Courts only hope for HR victims

Sarath Malalasekera

Courts are the only effective vehicles through which victims of human rights violations could be compensated and violators punished, Legal Aid Commission (LAC) Director General Justice Hector S. Yapa said.

Every remote Court complex, especially in rural areas, should benefit from the legal services for access to justice which concludes effective protection of human rights, he said at the opening of the Legal Aid Commission Centre at the Walasmulla Court Complex recently.

Walasmulla Chief Magistrate and Additional District Judge Chandima Liyanage opened the new LAC Centre.

The LAC Director General outlined programs of legal aid centres which included helping under privilege people in respect of legal documentation such as title deeds, identity cards, birth certificates and completing credit applications.

The Legal Aid Centres should organise programs in the villages as the poor cannot even afford the bus fare to come to Courts Justice Yapa said.

National Coordinator Shamila Rasool, LAC Consultant S. Suntheralingam and Prisons and Reforms Ministry Secretary Malkanthi Wickremasinghe also participated.