Committee to inquire into disappeared and missing persons

There have been several Presidential Commissions of inquiry appointed to inquire into missing persons during the period of 1980 to 1999. They were appointed in 1995 to inquire into missing persons in the Southern, Central and North Eastern Zones.

In 1995, 16,305 cases had been received. Therefore no inquiry had been conducted with regard to these cases.

These un-inquired cases had been brought to the notice of the President and on 14.03.2005 the Secretary to the President had addressed a letter to Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Chairperson, Human Rights Commission to get investigations conducted with regard to these missing persons and to forward a report.

In consequence to this letter Justice P. Ramanathan who succeeded Dr. Coomaraswamy as Chairman of the Human Rights Commission appointed a Committee comprising K.G. Jayasena, retired District Judge as Chairman and Retired Senior Superintendent of Police H.S. Jayasuriya, former Director of the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau as the Investigating Consultant to inquire into these 2,210 cases.

W. Ekanayake the former Government Agent of Colombo was appointed as the Secretary of this Committee and Committee member. The number of disappearances reported as 16,305 boiled down to 2,210 after eliminating duplicates and on the responses received from complaints to a letter addressed to them by the DDB Project office.

This Committee commenced sittings and conducted proceedings from the Human Rights Disappearances Data Base Project at No. 15, Swarna Road, Colombo 6 from November 6, 2006 to July 15, 2007. During this period this Committee sent out summons to all the 2,210 complainants whose complaints had been received by the Presidential Commission referred to earlier.

These summons were sent by Registered Post and Ordinary Post. Some of these summons could not be served on the complainants on the correct dates because there were several postal strikes during this period.

However 650 complainants from all parts of the island including North and East came before this Committee and gave evidence and the Committee recorded their evidence.

There were 113 complainants who wrote to the Committee informing their inability to come before the Committee and on the request of the Committee they forwarded affidavits.

The Committee also found of these complainants 120 of them had not been paid compensation. Compensation had been paid by the Government as follows:

1. Married person Rs. 50,000

2. A person over 21 years Rs. 25,000

3. A person under 21 years Rs. 15,000

On 15.10.2007 the Chairman of the Committee K.G. Jayasena, the Investigating Consultant H.S. Jayasuriya and the Secretary Member to the Committee W. Ekanayake handed over their final report to the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission Justice Ananda Coomaraswamy at this office at No. 36, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8.

The other Commissioners of the Human Rights Commission Justice D. Jayawickrama, Mahanama Tillakaratne, M.T.M. Bafiq and the Secretary of the Human Rights Commission D.J.B. de Silva were also present on this occasion.

This final report contains 239 pages of which the report itself is 23 pages. The other pages are Annexures which give brief summaries of the evidence recorded. According to the contents of this report most of the disappearances have been caused by the Army and the Police.

The JVP and the LTTE have also been responsible for several disappearances. The names of several Army officers and Police officers have transpired in the evidence of the complainants but this material is insufficient to institute criminal charges or departmental charges against them. It could be observed that this Committee was able to conclude only 29.41 per cent of the 2,210 cases.

Funded by South Asia Regional Initiative Equity Support Project:

Programme on Protecting and Promoting Child Rights

Thilani RAJAPAKSE, Director HRCSL

The Monitoring and Review Division of the HRCSL conducted a Programme on protecting and promoting child rights in State Children’s Homes.

This programme which was funded by the South Asian Regional Initiative/ Equity Support Programme (SARIQ) was carried out from January 2005 to November 2006.

The programme was aimed at protecting and promoting child rights by raising awareness in State officials who are working in the field of child rights. Under the programme 1080 state officials were trained in 22 workshops held island-wide.

A fact finding mission by the Monitoring and Review Division signalled urgent human rights concerns in State run children’s homes, to which children are referred following sexual or domestic violence.

There are also cases of child labour, abandoned children, juvenile offenders and witnesses of criminal cases who are housed in these homes.

Children live in poor conditions, have limited access to education and vocational training, lack basic health services and are indefinitely detained due to inconsistent institutional and legal procedures.

Of particular concern is the shared housing of detainees and children referred for non-delinquent purposes with victims and older children. This joint housing arrangement contributes to the prevalence of repeated victimisation and increased violence in these institutions.

A training curriculum for the training was developed and training programmes were organised across the country. The awareness workshops were held in all provinces except Northern Province. These workshops were held in Sinhala and Tamil and consisted of three rounds. Three workshops were held in each province.

The State officials from the following categories participated in these workshops.

* Child Rights Promotion Officers

* Officers of Women’s and Children’s Desk of Police Stations

* Officers of State Children’s homes

* Probation Officers

* Early Childhood Development Officers

* Labour Officers

* Women’s Development Officers

* Counseling Assistants

III(b) Contents of the Programme

The following lectures were included in these workshops.

1. International Standards on Child Rights

* Brief introduction on Universal Declaration of Child Rights (UDHR)

* Brief introduction on International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

* Brief Introduction on International Covenant Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR)

* Description on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

* Children as Young Offenders

* Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children

* Children in Employment

* ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age of admission to Employment

* Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (1985) (Beijing Rules)

2. Domestic Laws and Mechanisms in Sri Lanka for the Protection of Children’s Rights and practical usage

* The Constitution of Sri Lanka

* Sri Lanka ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in July 1991.

* Amendments were made to the Penal code in 1995 and 1998 to criminalise certain as alleged offenders

* Legal Capacity of Children in Criminal Law

* Children and Young Persons Ordinance (CYPO)

* Institution Alternatives

* Non Institutional Alternatives

* Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children

* Penal Code (as amended)

* Sexual abuse and Exploitation of Children

* Grave sexual abuse

* Obscene Publications

* Cruelty of Children

* Procuration

* Trafficking

* Unnatural offenses

* Gross indecency

* Incest

* Rape-The increase in the age of statutory rape

* Children in Employment

* Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Ordinance

* Other laws affecting children’s rights

* The Maintenance Act

* The Orphanage Ordinance

* Adoption of Children Ordinance

* Education Ordinance

* Vagrants Ordinance

* Age of Majority Ordinance

* Offence under the Influence of Liquor Act

3. Medical Aspects of Child Rights

* Explain the steps that should be followed by a Police officer when a rape or sexual abuse case is received?

* How to take the relevant medical evidence? Eg. Clothes, blood stains etc

* How to question child victims?

* How to question child witnesses?

* How to forward the victim for medical tests?

* The importance of scientific investigations. Eg: DNA testing, finger printing,

* Give examples of real cases and explain the theories.

* Child protection issues presenting on

* Child labour

* Corporal punishment

* Prevention of emotional, physical and sexual abuse

* Prevention of disease

(a) Immunisation

(b) Hygiene

(c) Communicable risks and accidents

(d) Environmental risks and accidents

(e) Nutritional supplementation

(f) Issues related to institutionalisation

* Understanding children and child friendly approach and attitude

* Recognising diseases, disability and emotional disturbed children and special needs of such children.

4. Organising the Follow up Programmes

The Division organised follow up programmes in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the awareness.

It was revealed that most of the officers participated in those programmes perform better in giving speedy solutions to problems related to children. Also it was revealed that the number of complaints regarding child rights increased as they are now very much aware of the matters connected to the child than earlier.

5. Highlights of the Project Period

* 1080 State Officers engaged in the field of child rights were educated on Child Rights.

* Developed the skills and changed the attitudes (positive) to provide a better service for the welfare of the children.

* Enhanced the coordination among the State institutions involved in child rights.

* Made the officials aware of the practical aspects in dealing with child rights.

* Shared experience about activities carried out by various State officers dealing with child rights.

* Strengthened the State sector to provide speedy solutions to practical problems of child rights violations.

Obtained feedback and comments from participants on various issues pertaining to child rights.

Action taken to review existing legislation, administrative directives and procedures on child rights which are inconsistent with international human rights standards.

To be continued