GATE is delighted to welcome Dr. Chamindra Weerawardhana as our new Director of Programs and Global Partnerships.
Dr. Chamindra Weerawardhana is a human rights defender, researcher, and published author. She has
worked in grassroots trans and intersectional feminist organizing in several countries, and is passionate
about developing inclusive, feminist, decolonial and internationalist approaches to human rights
advocacy. Her previous roles span the international advocacy sphere, political advocacy, university
teaching, research, and international consulting. In her activist and academic output, she firmly
conceptualizes trans human rights as an intersectional feminist priority. Her discipline is International
Politics, and she is especially known for her work on trans feminist approaches to international relations
and international development work.
She is the author of Decolonising Peacebuilding: Managing Conflict from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka and Beyond [2018]. Her writing has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals and many media outlets worldwide.
Chamindra is the founder of the Consortium for Intersectional Justice, a transnational collective that
focuses on strengthening how intersectional justice is understood in policymaking and international
cooperation sectors. She is a Commissioner of the O’Neill-Lancet Commission Racism, Structural
Discrimination, & Global Health [co-convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health]. She
is a member of the Board of Directors of Dignity Network Canada, the secretary to the Regional Steering
Committee of the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network and a member of the Grant-Making Panel of the
International Trans Fund.
A Sri Lankan national, Chamindra is an alumna of Université de Tours (France) and Queen’s University
Belfast (Ireland).
If you wish to reach out to Chamindra her contact info is chamindra@gate.ngo