Acting Foreign Minister Arun Hemachandra has called for a policy-driven, evidence-based diplomatic approach to recovering Sri Lankan cultural artefacts removed during the colonial era, addressing the opening session of the “Whose Law?” research conference held in Colombo on May 13.
The conference brought together legal experts, historians, researchers, museum representatives, policymakers and international partners to examine the legal and historical questions surrounding colonial-era cultural heritage and source-based research into its provenance. Hemachandra described it as a platform where “law, history, culture, justice and diplomacy intersect,” rather than a purely political event.
He stressed that artefacts removed during the colonial period should not be viewed merely as museum objects but as “living symbols of identity, heritage and historical memory” belonging to the nations and communities they were taken from. The Acting Minister listed five areas requiring strengthening: research, legal clarity, institutional coordination, public awareness and international cooperation.
The address is the most explicit recent ministry-level positioning on heritage repatriation, an issue that has periodically surfaced in Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands over Kandyan-era regalia, manuscripts and other items now held in European public collections. Hemachandra is acting in the foreign portfolio in the absence of Minister Vijitha Herath. The “Whose Law?” series is one of the first structured academic engagements organised in Sri Lanka to map a legal framework for repatriation claims under modern international and domestic law.
