HRCSL enters Electronic Era with website - Chairman

It gives me great pleasure to launch this website for the Human Rights Commission.

Human beings have passed from the old Stone Age to the new Stone Age, iron age, bronze age, electricity and now we are in the electronic age.

Science has advanced to such an extent that we are in the electronic age with information technology taking the forefront.

Knowing letters and numbers is regarded as education and anyone who does not know these is considered ignorant.

Now advanced science and information technology made all of us ignorant unless we know science and information technology, which have made the world a small place. One can, with the help of science, reach any destination in a short time and now with advanced technology, we can communicate with anyone in any part of

 the world in a short time or even in a few seconds.

Computers and websites have become very handy and it is essential for one to make use of the website without which we are far behind time.

The Website of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka makes it possible to inform everyone what we want to convey and everyone to make use of it to convey what they want to convey.

Activities of the Human Rights Commission are not much known or publicised as such people are ignorant of the enormous activities of the Human Rights Commission. It has therefore become a necessity to make use of the information technology to educate and communicate with people.

We therefore decided to launch a website for the Human Rights Commission. Earlier attempts to launch a website failed and now with the help and assistance of UNDP, we are able to start afresh a website.

I am sure with the help and hard work of the HRC and the encouragement and assistance of UNDP, the launching of website has become a reality and I hope it will continue with success. We once again thank UNDP for the concern they feel for our mission.

Funded by South Asia Regional Initiative Equity Support Project:

Programme on Protecting and Promoting Child Rights

Continued from last week

VI. Analysing the Project Outcome

It is evident that the State officers have less awareness about new changes in the law relates to child rights. HRC was able to observe some progressive steps taken by the State officials regarding protecting and promoting child rights.

Also the programme helped the participants to gain knowledge regarding what was unknown to them in respect of child rights.

Some doubts related to implementation of child rights were solved by this programme and the scope of knowledge on child rights was widened. Moreover, it assisted to give speedy solutions to child rights violations. Collaboration among the institutions which are dealing on child rights was also improved.

VII. Suggested Recommendations

Upon the three lectures, a round of discussion was held which provided an opportunity to the participants to clarify their problems and share their views and experiences with the rest.

Moreover, at the end of each workshop the participants were divided into several groups and were given problem questions on areas they were made aware at the programme.

Both the discussion and the group work have been excellent opportunities to come up with a number of suggestions and recommendations towards the protection and promotion of the rights of the children in the State homes in Sri Lanka.

VII (a) Legal and Procedural Changes

* The laws relating to child rights should be properly implemented.

* Sri Lankan laws should keep up with the International standards of child rights.

* Enabling legislation should be introduced to implement the provisions of the Child Rights Convention.

* The age limit of 14 years for adoption should be raised.

* The discrepancy arisen in the general law regarding sexually abused girls between 16-18 years should be done away with.

* The delay in sending medical reports to the Attorney General’s Department should be done away with.

* The delays in the Attorney General’s Department should be done away with. * The Police should refer an abused child to the Judicial Medical Officer without delay.

* Laws should be introduced as to prevent parents whose children are adolescents from engaging in foreign employment.

* New technology should be used as far as possible to detect crimes and to minimise the crime wave.

* Policy makers should find ways of supporting families and protecting children.

* The format of the “Medical Form” filled by the Judicial Medical Officers should be revised as to contain more details.

* The Juvenile Courts should be established island-wide as provided by the Children and Young Persons Ordinance No. 48 of 1939.

* An autonomous legal system should be introduced to deal with juvenile justice.

* The discrepancy between the age of majority (18) and the minimum age of criminal responsibility (8) should be redressed.

* The police should be empowered as to the powers regarding employment of children. At present only the Labour Officers are vested with these powers. * Those who procure children in begging, selling lottery, working in restaurants etc. should be brought before justice instead of taking the children into custody.

* In cases of abortions, cases should be filed not only for the offence of committing abortions but also for murder.

* The Police should do away with political influences in child rights violation cases.

* In case of child witnesses, tape recorded and video recorded evidence should be used as far as possible.

VII (b) The Judiciary

* The attitude of the judges should be changed.

* The judiciary should be sensitive to the objectives of institutionalizing a child victim or a juvenile offender and should choose the institutions accordingly.

* The judiciary should be made aware of the circumstances and difficulties faced by children at the state homes.

* Child abuse cases should be given priority in court proceedings and the cases should be expedited.

* Child abuse cases should be heard in close courts as far as possible.

VII (c) Awareness

* Parents should be made aware as to the importance of education of children.

* Awareness should be raised in school children on child rights.

* Awareness should be raised in the public on incest.

* Awareness should be raised in the staff personnel working in the Volunteer Homes as well.

* The public should be made aware about incestuous relationships and their negative consequences in biological and legal aspects.

VII (d) Institutional Coordination

* The coordination among the State authorities working in the field of child rights should be enhanced.

* Attitude change should occur in all officials working in the field of child rights. The official include the staff members of the state children’s homes, hospital authorities etc.

* Good coordination should be built up among State institutions working in the field of child rights such as the judiciary, Department of Probation, Children’s Homes, Women’s and Children’s Desks of Police stations and Divisional Secretariats.

* Proper functioning of the District Child Protection Committees should be ensured.

* A proper coordination between the Police and the Hospital authorities is essential when a child is admitted to hospital by the Police.

* A provincial committee to which the problems faced by Probation Officers could be forwarded should be set up.

VII (e) Medical Aspects

* The practice of doctors to send sexually abused children to nearby main hospitals without diagnosing should be done away with. Doctors should be made aware of their obligations.

* The identity of Child victims should be protected when they are referred to hospitals in abuse cases.

VII (f) Uplifting Children’s Homes

* Human and material resources to uplift the implementation of child rights are essential.

* Educational authorities should take care of children from State homes are admitted to national schools where the admission is in accordance with the relevant circular.

* The number of State Children’s Homes in the North Western Province should be increased. At present, the Province has only one Receiving Home.

* Residents of state children’s homes should be sent to schools and pre-schools in accordance with their age.

* Living conditions of the state children’s homes should be improved.

* A state run care home should be established to house juvenile offenders and child victims separate in the state children’s homes.

VII (g) Other

* Attention should be given to the problem of not sending children to school due to financial difficulties of the parents.

* Children with special needs should be given special attention in protecting child rights.

* A mechanism should be established to monitor the activities of private owned preschools and day care centres.

* Special attention should be paid to children engaged in employment. Eg: coir industry particularly in Kurunegala District.

Prepared by Thilani Rajapakse, Director (Monitoring and Review), Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

Visit of Louise Arbour - HRCSL clarifies

The Board of Commissioners having read the press reports which appeared on the daily papers, wish to clarify certain issues that came up for discussion on 11.10.2007 when Louise Arbour visited the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

The meeting lasted for about 25-30 minutes. She left in a hurry saying that she had an appointment with the President. The Commission was not given adequate time to explain the effectiveness of its work. The Commission has issued timely all public reports. She posed three questions namely;

i. On the Constitutionality of the appointments to the Commission

ii. Disappearances from 1980-1999

iii. Position of Backlog

With regard to (i) the Board explained the legality of the appointments in terms of Section 3 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act NO. 21 of 1996 and that at the APF held in Australia recently this question was adequately addressed by the Chairman of the HRC.

With regard to item (ii) the Board explained that the Inquiry Report is to be presented to the Board on 15.10.2007 and it was received by the Commission on the due date. However only 650 complainants appeared before the Commission out of 2,210 cases referred for inquiry.

With regard to III the backlog has been cleared by distributing all cases among the Inquiring Officers. The central backlog is cleared and assignment of inquiries is done on a daily basis.

The present number of complaints in hand and that needs investigation is around 4,500 cases as at the end of September 2007.

The backlog of cases pending from HRTF days have been assigned to Inquiring Officers and at the moment that there is no accumulated backlog other than papers awaiting disposal with the Inquiring Officers.

At the moment there is no backlog. The Commission has cleared all the backlog left by the former Commission amounting to a total of about 9,000.

The Commission also explained the effectiveness of police visits to combat torture. The Commission also mentioned that about 50 cases referred to by the Supreme Court have been concluded by submitting reports to the Supreme Court.

Justice Jayawickrema for Int’l Colloquium

Sarath MALALASEKERA

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Commissioner Justice Dharmasri Jayawickrema left Sri Lanka to participate at the Commonwealth Asia Colloquium on Gender, Culture and the Law on October 30-31 at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on an invitation of Social Transformation Programmes Division (Education, Gender and Health

 Sections) Director Ms. Ann Keeling.

The Gender Section of the Social Transformation Programmes Division (STPD) in collaboration with the Justice Section.

Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division (LCAD), is initiating new work in the Asia region through its Gender, Human Rights and the Law Programme. This programme forms part of the Commonwealth Plan of Action fort Gender Equality 2005-2015 (PoA) which mandates the Secretariat to work on key issues of concern.

One of the focus areas of the Gender, Human Rights and the Law Programme is on gender, culture and the law, which seeks to raise awareness of women’s claims to their rights and throw light on the fact that these claims are often mediated by social/cultural norms and beliefs.

The Gender Section will therefore be organising a series of regional colloquia across the Commonwealth to discuss priority issues of concern of gender, culture and the law. The colloquia are seen as a stating point for concrete project level work for the future.

In this respect, Justice Jayawickrema said that Dr. Meena Shivdas (Adviser responsible for Gender, Human Rights and Law, Gender Section), is organising the second of these regional colloquia in Asia from 30-31 October 2007 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh has kindly agreed to host the colloquium.