providers to contribute papers to this conference or be part of the conference as active participants there. I very much look forward to meeting paper presenters and participants at the CCY2020 in Colombo.

Prof. Siri Hettige

Emeritus Professor, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka