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| Thursday, 11 December 2003 |
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Human Rights record on fire by Chamikara Weerasinghe The performance of government law institutions working against human rights violations in the country and the level of commitment demonstrated by the Government in promoting human rights, came under fire by local Human Rights Organisations, who had gathered at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo for a meeting to review the country's human rights environment. The meeting was held to mark the World Human Rights Day on December 10. The participants comprised representatives from Transparency International and the National Human Rights Commission. The People Against Torture, Setik, Janasansadaya, the Centre for Rule of Law, Home for the Victims of Torture, and Families of the Disappeared had organised the event with the courtesy from Asian Human Rights Commission. Transparency International Sri Lanka Director J.C. Weliamuna said that cases of human rights violations have rebounded on the poor victims instead of them being resolved before the Sri Lanka National Human Rights Commission. He said, "It takes months and sometimes years before a human rights case has been taken up by the Commission for action . The case being so the Commission very often informs the victims to take his or her case before the Supreme Courts, which put the poor victims in a tight corner against the perpetrators," He said that police personnel were found as perpetrating most of the human rights-related crimes in the country that they have been charged with allegations of torture, abduction and illegal confinement. "The government has been unable to put in place the intended National Police Commission complaints procedure to address these conditions," he said. Rev. Fr. Reid Shelton Fernando, Director of People Against Torture, said that the public are more inclined to seek the help of the NGOs to fight for their rights, rather than going to government institutions, as they do not trust them. "This is a serious situation that should change that calls for commitment on the part of the government," he said. He complained that the government had downplayed with the real issue of human rights when it made its submissions to the Human Right Committee in Geneva in November this year. He said that representatives from Sri Lanka's Justice Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and Solicitor General's Department gave a different picture of the issue, by purposely refraining from committing themselves to expose its true proportions. "They went on explaining the Geneva Human Rights Committee about how they would establish more Human Right Commissions across the country to promote human rights instead of giving any account on the inefficiency of government legal institutions and corrupt governance." Fr. Fernando said, however, the Commission did not believe them after investigating reports provided by non- governmental Human Rights Organisations on the true situation in the sphere of human rights in the country. He said they had taken a child - victim at their expenses to the Geneva forum on this occasion in order to highlight the point of human rights violations being violated in the hands of law-enforcement officials, and lack of commitment by the government to improve the system. |
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