Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698754175761.pdf (Malaysia)
ANNUAL REPORT 2012 Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Head Office : No 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08.
(+94) 0112694925, 2685980, 2685981, 2685339 E.mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk Website: www.hrcsl.lk Table of Contents Chairman’s Message Composition of the Commission CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER TWO: DIVISIONS OF THE HRCSL 2.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 2.1.1 2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism Individual Complaints 2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison 2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison 2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena 2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.5 Conclusion 2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION 2.2.1.
Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.

2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy 2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 2.2.4.

Special consultation with state oﬃcials with regard to prison matters 2.2.5.

HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues 2.2.6.
Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan 2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
2.2.8 Conclusion 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION 2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Oﬃcers 2.3.2 Child Rights Protection 2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights 2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities 2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation 2.3.7 Conclusion 2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 20 2.4.1 2.4.2 Finance Section 21 Administration Section 20 CHAPTER THREE: REGIONEL OFFICES Ampara Regional Office Anuradhapura Regional Office Badulla Regional Office Batticaloa Regional Office Jaffna Regional Office Kalmunai Regional Office Kandy Regional Office Matara Regional Office.
3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office 3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office 3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya CHAPTER FOUR : SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report 4.1.2.
Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident 4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION CHAPTER FIVE : SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief The Report on Special Consultation with State Officials with regard to Prison matters 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” 5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” 5.1.3 The International Day in support of the Victims of Torture -2012 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness 5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting 5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” 5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration 5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 43-44 CHAPTER SIX : FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 6.2.
UNICEF funded Project CHAPTER SEVEN : STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 Annexure I : Written submission to the Universal Periodical Review [UPR] 2nd Cycle, 14th Session, 2012Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka [HRCSL] 53-59 Annexure II : Report on Strengthening the Human Rights of Older Persons in Sri Lanka 60-62 Annexure III : Official Travel Abroad – Conference / Meetings / Workshops - 2012 Annexure IV : Capacity building Programmes for HRCSL staff - 2012 Annexure V : Year at a Glance Table of Contents Chairman’s Message Composition of the Commission CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER TWO: DIVISIONS OF THE HRCSL 2.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 2.1.1 Individual Complaints 2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism 2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison 2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison 2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena 2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.5 Conclusion 2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION 2.2.1.
Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.

2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy 2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 2.2.4.

Special consultation with state oﬃcials with regard to prison matters 2.2.5.

HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues 2.2.6.
Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan 2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
2.2.8 Conclusion 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION 2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Oﬃcers 2.3.2 Child Rights Protection 2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights 2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities 2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation 2.3.7 Conclusion 2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 20 2.4.1 Administration Section 20 2.4.2 Finance Section 21 CHAPTER THREE: REGIONEL OFFICES 3.1 Ampara Regional Office Anuradhapura Regional Office Badulla Regional Office Batticaloa Regional Office Jaffna Regional Office Kalmunai Regional Office Kandy Regional Office Matara Regional Office.
Trincomalee Regional Office 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office 3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya CHAPTER FOUR : SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report 4.1.2.
Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Officials with regard to Prison matters 4.2 CHAPTER FIVE : SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” 5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” 5.1.3 The International Day in support of the Victims of Torture -2012 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness 5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting 5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” 5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

5.1.9 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 International Human Rights Day Celebration CHAPTER SIX : FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 UNICEF funded Project 5.2 6.2.
43-44 45 46 CHAPTER SEVEN : STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 Annexure I : Written submission to the Universal Periodical Review [UPR] 2nd Cycle, 14th Session, 2012Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka [HRCSL] Report on Strengthening the Human Rights of Older Persons in Sri Lanka Annexure II : Annexure III : Official Travel Abroad – Conference / Meetings / Workshops - 2012 Annexure IV : Capacity building Programmes for HRCSL staff - 2012 Annexure V : Year at a Glance 53-59 60-62 63 64 Table of Contents Chairman’s Message Composition of the Commission CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER TWO: DIVISIONS OF THE HRCSL 2.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 2.1.1 Individual Complaints 2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism 2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison 2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison 2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena 2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.5 Conclusion 2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION 2.2.1.
Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.

2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy 2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 2.2.4.

Special consultation with state oﬃcials with regard to prison matters 2.2.5.

HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues 2.2.6.
Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan 2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
2.2.8 Conclusion 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION 2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Oﬃcers 2.3.2 Child Rights Protection 2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights 2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities 2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation 2.3.7 Conclusion 2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 20 2.4.1 Administration Section 20 2.4.2 Finance Section 21 CHAPTER THREE: REGIONEL OFFICES 3.1 Ampara Regional Office Anuradhapura Regional Office Badulla Regional Office Batticaloa Regional Office Jaffna Regional Office Kalmunai Regional Office Kandy Regional Office Matara Regional Office.
3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office 3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office 3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya CHAPTER FOUR : SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report 4.1.2.
Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident 4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION CHAPTER FIVE : SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief The Report on Special Consultation with State Officials with regard to Prison matters 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” 5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” 5.1.3 The International Day in support of the Victims of Torture -2012 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness 5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting 5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” 5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration 5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 43-44 CHAPTER SIX : FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 6.2.
UNICEF funded Project CHAPTER SEVEN : STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 Annexure I : Written submission to the Universal Periodical Review [UPR] 2nd Cycle, 14th Session, 2012Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka [HRCSL] 53-59 Annexure II : Report on Strengthening the Human Rights of Older Persons in Sri Lanka 60-62 Annexure III : Official Travel Abroad – Conference / Meetings / Workshops - 2012 Annexure IV : Capacity building Programmes for HRCSL staff - 2012 Annexure V : Year at a Glance Composition of the Commission Chairman Justice.
Priyantha R.P.

Perera Commissioners Mrs. Jezima Ismail Mr. T.E.

Anandarajah Dr. Bernard de Zoysa Dr. S.W.

Prathiba Mahanamahewa Chairman’s Message The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights encouraged the establishment and strengthening of National Human Rights Institutions while recognizing both the rationale and requirements of the Paris Principles and permitted each state to choose the framework which best suits its particular needs.
The aforesaid conference also reaﬃrmed the importance of the role played by National Human Rights Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights, in particular in advising the competent authorities, in remedying Human Rights violations, in disseminating in protection relating to human rights and in educating the public, state oﬃcials, police and the armed forces about human rights.

Thus the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka(HRCSL) was established under the provisions of Act No.
21 of 1996, in conformity with the 18th the Amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Commission is entrusted with the broad task of promotion and the protection of Human Rights in respect of the people of Sri Lanka.
The Commission is also empowered to inquire into and investigate into complaints relating to violation of human rights and to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Constitution relating to Fundamental Rights and to promote respect and ensure compliance with principles relating to Human rights.
It is my considered view that the HRCSL has over the past year made a valuable contribution in this area of activity by unreservedly supporting the basic institutions of Democracy which include a pluralist and accountable parliament, an executive which is ultimately subject to the authority of the elected representatives and an Independent judiciary.
The most vital contributions of the HRCSL in this regard arises from the exercise of its powers to • Undertake investigations of alleged violations of Human Rights • • • • Provide advice both on legislation and policies and programmes relating to Human Rights.
Promote rights and educate the public Build bridges between the government and civil society organizations Endeavour to initiate the concept of public inquiries It would be relevant at this stage to specify the areas in which the HRCSL has made a substantial contribution towards the realization of these important objectives in the course of the past year which are set out below.
• The HRCSL organized a National Consultation in June 2012 to consider the problems faced by the Ageing population in Sri Lanka with a view to providing constructive proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.

1 • • • • • * * • • Having regard to the religious tension which appeared to be taking a serious turn during the period under review the HRCSL decided to conduct awareness programmes for religious lead- ers on Human Rights.
The Human Rights Commission was also concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities.

The Commission organized a Media Conference on the theme “The right to Accessibility” with the objective of making soci- ety in general and persons with disabilities aware of the rights of the people with diﬀerent disabilities to move about freely in the community.
A special consultation was also held by HRCSL to review the issue of school admissions of children in Orphanages who had lost parental care and protection.

This issue was highlighted in the course of an inquiry relating to admission to schools of children who were unable to produce original parental documentation.
In this insistence the Commission decided to issue general guidelines and to eﬀect a change of policy on this issue permitting all children in orphanages and or conﬁned in other institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.
The Commission also in the course of the current year sought to monitor the implementation of the national language policy in terms of the constitutional provisions with a view to prevent- ing discrimination and hardships caused to certain sections of the public.

The HRCSL also had occasion to review the problems relating to the protection and promotion of the rights of Migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context.
It was the considered view of the Commission that the Sri Lanka Embassies and Consulates abroad had not taken adequate steps to secure the interest of Sri Lankan migrant workers in the countries of employment.

In this context the commission issued a set of speciﬁc guidelines on this subject to all the relevant ministries and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

It is reported that as a result there has been a considerable improvement in this sphere of activity.
The Commission in the course of this year organized a programme to mark International Day in support the Victims of Torture which was attended by Police Oﬃcers, Prison Rehabilitation oﬃcers and members of civil society organizations.
Yet another area in which the HRCSL extended its operations during the relevant period year related to its invitation to Civil Rights Organizations to participate in a workshop in October 2012 at the SLFI having published an invitation to all Civil society organizations to participate and express their views on all matters relating to the subject of human rights.

In December 2012 the HRCSL for the ﬁrst time conducted a study conference on Human Rights for Members of Parliament.
The objective of this conference was to disseminate a basic knowl- edge on human rights instruments and to emphasise the obligations of the State to respect them.

Incorporating Human Rights into School Curricula.

In October 2012 The Human Rights Commis- sion of Sri Lanka with ﬁnancial assistance oﬀered from the UNDP, commenced the long overdue process of incorporating human rights into the school curricula.
The initial discussions in this connection have been held way back in 2007 with the National Institute of Education (NIE) but due to lack of funds this work has been long delayed.

The Human Rights Commission is thank- ful to the NIE for identifying the importance of strengthening our education system for the beneﬁt of future generations.
The signiﬁcance of this exercise is that HRCSL is now able to work in cooperation with two government institutions relating to education namely the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education together with the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Education (SLAAED).
• After 2007 many relevant matters had to be taken into account in making an assessment of what had already been achieved in this area of activity such as the LLRC report and the national Human Rights Action Plan which have introduced new aspects in relation to the reconciliation and reintegration process.

• National Conference on Elders Rights This conference facilitated the input of all agencies and associations working in this sphere of activities.
As a consequence this conference also made a positive contribution in the ﬁeld of Rights of the Elders and highlighted this signiﬁcant factor in the demographic picture of Sri Lanka.

connection.

• Amendments to the Human Rights Commission Act The commission has also considered certain amendments to the HRCSL Act.

The Members of the Commission in collaboration with the Senior Management Oﬃcials held discussions relating to this matter.
The views of the regional co-ordinators of the HRCSL relating to the relevant amendments of the Human Rights Commission were also taken into account in this I would like to take this opportunity to extend my grateful thanks to all the UN Agencies, INGOs, NGOs and Civil Society groups who have extended their valuable support and made useful comments for the betterment of the work load undertaken by the Human Rights Commission.
Finally I would be failing in my duty if I do not place on record my grateful thanks and appreciation to the Directors and the staﬀ of the Human Rights Commission who always extended their fullest coop- eration to the Human Rights Commission to perform its functions assigned to the HRC.
I am conﬁdent that all the aforesaid parties would continue to extend their fullest cooperation to the Commission in the future as well in its endeavors to achieve the aspirations of the present Commission to activate the objective – “Ensure Human Rights for all and promote and protec the Rule of Law”.
Justice Priyantha R P Perera Chairman Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Chairman’s Message The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights encouraged the establishment and strengthening of National Human Rights Institutions while recognizing both the rationale and requirements of the Paris Principles and permitted each state to choose the framework which best suits its particular needs.
The aforesaid conference also reaﬃrmed the importance of the role played by National Human Rights Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights, in particular in advising the competent authorities, in remedying Human Rights violations, in disseminating in protection relating to human rights and in educating the public, state oﬃcials, police and the armed forces about human rights.

Thus the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka(HRCSL) was established under the provisions of Act No.
21 of 1996, in conformity with the 18th the Amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Commission is entrusted with the broad task of promotion and the protection of Human Rights in respect of the people of Sri Lanka.
The Commission is also empowered to inquire into and investigate into complaints relating to violation of human rights and to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Constitution relating to Fundamental Rights and to promote respect and ensure compliance with principles relating to Human rights.
It is my considered view that the HRCSL has over the past year made a valuable contribution in this area of activity by unreservedly supporting the basic institutions of Democracy which include a pluralist and accountable parliament, an executive which is ultimately subject to the authority of the elected representatives and an Independent judiciary.
The most vital contributions of the HRCSL in this regard arises from the exercise of its powers to • Undertake investigations of alleged violations of Human Rights Provide advice both on legislation and policies and programmes relating to Human Rights.
• • • • Promote rights and educate the public Build bridges between the government and civil society organizations Endeavour to initiate the concept of public inquiries It would be relevant at this stage to specify the areas in which the HRCSL has made a substantial contribution towards the realization of these important objectives in the course of the past year which are set out below.
• The HRCSL organized a National Consultation in June 2012 to consider the problems faced by the Ageing population in Sri Lanka with a view to providing constructive proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.

• • • • • * * • • Having regard to the religious tension which appeared to be taking a serious turn during the period under review the HRCSL decided to conduct awareness programmes for religious lead- ers on Human Rights.
The Human Rights Commission was also concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities.

The Commission organized a Media Conference on the theme “The right to Accessibility” with the objective of making soci- ety in general and persons with disabilities aware of the rights of the people with diﬀerent disabilities to move about freely in the community.
A special consultation was also held by HRCSL to review the issue of school admissions of children in Orphanages who had lost parental care and protection.

This issue was highlighted in the course of an inquiry relating to admission to schools of children who were unable to produce original parental documentation.
In this insistence the Commission decided to issue general guidelines and to eﬀect a change of policy on this issue permitting all children in orphanages and or conﬁned in other institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.
The Commission also in the course of the current year sought to monitor the implementation of the national language policy in terms of the constitutional provisions with a view to prevent- ing discrimination and hardships caused to certain sections of the public.

The HRCSL also had occasion to review the problems relating to the protection and promotion of the rights of Migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context.
It was the considered view of the Commission that the Sri Lanka Embassies and Consulates abroad had not taken adequate steps to secure the interest of Sri Lankan migrant workers in the countries of employment.

In this context the commission issued a set of speciﬁc guidelines on this subject to all the relevant ministries and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

It is reported that as a result there has been a considerable improvement in this sphere of activity.
The Commission in the course of this year organized a programme to mark International Day in support the Victims of Torture which was attended by Police Oﬃcers, Prison Rehabilitation oﬃcers and members of civil society organizations.
Yet another area in which the HRCSL extended its operations during the relevant period year related to its invitation to Civil Rights Organizations to participate in a workshop in October 2012 at the SLFI having published an invitation to all Civil society organizations to participate and express their views on all matters relating to the subject of human rights.

In December 2012 the HRCSL for the ﬁrst time conducted a study conference on Human Rights for Members of Parliament.
The objective of this conference was to disseminate a basic knowl- edge on human rights instruments and to emphasise the obligations of the State to respect them.

Incorporating Human Rights into School Curricula.

In October 2012 The Human Rights Commis- sion of Sri Lanka with ﬁnancial assistance oﬀered from the UNDP, commenced the long overdue process of incorporating human rights into the school curricula.
The initial discussions in this connection have been held way back in 2007 with the National Institute of Education (NIE) but due to lack of funds this work has been long delayed.

The Human Rights Commission is thank- ful to the NIE for identifying the importance of strengthening our education system for the beneﬁt of future generations.
The signiﬁcance of this exercise is that HRCSL is now able to work 2 in cooperation with two government institutions relating to education namely the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education together with the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Education (SLAAED).
• After 2007 many relevant matters had to be taken into account in making an assessment of what had already been achieved in this area of activity such as the LLRC report and the national Human Rights Action Plan which have introduced new aspects in relation to the reconciliation and reintegration process.

• National Conference on Elders Rights This conference facilitated the input of all agencies and associations working in this sphere of activities.
As a consequence this conference also made a positive contribution in the ﬁeld of Rights of the Elders and highlighted this signiﬁcant factor in the demographic picture of Sri Lanka.

connection.

• Amendments to the Human Rights Commission Act The commission has also considered certain amendments to the HRCSL Act.

The Members of the Commission in collaboration with the Senior Management Oﬃcials held discussions relating to this matter.
The views of the regional co-ordinators of the HRCSL relating to the relevant amendments of the Human Rights Commission were also taken into account in this I would like to take this opportunity to extend my grateful thanks to all the UN Agencies, INGOs, NGOs and Civil Society groups who have extended their valuable support and made useful comments for the betterment of the work load undertaken by the Human Rights Commission.
Finally I would be failing in my duty if I do not place on record my grateful thanks and appreciation to the Directors and the staﬀ of the Human Rights Commission who always extended their fullest coop- eration to the Human Rights Commission to perform its functions assigned to the HRC.
I am conﬁdent that all the aforesaid parties would continue to extend their fullest cooperation to the Commission in the future as well in its endeavors to achieve the aspirations of the present Commission to activate the objective – “Ensure Human Rights for all and promote and protec the Rule of Law”.
Justice Priyantha R P Perera Chairman Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Chairman’s Message The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights encouraged the establishment and strengthening of National Human Rights Institutions while recognizing both the rationale and requirements of the Paris Principles and permitted each state to choose the framework which best suits its particular needs.
The aforesaid conference also reaﬃrmed the importance of the role played by National Human Rights Institutions for the promotion and protection of Human Rights, in particular in advising the competent authorities, in remedying Human Rights violations, in disseminating in protection relating to human rights and in educating the public, state oﬃcials, police and the armed forces about human rights.

Thus the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka(HRCSL) was established under the provisions of Act No.
21 of 1996, in conformity with the 18th the Amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Commission is entrusted with the broad task of promotion and the protection of Human Rights in respect of the people of Sri Lanka.
The Commission is also empowered to inquire into and investigate into complaints relating to violation of human rights and to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Constitution relating to Fundamental Rights and to promote respect and ensure compliance with principles relating to Human rights.
It is my considered view that the HRCSL has over the past year made a valuable contribution in this area of activity by unreservedly supporting the basic institutions of Democracy which include a pluralist and accountable parliament, an executive which is ultimately subject to the authority of the elected representatives and an Independent judiciary.
The most vital contributions of the HRCSL in this regard arises from the exercise of its powers to • Undertake investigations of alleged violations of Human Rights Provide advice both on legislation and policies and programmes relating to Human Rights.
• • • • Promote rights and educate the public Build bridges between the government and civil society organizations Endeavour to initiate the concept of public inquiries It would be relevant at this stage to specify the areas in which the HRCSL has made a substantial contribution towards the realization of these important objectives in the course of the past year which are set out below.
• The HRCSL organized a National Consultation in June 2012 to consider the problems faced by the Ageing population in Sri Lanka with a view to providing constructive proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.

• • • • • * * • • • • • Having regard to the religious tension which appeared to be taking a serious turn during the period under review the HRCSL decided to conduct awareness programmes for religious lead- ers on Human Rights.
The Human Rights Commission was also concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities.

The Commission organized a Media Conference on the theme “The right to Accessibility” with the objective of making soci- ety in general and persons with disabilities aware of the rights of the people with diﬀerent disabilities to move about freely in the community.
A special consultation was also held by HRCSL to review the issue of school admissions of children in Orphanages who had lost parental care and protection.

This issue was highlighted in the course of an inquiry relating to admission to schools of children who were unable to produce original parental documentation.
In this insistence the Commission decided to issue general guidelines and to eﬀect a change of policy on this issue permitting all children in orphanages and or conﬁned in other institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.
The Commission also in the course of the current year sought to monitor the implementation of the national language policy in terms of the constitutional provisions with a view to prevent- ing discrimination and hardships caused to certain sections of the public.

The HRCSL also had occasion to review the problems relating to the protection and promotion of the rights of Migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context.
It was the considered view of the Commission that the Sri Lanka Embassies and Consulates abroad had not taken adequate steps to secure the interest of Sri Lankan migrant workers in the countries of employment.

In this context the commission issued a set of speciﬁc guidelines on this subject to all the relevant ministries and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

It is reported that as a result there has been a considerable improvement in this sphere of activity.
The Commission in the course of this year organized a programme to mark International Day in support the Victims of Torture which was attended by Police Oﬃcers, Prison Rehabilitation oﬃcers and members of civil society organizations.
Yet another area in which the HRCSL extended its operations during the relevant period year related to its invitation to Civil Rights Organizations to participate in a workshop in October 2012 at the SLFI having published an invitation to all Civil society organizations to participate and express their views on all matters relating to the subject of human rights.

In December 2012 the HRCSL for the ﬁrst time conducted a study conference on Human Rights for Members of Parliament.
The objective of this conference was to disseminate a basic knowl- edge on human rights instruments and to emphasise the obligations of the State to respect them.

Incorporating Human Rights into School Curricula.

In October 2012 The Human Rights Commis- sion of Sri Lanka with ﬁnancial assistance oﬀered from the UNDP, commenced the long overdue process of incorporating human rights into the school curricula.
The initial discussions in this connection have been held way back in 2007 with the National Institute of Education (NIE) but due to lack of funds this work has been long delayed.

The Human Rights Commission is thank- ful to the NIE for identifying the importance of strengthening our education system for the beneﬁt of future generations.
The signiﬁcance of this exercise is that HRCSL is now able to work in cooperation with two government institutions relating to education namely the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education together with the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Education (SLAAED).
After 2007 many relevant matters had to be taken into account in making an assessment of what had already been achieved in this area of activity such as the LLRC report and the national Human Rights Action Plan which have introduced new aspects in relation to the reconciliation and reintegration process.

National Conference on Elders Rights This conference facilitated the input of all agencies and associations working in this sphere of activities.
As a consequence this conference also made a positive contribution in the ﬁeld of Rights of the Elders and highlighted this signiﬁcant factor in the demographic picture of Sri Lanka.

Amendments to the Human Rights Commission Act The commission has also considered certain amendments to the HRCSL Act.

The Members of the Commission in collaboration with the Senior Management Oﬃcials held discussions relating to this matter.
The views of the regional co-ordinators of the HRCSL relating to the relevant amendments of the Human Rights Commission were also taken into account in this connection.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my grateful thanks to all the UN Agencies, INGOs, NGOs and Civil Society groups who have extended their valuable support and made useful comments for the betterment of the work load undertaken by the Human Rights Commission.
Finally I would be failing in my duty if I do not place on record my grateful thanks and appreciation to the Directors and the staﬀ of the Human Rights Commission who always extended their fullest coop- eration to the Human Rights Commission to perform its functions assigned to the HRC.
I am conﬁdent that all the aforesaid parties would continue to extend their fullest cooperation to the Commission in the future as well in its endeavors to achieve the aspirations of the present Commission to activate the objective – “Ensure Human Rights for all and promote and protec the Rule of Law”.
Justice Priyantha R P Perera Chairman Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka 3 Chapter One INTRODUCTION T he Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka was established by Act No 26 of 1996 as an independent, ﬁnancially viable institution to promote and protect human rights of the people of Sri Lanka.

The Act establishing the Commission contains the Paris principles relating to the status of national human rights institutions.
The Commission took over the functions performed by two earlier institutions, the Commission for the Elimination of Discrimination and Monitoring of Human Rights and the Human Rights Task Force.

The functions of the Commission as laid down in Section 10 include among others, the inquiry in to complaints of violations or imminent violations of the Fundamental Rights provisions contained in Chapter III of the Constitution.
It also has certain other functions such as to advise the government to formulate legislation and administrative directions in furtherance of promotion and protection of human rights and on the need to subscribe or accede to treaties and other international laws relating to human rights.

In order to discharge its functions the Commission is vested with a wide range of powers and these are laid down in Section 11 of the Act.
They include the power to intervene in any proceeding relating to the infringement or imminent infringement of fundamental rights pending before any court with the permission of such court, to monitor the welfare of persons detained either by a judicial order or otherwise by regular inspection of such places of detention and also make any recommendations if necessary to improve their conditions of detention.
As one of the functions of the Commission is to promote awareness of and provide education in relation to human rights it has the power to undertake research and conduct programmes, seminars and work.

Further, Section 11 (h) states “do all such other things as are necessary or conducive to the discharge of its functions” thus giving the Commission wide powers in fulﬁlling its functions.
The Commission has a Chairman and four Commissioners who are entrusted with the mandate to carry out the functions as laid down in the Act establishing the Commission.

In order to perform it functions more eﬀectively the Commission has 10 regional oﬃces in various parts of the Island.

Five of such regional oﬃces function in the northern and eastern regions where there had been a very large number of complaints of violations prior to 2009, due to the internal conﬂict.
The need to open more regional oﬃces in various other parts of the country so that persons need not travel far to have their grievances settled has been long felt by the Commission, but ﬁnancial constraints had prevented the Commission from doing so for the past few years.

A sub oﬃce had been functioning in Nuwara Eliya where oﬃces attached to the Kandy Regional oﬃce had come every Wednesday to receive complaints but thereafter the inquiries into the complaints are held in the Kandy oﬃce.
However during the year 2012 the Commission was able to open two mobile oﬃces, one at Killinochchi and another one at Puttlam.

It is hoped to convert these oﬃces to permanent oﬃces very soon.

05 The Commission has a library with over 2500 books.

The library also contains records of special interventions and inquiries conducted by the Commission.

Any person could obtain permission to use the library for reference purposes.
The non enforceability of the recommendations issued by the Commission has been a matter of concern for many years.

In the year under review the Chairman and the Secretary Legal called 90 state parties cases where recommendations of the Commission were not carried out and inquired into the problems faced by them in giving eﬀect to the HRCSL recommendations.

This action has been successful in 48 cases where the parties have agreed to carry out the recommendations issued by the HRCSL.
A brief summary of activities undertaken by the Commission, its challenges and achievements in the year 2012 are given in this report.

Chapter One INTRODUCTION he Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka was established by Act No 26 of 1996 as an independent, ﬁnancially viable institution to promote and protect human rights of the people of Sri Lanka.

The Act establishing the Commission contains the Paris principles relating to the status of national human rights institutions.
The Commission took over the functions performed by two earlier institutions, the Commission for the Elimination of Discrimination and Monitoring of Human Rights and the Human Rights Task Force.

The functions of the Commission as laid down in Section 10 include among others, the inquiry in to complaints of violations or imminent violations of the Fundamental Rights provisions contained in Chapter III of the Constitution.
It also has certain other functions such as to advise the government to formulate legislation and administrative directions in furtherance of promotion and protection of human rights and on the need to subscribe or accede to treaties and other international laws relating to human rights.

In order to discharge its functions the Commission is vested with a wide range of powers and these are laid down in Section 11 of the Act.
They include the power to intervene in any proceeding relating to the infringement or imminent infringement of fundamental rights pending before any court with the permission of such court, to monitor the welfare of persons detained either by a judicial order or otherwise by regular inspection of such places of detention and also make any recommendations if necessary to improve their conditions of detention.
As one of the functions of the Commission is to promote awareness of and provide education in relation to human rights it has the power to undertake research and conduct programmes, seminars and work.

Further, Section 11 (h) states “do all such other things as are necessary or conducive to the discharge of its functions” thus giving the Commission wide powers in fulﬁlling its functions.
The Commission has a Chairman and four Commissioners who are entrusted with the mandate to carry out the functions as laid down in the Act establishing the Commission.

In order to perform it functions more eﬀectively the Commission has 10 regional oﬃces in various parts of the Island.

Five of such regional oﬃces function in the northern and eastern regions where there had been a very large number of complaints of violations prior to 2009, due to the internal conﬂict.
The need to open more regional oﬃces in various other parts of the country so that persons need not travel far to have their grievances settled has been long felt by the Commission, but ﬁnancial constraints had prevented the Commission from doing so for the past few years.

A sub oﬃce had been functioning in Nuwara Eliya where oﬃces attached to the Kandy Regional oﬃce had come every Wednesday to receive complaints but thereafter the inquiries into the complaints are held in the Kandy oﬃce.
However during the year 2012 the Commission was able to open two mobile oﬃces, one at Killinochchi and another one at Puttlam.

It is hoped to convert these oﬃces to permanent oﬃces very soon.

The Commission has a library with over 2500 books.

The library also contains records of special interventions and inquiries conducted by the Commission.

Any person could obtain permission to use the library for reference purposes.
The non enforceability of the recommendations issued by the Commission has been a matter of concern for many years.

In the year under review the Chairman and the Secretary Legal called 90 state parties cases where recommendations of the Commission were not carried out and inquired into the problems faced by them in giving eﬀect to the HRCSL recommendations.

This action has been successful in 48 cases where the parties have agreed to carry out the recommendations issued by the HRCSL.
A brief summary of activities undertaken by the Commission, its challenges and achievements in the year 2012 are given in this report.

06 Chapter Two DIVISIONS OF THE HRCSL T he Commission consists of four functional Divisions each headed by a Director.

A summary of some of the important activities performed by each Division during the year under review is described below.
2.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 2.1.1 Individual Complaints A very important role is played by this Division in carrying out the functions of the Commission as com- plaints of violations or imminent violations of fundamental rights are inquired and investigated by it.

During the year 2012 the number of complaints received in Colombo was 4726 .and the total received in the Regional Oﬃces was 3765.
Year Torture Disappearances & Missing Extra Judicial Killing Death in Custody Arrest & Detention Head Office 2008 Regional Centers 2009 2010 2011 2012 Head Office Regional Centers Head Office Regional Centers Head Office Regional Centers Head Office Regional Centers 439 337 374 212 361 170 348 221 381 154 147 883 136 1972 (Tracing People) 67 1987 (Tracing People) 48 182 40 86 06 15 03 04 03 05 04 02 02 nil 04 08 16 01 08 04 10 --- 08 01 550 767 441 1417 308 865 307 274 296 379 During the year under review out of the 4726 complaints received 927 complaints were not within the mandate of the Commission.
Thus only 3799 complaints were relevant to the mandate of the Commission.

The number of complaints disposed of in the year was 3372 which included 1439 relating to former years.

07 Complaints Received – 2012 No Categorization of Complaints No.

of Complaints As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Personal Liberty Employment Migrant Workers’ Rights Education Property & Utilities State & Social Welfare Others Total 1650 1052 36 619 328 25 89 3799 Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 Categorization of the Concluded Cases(H/O) Concluded 2012 Concluded other Years Total No F. R. Violation Not Interested Recommendation Settlement Relief Granted Withdrawn Refer to other Authorities Directives Given Pending Court case Not Within Mandate Time bar Total A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.
A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.

There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

1 O112694924 08 As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.
The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.

If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL improved considerably.
2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to violations of fundamental rights or iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or withdraw it.

During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2 www.hrcsl.lk 09 2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.

There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.
The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.
2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where the government provides for the detention of persons.

All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

10 There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
– By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL 2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.

The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have improved considerably.
2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.3.7 Conclusion There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were registered in 2012.

11 The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Vs Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

12 2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an 13 inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 14 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• • • • Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; 15 • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

improved considerably.


2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration; iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

16 The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.

The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.
3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.
2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Complaints Received – 2012 Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.

Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.

The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have improved considerably.
2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.
A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the 17 Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.
There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.

The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services i) ii) iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme i) ii) iii) iv) C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication i) ii) iii) Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework i) ii) National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Mr Raja Kuruppu iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


18 iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.

There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.
The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.

Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.

Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.
The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.

3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.
The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.

The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.
improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.
As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; i. ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.

The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

19 The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.

Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.
The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.

3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.
The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.

Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.

There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.
The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.

Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.

The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

conducted by the oﬃce during the year.


Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.

There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 improved considerably.
2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.

The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.
3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.
The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.

Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.
This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.

The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees also took place this year.

It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 20 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.

There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.
The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were 2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.

Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

21 Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES T here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara 23 There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

24 Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa 25 The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.
A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.

Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna 26 The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.
A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 Complaints Received – 2012 As a result of the initiative taken by the Commission, the Home has been renovated and renamed as the Foreign National Holding Centre.
The conditions of detention of the persons in the Centre too have Complaints Concluded after Investigation & Inquiry- 2012 2.3 EDUCATION AND SPECIAL PROGRAMMES DIVISION torture victims.

improved considerably.

2.2.8 Conclusion The written submissions of HRCSL sent to the UPR in April 2012 could be seen as a landmark achievement in the work of this Division as this is the ﬁrst time the Commission submitted a report to the UPR.
Then again the role played during the year in the protection of migrant workers by the submission of guidelines to the relevant Ministries on labour migration shows an alertness on the part of the Monitoring Division to the hardships undergone by our migrant labour which is so often depicted in our media.

These together with the work relating language policy implementation and the consultation on prison problems are all achievements of the Division in the year 2012.
This Division carried out awareness programs like in earlier years covering many human right areas like child rights, migrant rights, human trafﬁcking, gender equality, domestic violence, disability rights and elders rights.

A brief description of the programs which were carried on a regular basis in carrying out the mandate of the Commission is given in summary form the end of the Division report and a few of the important programmes carried out during the year are described below brieﬂy.
2.3.1 Training of Trainers ( TOT) Programme for Police Ofﬁcers A programme was carried out at the community policing training centre, Gampaha where a total of 31 police ofﬁcers (6 female and 25 male) representing various regions of the island were given a training for 5 days on areas such as prevention of human trafﬁcking, system of community policing human rights protection and rights of vulnerable groups like women, children and elders.

2.3.2 Child Rights Protection I.


The Programme Ofﬁcer of the Senior Representative to the Secretary General of UN on Children and Armed Conﬂict visited Sri Lanka to discuss with the Government partners the modalities of delisting process and winding up of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting.

The Technical Team that came on this visit to Sri Lanka had a meeting with the HRCSL staﬀ.
One of the concerns of the team was the Sri Lanka Army occupation of certain schools in the Killinochchi District.

After the visit the HRCSL was informed of the army occupation of KI/Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn, Killinochchi.

In December 2012 Sri Lanka was de-listed from the list of shame in the Fourth report of the Secretary General on ‘Children in Armed Conﬂict in Sri Lanka ’pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1612 and 1882.
The Secretary General issued his annual report to the Security Council giving an overview of the situation of Children in Conﬂict Zones and measures taken for their protection.

II.
II.

When the UNICEF funded HRCSL programme ‘Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and Responding to Violations of Children’s Rights’ had been conducted at Killinochchi the same question regarding the occupation of K/I Vigneswara Vidyalaya, Poonaryn,Killinochchi by the army was raised by the participants, requesting the Commission to take appropriate action.

Accordingly, instructed by the Chairman HRCSL, Mr Kanagaraja HRCSL Jaﬀna Regional Coordinator wrote to Brigadier R.P.

Rajapathirana RSP,USP.


In July 2012 the Security Force Headquarters, Killinochchi informed that immediate action will be taken to relocate the Headquaters and reopen the school and that this may take a little time.

Furthermore until the new building to relocate the camp is completed transport facilities for students to attend Poonaryn Maha Vidyala has been arranged.
2.3.3 National Consultation on the Protection of the Rights of Elders A National consultation was organized from June 4th to 6th 2012 to discuss the problems faced by the ageing population in the country so that Sri Lanka could send proposals to the Open Ended Working Group on Ageing.
Discussions were based on the Madrid Plan of Action and persons working with elders concerns both in the state sector and in the non state sector, as well as well known authorities on human right issues like Professor Savithri Gunasekera addressed the conference.

Five topics were selected and under each certain areas were discussed and suitable recommendations were made.

These recommendations were thereafter sent to the Open Ended Working Group.
The ﬁve topics and some of the areas discussed under each topic are given in brief below; i) ii) i) ii) iii) iv) i) ii) iii) i) ii) A) General Health and Mental Health Food security and nutrition Counselling, stigma reduction and mobile health services iii) National level screening for diseases B) Social Security and Social Welfare Allocate 3% jobs for elders Concessionary rate for transport Elders to have access in police stations through the women and childrens desk Children to contribute for a parents pension scheme C) Conﬂict and Disastrous Situations / Education, Advocacy and Communication Educate elders of their rights Separate internet and library facilities Time allocation on media D) Policy, Legal and Institutional Framework National pension for everyone and expand the current payment of Rs 1000/- Retirement age to be raised to 65 Recommendations sent to the Open Ended Working Group in Annexure II 2.3.4 Religion and Human Rights Religious tensions in the country which has been growing during the recent years has been a matter of concern of the Commission.
During the year under review the HRCSL took a decision to conduct awareness programmes for religious leaders and the staﬀ on human rights with the hope that such awareness would help to diﬀuse religious tensions in the country.

As a ﬁrst step the Commission organized a special lecture series under the theme Human Rights and Religion for the staﬀ so that a better service could be oﬀered to the people.
The following lectures were organized during the year; i) Hinduism - Principles Relating to Hinduism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society ii) Buddhism - Principles Relating to Buddhism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society iii) Christianity - Principles Relating to Christianity and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society – By Justice C.V. Wigneswaran – By Mr Raja Kuruppu – By Rev.

Fr.

Wesley Alexander.


iv) Islam - Principles Relating to Islam and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society - Principles Relating to Catholism and Its Applicability in the Sri Lankan Society.
2.3.5 Media Conference on Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities The Division was concerned with the increasing number of incidents reported relating to accessibility of persons with disabilities and organized a media conference under the theme On the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Inabilities .
The main objective of the conference was of making the society aware of the right of people with diﬀerent abilities to move about freely and the responsibility of all stakeholders to provide such people with adequate facilities to move about freely in the community.
Dr Ajith Perera Chief Executive / Secretary General “ Iridiya “ referring to the Supreme Court Order SCFRR 221/2009 of April 2011 stated that the implementation of the order was believed to become a meaningful potential solution to an urgent national problem of paramount public interest which would enhance safety and well being and signiﬁcantly improve the quality of life of the people.
He further stated that though a year has passed many violations were seen and appealed to the Commission to take meaningful steps to implement the Supreme Court Order.

2.3.6 APF Training Manual on Investigation The Asia Paciﬁc Forum invited a number of institutions worldwide to contribute to the development of an Investigation Training Manual through the submission of information, documentation and expert advice.

As a response to the request HRCSL supplied its inputs mainly regarding; i.
The background about the formation of the HRCSL and its investigation system; ii.

The details to the given questionnaires were provided.

The manual has been written by MrGareth Jones who is an experienced investigator, investigation trainer and has more than 10 years experience in conducting a range of diﬀerent types of investigations.

The HRCSL proposes to invite him later to conduct some programmes for the beneﬁt of the staﬀ.
HRCSL staff have been invited as resource persons for 26 human rights programmes.

The Division continues to carry out programmes to educate the public in human right norms and standards.

During the last few years it has focused attention on the rights of persons with disability, to move about freely and enjoy life in the community.

This year the Division carried out a discussion on elders rights which is another area of concern as Sri Lanka has a fast growing ageing population.
The recommendations at the end of the discussion were sent to the Open Ended Working Committee on Ageing.

The Division also sends staﬀ as Resource persons whenever requested by other organizations to provide human right education.
2.4 ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIVISION 2.4.1 Administration section The year 2012 commenced with the same Board members as in the previous year namely Justice Priyantha R.P.Perera as the Chairman and Mrs Jezima Ismail, Mr T.E.Anandarajah, Dr Bernard de Zoysa and Mr Ananda Mendis as Commissioners.

However on 1st February Commissioner Mr Ananda Mendis retired and on 13th February 2012 Dr Prathiba Mahanamahewa was appointed to ﬁll the vacancy.
On 2nd May 2012 Mrs Samanthi Jayamanne Paranagama who functioned as the Director Inquiries and Investigations was appointed as the Secretary of the Commission, thus ﬁlling a long standing vacancy.

Though the posts of Director Inquiries & Investigation and the Director Administration & Finance have not yet been ﬁlled, the Board has appointed two ofﬁcers, one to each Division under whose supervision the work in the respective Divisions is being carried out.
After shifting the Head Ofﬁce of the Commission to the new premises at 165, Kynsey Road, Colombo 08. it has been possible to allocate more space for Inquires & Investigation Division It has also been possible to provide better facilities to those who come to the Head Ofﬁce for various purposes, keeping in mind the concerns of diﬀerently abled persons.

During the year under review Public Administration Circular No 28/2010 was implemented in respect of the salaries of HRC employees.
Initial discussions to set up a Pension Scheme for the HRC employees It is always necessary to provide training for the staﬀ to enhance the professional knowledge and skills needed to perform the wide range of tasks they have to perform.

Training for staﬀ both locally and overseas shave been made available during the year.
(see annexure III & IV) For the better management of attendance and adherence to proper arrival and departure times to work, a computerized attendance & ﬁnger printing system was installed in the Head Ofﬁce.

This action has worked satisfactorily and has improved the administration of the ofﬁce.
New mobile ofﬁces were opened in Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively during the year so that the inconvenience faced by the people in these areas to travel to far away regional ofﬁces such as Jaﬀna and Anuradhapura or to the Head Ofﬁce in Colombo would be lessened.

Steps are being taken to draw up a scheme for recruitment of staﬀ to HRC to be submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Commission.
A Board of Survey has been appointed for the veriﬁcation of the HRCSL assets according to the ﬁnancial regulations 2.4.2 Finance Section Appropriation Account for the Year 2012 A complaint to the HRCSL can be made by writing a simple letter giving all the facts and posting it to Commission ofﬁce or to any regional ofﬁce or even faxing1 such letter.

A person could also come to the Commission and lodge a complaint.
There is a Duty Ofﬁcer available during ofﬁce hours to assist such person to make a complaint after listening to his grievances.

The Duty Ofﬁcer attends to 30 to 40 complainants a day.

As the Commission maintains a web site an aggrieved person could even download a speciﬁed complaint form from the website2 and complete such form and thereafter ﬁle it in the suitable ofﬁce.

The second stage of a complaint is to decide whether the complaint could proceed.
If the complaint could be proceeded a preliminary inquiry is conducted such as calling for reports/ observations from the Respondents, then such documents are scrutinized and the inquiry is commenced by sending summons initially.
In processing complaints the Commission has the power, i) ii) to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation or to conduct inquiries and investigations and make recommendations with regard to iii) to give directives to the relevant authorities to correct the situation that has resulted in a violations of fundamental rights or violation of a right.

HCRSL conducts follow ups on the recommendations it has given in respect of each case.
Requests for reconsideration of any recommendation issued by the Commission is received as an appeal.

The Commission may then conduct a further inquiry and decide to uphold the recommendation or During the year the Regional Ofﬁces referred 219 cases to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and investigation.

In cases where the inquiry and investigation is completed in the regional ofﬁces the reports ar forwarded to the Head Ofﬁce for the recommendations or directives to be issued by the Head Ofﬁce.
The Regional Ofﬁces have the power to facilitate parties for conciliation and mediation withdraw it.

only.

No cases were referred by the Supreme Court for inquiry and report in the year 2012.

The HCRSL does not intervene in any matter if the same subject matter is pending before a court of law.

The HRCSL refers cases that come under the purview of various other institutions such as the National Child Protection Authority, the Public Service Commission, Language Commission to such institutions.
In 2011 four Judges were appointed as Inquiring Ofﬁcers to inquire and ﬁnalize cases that had not been concluded for a number of years and at the end of the year 206 of such cases remained unattended.

During the year under review 463 cases were also sent for inquiry by the judges.

The judges have concluded 284 cases in the year 2012 leaving a balance of 385 at the end of the year.
There is a 24 hour hot line available at the Head Ofﬁce for the public to make a complaint of a violation or of an imminent violation of a right.

This facility is helpful to take immediate action on arrests or detentions on receipt of notice.

The web site of the Commission provides relevant information with regard to the Commission and its activities.

As such a person is able to access the website and make himself aware of the work of the Commission.
The data base maintained by the Division helps to identify the nature of the complaint, details of the petitioners and respondents, trace a ﬁle, the name of the Inquiry Ofﬁcer and the stage of the case.

Even in case of a complaint made to a Regional Ofﬁce this facility is available to a person if his complaint has been referred to the Head Ofﬁce for inquiry and settlement.

2.1.2 Visiting Mechanism the government provides for the detention of persons.
All police stations in the island are covered by way of scheduled or random route visits through the Head Ofﬁce and the Regional Ofﬁces.

The Commission also visits police stations in the night as such visits help to monitor illegal detentions and torture better than day visits to these places.
For the convenience of scheduling visits the Commission has prepared a route wise schedule and as per schedule there are nearly 400 police stations in the country which have to be visited by the Investigating Ofﬁcers of the Commission.

The ofﬁcers of the Head Ofﬁce visit 159 police stations and the other police stations are covered by the ofﬁcers of the 10 Regional Ofﬁces.
The objective of police visits is to eliminate or minimize incidents of torture and illegal arrest in Sri Lanka through efﬁcient proactive and reactive measures; to initiate steps to bring the responsible ofﬁcers who are committing these violations to the relevant statutory agencies and also to coordinate and act in collaboration with other relevant government and non governmental institutions in order to combat incidents of torture.
The 24 hour desk with hotline facility receives many complaints on torture, illegal arrest and detention.

The Commission also makes surprise visits and investigations.

In these cases there is a follow up by the ofﬁcers in respect of such cases.

HRCSL makes special visits to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which are under the authority of the Department of Police.
Common issues identiﬁed in police visits are as follows; • Delay in producing in courts • Overcrowding of cells • Assault in custody • Arrest without prior investigation • No proper sanitary facilities in cells of certain police stations • In case of a number of persons taken into custody on suspicion the police ofﬁcers are unable to explain the oﬀence/crime that the persons are alleged to have committed.

Once a month visits are made to prisons and on request further visits are made.
Matters such as health facilities, facilities to meet relations and internal security are monitored during these visits and the Commission has been able to address some issues on the spot with the consultation of the authorities and bring about a change to improve the condition of detention.

2.1.2.1 Special Visit to Mahara Prison A visit was made to Mahara prison on the instructions of Commissioner Mr T.E.
Anandarajah to investigate into an alleged assault on some prisoners at Vavuniya prison who were later transferred to Anuradhapura prison and from there transferred to the Mahara Prison.

The team conﬁrmed that an assault had taken place on these 10 prisoners who were remanded for being LTTE cadres.
These prisoners had demanded that one of their fellow prisoners who had been taken to Anuradhapura prison .to be brought back to Vavuniya prison as he had been beaten at Anuradhapura prison according to information they had received from another prisoner who had been transferred to Vavuniya prison from Anuradhapura prison.

As this demand had not been acceded to, the prisoners had taken the jailors into their custody.
Later the STF had entered the prison and assaulted the prisoners, released the jailors and shifted the 10 prisoners to Anuradhapura.

Finally these prisoners were shifted to Mahara prison where they were able to have access to medical facilities.

There were contradictory statements with regard to the place of assault in the statement made by the suspects to the Judicial Medical Ofﬁcer and to the ofﬁcers of the HRC.
Based on the investigation and statements of the suspects the Commission was of the view that no organized or intentional ill treatment was carried out by the prison ofﬁcers or the STF other than slight assault that was necessary to control the unrest in the prison.
The Commission received the report of the incident from the Police Headquarters on 10th September 2012 which stated that the prisoners had taken the jailors into custody in an unlawful manner and as such the authorities had to take measures to bring back the situation to normal condition and only minimum force that was necessary for such purpose had been used.
2.1.2.2 Special Visit to Welikada Prison In September 2012 on receipt of information from the organization Human Right Defenders that certain human right violations were occurring at the Colombo Remand Prison two Investigating Ofﬁcers were sent to conduct an investigation.

The ofﬁcers met the prison ofﬁcers and the STF ofﬁcers and ﬁnally concluded that no human right violations had taken place.
2.1.2.3 Special Visit to Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena A complaint was received from a civil rights lawyer and the PAFFREL that the police had not performed their duty in a fair manner at a dispute between Sinhala and Tamil civilians who lived at Divithurawaththa, Akkara 20, Polhena, which is a village established with the intention of promoting Sinhala and Tamil co-existance.

An investigating team visited the place and conducted an inquiry.
Statements were recorded from the victim and other relevant parties at the inquiry.

At the conclusion it was disclosed that the government authorities have done their duties according to law and order in a fair and just manner.
Full report in Chapter 4 2.1.3 Registration of Detention Orders Under Section 28 of the HRCSL Act where a person is arrested or detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No 48 of 1979 or a regulation made under the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter10) it shall be the duty of the person making such arrest or order of detention to inform the Commission of such arrest or detention and the place at which he is so held and when a person so held in custody or detention is released or transferred to another place of detention, inform the Commission accordingly.
registered in 2012.

The Commission maintains a Registry for Detention Orders and 1053 Detention Orders were The Commission called reports from the Police Headquarters, Prison Headquarters and also a medico 2.3.7 Conclusion legal report pertaining to the assault.

2.1.2.4 Special Visit to Kattankudy also took place this year.
The Commission makes visits to police stations, prisons, detention centres or any other places where – By Mrs Jezima Ismail Commissioner, HRCSL and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Human Rights Programmes Organized by the Education & Special Programmes Division during the year.
The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.
There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

2.1.4 Some important cases 2.1.4.1 Environment related - HRC/6441/07 Ven.
Kolonne Sirishantha Himi & Others Vs Secretary, Buddhist & Religious Affaires Ministry and nine other Heads of State Institutions The petitioners lodged a complaint to stop the construction of a glass covered building on top of Sri Pada which would infringe the cultural and religious rights of the public.
At the inquiry held by the Commission it was revealed that an organization called Sathpiyum Paramitha Sanwidanaya, a non proﬁt organization, had with the consent of the incumbent priest undertaken to construct a glass covered building by the donations collected from the public and that programmes to raise funds for this purpose are being carried out through several media.
It was further revealed that the work was carried on under the supervision of the chief incumbent and that there was also a project to have a cable car service for the tourists.
At the inquiry by the Commission it was disclosed that no proper procedures were followed before starting the construction and the Commission made its recommendations directing the Respondents to stop the construction immediately, declare the whole area of Sri Pada including the pathway a world heritage, and any construction to be made under the guidance of the Archaeological Department after informing all relevant parties including Ministries and Departments.
The Commission further declared that because of the inaction of the Respondents to stop the construction, religious and cultural rights under the 1978 Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Temples Ordinance No 31 0f 1931 have been violated.

2.1.4.2 Prison Administration - HRC/3712/10, HRC/2891/10, HRC/2414/10, HRC/2306/10, HRC/4158/10, HRC/4293/10 Detainees of Welikada Prison, Registered Medical Ofﬁcers of the Prison Hospital.
Welikada Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Prison Hospital Welikada, Commissioner General of Prisons Vs One of the complainants said that her husband was suﬀering from high blood pressure and that he was a diabetic patient too, but the Chief Medical Ofﬁcer of the prison hospital had not given proper treatment continuously and had made frequent changes to the medicine.

Further that her visits to her husband were restricted.
After the investigation and inquiry the Commission made the following recommendation; 1) The detainees have not been sent to the National Hospital for treatment even when there were court orders to send them; Hence the prison authorities should take steps to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.

2) The detainees should not be deprived of their right to medication due to administrative anomaly between the hospital staﬀ and the Respondents.
3) In the admission of detainees to the hospital the procedure should be just and fair and also independent.

2.1.4.3 Education Related - HRC/4643/09 Mrs. K.Jayasinghe Vs Teacher in Charge of Grade 13 (Art) Ananda Central College,Elpitiya Complaint made by aparent that her son who was studying at Ananda College, Elpitiya was injured on his lips when the Respondent threw a hard ball intentionally towards him.
The Ofﬁcer in Charge of the Elpitiya Police Station had ﬁled a case in the Magistrate Court, Elpitiya.

The Commission collected the medico legal report from the JMO who inquired into the incident, afﬁdavits of students who had seen the incident and carried out an inquiry and made a recommendation as follows; The right of the student in Article11 of the 1978 Constitution has been violated and directed the Respondent to pay Es 10,000/ as compensation to the complainant.
The Commission further requested the Secretary, Ministry of Education to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against the respondent and submit a report to the Human Rights Commission.
2.1.4.4 Environment - HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 Secretary, Ja- Ela Pradeshiya Sabha / Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L Ms Chandra Amarasinghe Vs R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Full Report in Chapter 4 2.1.5 Conclusion This year once again though the Division concluded 3372 cases, only 1933 of such cases related to complaints received in the year 2012.

The total number of complaints within the mandate received during the year was 3799.
Therefore 1439 of the complaints received in the year 2012 have been carried forward to the year 2013.

The causes that that hinder the Division in concluding at least about 75% of the complaints each year has to be seriously inquired into and attended in order to prevent an accumulation of cases relating to prior years in the records of the Commission.

2.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Monitoring and Review Division is tasked with monitoring the status of human rights in the country.
It is necessary for the Division to identify any systematic faults which lead to violations of fundamental rights by state agencies and recommend remedial measures to the concerned authorities to avoid administrative and executive actions that may result in such violations The Division also undertakes fact ﬁnding missions/studies/research and after the completion of such projects, submit recommendations to the government.
This Division publishes general guidelines and issues standard modalities to the state authorities to avoid violations of human rights when dealing with the public.

It also takes steps to review the progress of such guidelines/modalities when it is deemed necessary.

Some important work performed by the Division 2.2.1.

Discussions on equal opportunity to obtain school admissions to underprivileged orphanage institutionalized children.
A special consultation was held to discuss the issue of school admissions deprived to orphanage children who have lost parental care and protection.

The issue was identiﬁed after conducting an inquiry with regard to the issue of not giving admissions to schools since the child is unable to show original parental documentation.
After the consultation the Commission decided to issue general guidelines or a policy change on this issue allowing all children in orphanages or conﬁned in institutions to be given an equal opportunity in respect of school admissions.

2.2.2.
2.2.2.

Monitoring of the implementation of the language policy During the current year the Division commenced monitoring the implementation of the national languages policy under the Constitution in order to prevent discrimination and hardships caused to sections of the public.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka provides that that Sinhala is the ofﬁcial language and under the 13th amendment Tamil was also made an ofﬁcial language of Sri Lanka.
The Constitution further states that the national languages of Sri Lanka shall be Sinhala and Tamil.

The Centre for Policy Alternatives complained regarding about 80 instances of violations of the language policy relating to information on street boards, public transportation vehicles, announcements made in to people using public transport in the North and East as well as in Colombo.

I.
I.

The Division inquired into this matter and thereafter the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) directed the provincial managers, depot superintendents and other relevant ofﬁcers to implement the language policy of the government.

Furthermore these ofﬁcers have been asked to report the progress of such implementation periodically according to a SLTB circular copy which has been received by the Commission.

II.
II.

A complaint was lodged that the tri lingual policy of the Government was not being followed in printing the letters on the currency notes.

On an inquiry into this matter the respondent to the complaint representing the Governor of the Central Bank accepted that such a violation had occurred and gave an assurance to adhere to the tri lingual policy on the currency to be printed in future.

2.2.3.
2.2.3.

Monitoring of the Implementation of UPR Recommendations issued in 2008 During the year under review the Commission interacted with state authorities and other stakeholders regarding the observances made on Sri Lanka in 2008 by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the UN.

The UPR is a new human rights mechanism through which the HRC reviews human rights obligations and commitments of each of the192 member states periodically.
In 2008 the Government of Sri Lanka accepted 52 UPR recommendations given by the Working Group, expressed a general response to 8 and rejected 25 of the recommendations.

The accepted recommendations include the strengthening and ensuring the independence of the human rights institutions such as the HRCSL, to take measures to safeguard freedom of expression and to adopt measures to safeguard the human rights of IDP s in accordance with applicable international standards.
UPR recommendations such as extending standing invitations under special procedures and to accept an independent international human rights mechanism on the ground as soon as possible were rejected by the Government while recommendations such as to sign and ratify certain Treaties such as the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearances were given a general response.
The HRCSL conducted two successful discussions separately with representatives of State parties and civil society on the implementation of the 2008 UPR recommendations in April 2012, and assessed the views expressed by the participants at the discussions.

Finally the written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR 2nd Cycle, 14th Session were submitted in April 2012.

Written submissions of the HRCSL to the UPR are in Annexure I 2.2.4.
Special consultation with state ofﬁcials with regard to prison matters A consultation was held with 40 state ofﬁcials including those of the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Attorney Generals Dept, Ministry of Social Services and National Dangerous Drug Control Board to discuss issues such as overcrowding in prisons and the problems relating to condemned prisoners as well as long term remand prisoners.
It is interesting to note that the HRCSL organized this discussion in September 2012, just two months prior to the riot in the Welikada prison.

The Chairman as well as a Commissioner and several ofﬁcers of the Monitoring Division had visited the Welikada prison in 2011 and were aware that there were several human right issues of the prisoners that needed an immediate solution.
The Commission organized the consultation with the aim of obtaining the views and suggestions of the state ofﬁcials concerned with prisons so that the Commission will be able to suggest certain recommendations to the Government in respect of the urgent problems in prisons.

The views obtained at the consultation are summarized in Chapter 4 2.2.5.
HRCSL establishes new focal point on Migrant Issues The Commission has been concerned with the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers for several years and recognizes the importance of the institutional framework for labour migration provided by the Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion & Welfare which is the primary regulatory body for overseas employment.
The Sri Lankan diplomatic missions in labour receiving countries are also equipped with a mandate and facilities to provide for the protection and welfare of all Sri Lankan workers overseas.
While appreciating the key roles played by several key government institutions and agencies in the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers in the Sri Lankan context the Commission has major concerns in respect of the role played by the Sri Lankan Embassies and the consulates in looking after the interests of our migrant workers in the countries of their employment.
The Diplomatic Missions, Embassies, Consular and labour Welfare Ofﬁcers all play a crucial role in respect of its citizens when discharging their duties in protecting the rights of migrant workers in the host countries.

In the light of the above the Chairman HRCSL has issued the following guidelines for the attention of the Hon Ministers concerned with External aﬀaires, Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare and the Chairman Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
• Establish networking systems on migrants in detention and be accurately informed of the status of their cases and of their right to contact a consular or embassy representative and members of their families and to have a follow up procedure; • Establish a regular visiting mechanism to safe houses or centres where the irregular migrants are kept and to develop and continue assistance progammes to migrants deprived of their liberty, including legal assistance, translation services to ﬁll the gaps on communication, social and psychological assistance; • The Sri Lanka Bureau of foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the Ministry of External aﬀaires must design a system to enable consular / welfare ofﬁcers to check periodically on the well being of house maids who go as low skilled migrant workers especially to the Gulf States; • Consular and Labour Welfare Ofﬁcers be given adequate resources for the performance of all required activities for protecting the rights of migrant workers to maintain their cultural links with Sri Lanka; • A Female Labour Ofﬁcer be appointed to serve in every mission in order to address gender related problems of women migrant workers who would be generally at ease in communicating with a female ofﬁcer; • The SLBFE and the Ministry of External aﬀaires should evaluate the current training programme in order to ensure the adequacy of the training provided for the particular Consular / Welfare Ofﬁcers before they are posted overseas; • To obtain the services of an expert consultant to analyze the existing training curriculum and draft a new comprehensive training manual for the representatives of the Bureau attached to the Sri Lankan Missions.
The Commission is keen that the above criteria should be adopted as the working mechanism in all the Diplomatic Missions in labour receiving countries.

The implementation of the guidelines is monitored through the newly established Focal Point on Migrant Issues in this Division.

2.2.6.
2.2.6.

Concern regarding the treatment of domestic workers stranded in the Sri Lankan Embassy in Amman in Jordan A migrant worker who recently returned from Amman, Jordan stated that there are over 200 domestic workers stranded in Jordan and living in the embassy safe house.

Most of them have been abused by their former employers and had with great difﬁculty paid the ﬁnes and wish to return home.

The Chairman, HRCSL has called for a report from the Chairman of the SLBFE.
The Commission has also taken action to verify this information from the Human Rights Commission of Jordan and sought their intervention in the matter.
As there have been several cases of reported ill treatment of domestic workers, the SLBFE has imposed certain conditions on the prospective employers of domestic labour such as a deposit of US $ 1000 by the foreign employer in respect of each employee and has also raised the minimum age for overseas employment to 25 year in case of certain Gulf countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia.

2.2.7.

Re opening of the Foreigners Detention Home, Mirihana under the name of Foreign National Holding Centre, Mirihana.
After observing the condition of the above detention centre the Commission made the following recommendations; Emigration; i) Relocate the centre considering its existing condition and in doing so have respect for gender sensitivity and address the requirements of persons with disabilities; ii) Assign required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and iii) Coordinate with respective country Embassies / High Commissions Ofﬁces / Consular Ofﬁces and facilitate the deporting process; iv) Collect and maintain a data base on such detainees; v) Rename the institutional identity; vi) Renovate the existing buildings and upgrade the condition of detention of the Mirihana Detention Centre until the detainees are moved to a temporary place or the proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.
The IOM has expressed its willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such a reconstruction.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.
The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.
A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were 27 conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 28 There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.

UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.

The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.


The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.

Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna conducted by the oﬃce during the year.
Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.

There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 29 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.

UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.

The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.


The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.

Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna conducted by the oﬃce during the year.
Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.

There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.
The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.

Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.
3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya 30 30 Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.

The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.


The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.

Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna conducted by the oﬃce during the year.
Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.

There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

31 Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.

UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.

Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna conducted by the oﬃce during the year.
Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.

There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.
The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.

The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.
A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.

It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.
3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.
Categorization of Complaints - Ampara Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.


UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country 2 1 0 2 – ff a J a o l a c i t t a B a l l u d a B a r u p a h d A ’ - 5 4 - 4 4 2 1 1 0 - - 2 6 2 3 9 2 5 - 1 0 - - - - - 2 0 0 1 6 5 5 0 4 2 8 1 4 0 4 0 - 2 0 8 0 - - - 4 3 - - - - 9 5 7 3 4 6 1 0 5 7 3 1 1 - 8 2 1 1 0 3 0 1 9 0 3 0 1 0 - 9 4 - - - - 8 2 4 3 4 3 1 0 5 7 0 9 9 7 2 5 3 - - - 2 0 3 0 2 0 3 0 - - - - 4 0 0 2 3 0 6 0 9 6 3 2 - 9 3 6 0 5 0 8 0 3 0 5 0 - 3 1 2 0 - - - 7 0 7 7 5 5 6 2 9 5 2 6 - 0 3 2 0 3 3 6 0 1 0 - - 9 1 - - - - 4 0 0 2 3 0 6 0 3 2 9 6 - 9 3 6 0 5 0 8 0 3 0 5 0 - 3 1 2 0 - - - 1 0 7 0 9 3 - 0 5 7 8 - 8 1 1 0 9 5
 8 0 6 0 - - 1 3 9 1 - - - 0 4 0 5 3 6 2 0 5 6 1 5 1 1 - 4 7 - 8 9 1 8 0 2 0 - - 1 0 9 2 - 1 0 - - s e c n a r a e p p a s i D / n o i t c u d b A / g n i s s i M 0 6 6 2 - 2 3 - - - - - - 6 0 - - - - t n e m y o p m E l n o i t c a n I / 32 Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.
Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.

3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.
Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..

The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.
There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.

There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.
3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.

Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.

The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.
3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.

There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.
A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.

Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura s e c ffi O l a n o g e R – conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.

UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.

The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.
The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.

It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.


No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

33 SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.
The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd.

The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.
The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.

Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates conducted by the oﬃce during the year.

Thus the oﬃce held 15 meeting to discuss topics such as the increase in the tendency to commit suicide, sexual harassment, child abuse and increase in the consumption of alcohol with the relevant stake holders.
There were also 07 workshops held which discussed many issues including those relating to migrant workers and human traﬃcking, elders rights and the lack of Geriatricians in the hospitals in the area to provide good health service to elders.
The oﬃce also held 05 Discussions on the problems faced by the ﬁshermen in the region, discipline in schools, the role of religious leaders with regard to child protection and the incidents of child abuse There were also ceremonies to commemorate some important Human Rights Days.
A poster Campaign was held on 12th June 2012 to celebrate the International Labour Day with a thematic poster protecting child rights and stopping child labour which was circulated in Divisional Secretariats, Police stations, Zonal Education oﬃce and schools.

A programme to mark the Torture day was held on 26th June 2012 with 50 participants including torture victims.
A Mobile Signature Campaign to mark the International Womens Day was held was held on 27th and 28th February and on the1st, 2nd and 5th March 2012 respectively in several areas and ﬁnally on 8th March, the Womens Day was commemorated with 55 participants at Christa – Illam.
The International Peace Day was celebrated at Sanmuha Vidyalaya, Karaithivu, with a programme focusing on areas such as peace and non violence promoting dignity of human beings/ reconciliation with the participation of 100 Tamil and Muslim students.

This was a joint eﬀort with two other organizations.
3.7 Kandy Regional Office The Kandy oﬃce received 584 of complaints during the year of which 28 concerned Torture, Harassment 34, Arrest and Detention 34, Missing 01, government inaction 75, employment related 90, education related 35 and the rest were against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 471 cases and sent 119 cases to Head Oﬃce for recommendations and for further inquiry.

These cases include prior year complaints which had not been completed as at 1st January 2012.
Categorization of Complaints - Kandy C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; There were 433 visits made to police stations, 04 visits to the Bogambara prison and 02 visits made to a childrens’ home to monitor the welfare of detainees and inmates at the respective places in the year 2012.

In carrying out its mandate the oﬃce organized 55 Educational/Training/Awareness Programmes and lectures targeting students, police, army, government oﬃcials, civil society and the public in general.
There were also three Special Programmes organized by the oﬃce.

One of these programmes was held to celebrate the Womens Day and another was held to celebrate the Human Rights Day.

A civil society meeting with 40 participants was also held as a special event.

During the year under review the oﬃce held 3039.public consultations.

(including those done at the mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya) 3.8 Matara Regional Office.

The Matara oﬃce received 645 complaints during this year under review.
There were 59 complaints relating to Torture, Harassment 37, Arrest & Detention 64, Missing 01, government inaction 75, property & utilities 103, education related 128, employment related 113 and the rest against other authorities.

At the beginning of the year there were 108 cases brought forward from prior years.

During the year 573 cases were concluded leaving a balance of 180 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Matara The oﬃce made 258 monitoring visits to 62 Police Stations and 08 visits to prisons at Galle and Matara and 02 visits to the Boosa Detention Camp.

The oﬃce also conducted 34Awareness Programess / Special Programmes, for the army, police, students, the civil society and for the youth.

There was also one civil society meeting organized by the oﬃce.

The Childrens Day and the Human Rights Day were also celebrated.
There was a participation of over 2000 people at all these programmes and events.

3.9 Trincomalee Regional Office The Trincomalee oﬃce received 167 complaints during 2012.There were 02 relating to Torture, Harassment 10, Arrest 56, Missing 03, Abduction 02, employment related 18, government inaction 24 The oﬃce made 62 visits to the police stations and 3 visits to the remand prison.
Awareness/Education programmes were carried out as follows; 08 programmes for the army, 10 for the police, 02 for school children, 02 for community leaders and 04 programmes for the civil society.

3.10 Vavuniya Regional Office The Vavuniya oﬃce received 367 complaints during the year under review.

There were 02 against Torture, Harassment 30, Arrest & Detention 57, Missing 39, Government inaction 16, property 44, Education 45, Employment 28 and others against other authorities.
The oﬃce completed 262 cases during the year.

Categorization of Complaints - Vavuniya and the others against other authorities.

There were 62 cases brought forward from the previous years.

The oﬃce completed 76 cases during the year leaving a balance of 62 cases to be carried all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.

forward to the next year.


Categorization of Complaints – Trincomalee Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.

UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.
This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.

The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.
This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.

The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.

In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

The oﬃce made 29 visits to police stations and 02 visits to rehabilitation centres during the year.
I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Awareness / education programmes/ workshops/lectures and meetings carried out targeting the civil society, child protection oﬃcers and the army amounted to 14 during the current period.

The oﬃcers also made 04 ﬁeld visits to vulnerable villages and carried out awareness programmes in those villages.

The Human Rights Day was celebrated by the Regional Oﬃce.
3.11 Mobile/ Sub Offices 3.11.1 Mobile Office – Killinochchi This oﬃce was opened in October 2012 is currently overlooked by the Regional Co- ordinator, Jaﬀna Regional oﬃce.

The oﬃce received 35 complaints up to 31st December 2012 of which 09 complaints were concluded.

The oﬃce was also able to provide 196 consultations during the short period of time.
Categorization of Complaints - Kilinochchi 3.11.2 Mobile Office -Puttlam 3.11.3 Sub Office – Nuwara Eliya The oﬃce was opened on 06th December 2012 and is overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

During the month 05 complaints were received.

The Kandy Regional oﬃce conducts a mobile oﬃce at Nuwara Eliya each Wednesday, where public consultations are provided.

During the year 9 complaints were received.


However inquiries into complaints received at this oﬃce are conducted at the Kandy Regional Oﬃce.

Chapter Three REGIONEL OFFICES here are ten Regional Oﬃces established by the Commission which are directed by Regional Co-ordinators.

The support staﬀ in these oﬃces include Investigating Oﬃcers and other staﬀ.

During the year 2012 two mobile oﬃces were opened at Killinochchi and Puttlam respectively.
The mobile oﬃce in Killinochchi is overlooked by the Regional Co-odinator of Jaﬀna.

The mobile Oﬃce in Puttlam was opened in December 2012 as there was no HRC Regional Oﬃce to serve the people in the North Western Province and is presently overlooked by an Investigating Oﬃcer of the Head Oﬃce.

A sub oﬃce has been functioning at Nuwara Eliya for some time where an oﬃcer from the Kandy Regional Oﬃce comes every Wednesday to receive complaints.
It is hoped that these three oﬃces will be made permanent oﬃces in the near future.

A brief summary of the work performed by each oﬃce in the Year 2012 is given below.

3.1 Ampara Regional Office The Ampara oﬃce received a total of 139 complaints within the mandate of which 07 concerned Torture, 03 Harrasment, 05 Arbitrary Arrest, 26 employment related, 32 education related and 60 related to government inaction.

The others were against other authorities.


The oﬃce completed 161cases during the year together with the previous years unsettled ones.

Categorization of Complaints - Ampara There were 104 visits to police stations and prison lockups and during the year under review the oﬃcers visited 84 detainees.
The oﬃce conducted 28 Awareness Programs and held 14 workshops on a number of human right areas such as child rights, women’s rights, torture, human traﬃcking, elders rights targeting students, teachers, police oﬃcers, government oﬃcers and members of the civil society.

906 persons attended the oﬃce for consultation during the year.

3.2 Anuradhapura Regional Office The Anuradhapura oﬃce received 748 complaints during the year.

At the beginning of the year there were 395 complaints outstanding.
There were 40 concerning Torture, 63 Arrests and Detention, Harassments 50,Missing persons 02, death in custody 01, government inaction 165, and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to complete 722 cases during the year with 20 cases for recommendations and 115 cases for further inquiry being sent to the Head Oﬃce.

A balance of 421 cases has been left to be carried forward to the next year.
Categorization of Complaints - Anuradhapura The oﬃce made 144 visits to police stations, 02 visits to Rehabilitation Centres.

The oﬃce also carried out 19 Awareness Programmes targeting the police, army, government oﬃcers and civil society which were attended by over 1580 persons.

Human Rights Day was celebrated with a special program on elders rights and disabled persons rights for 64 civil society members of the Anuradhapura District.
3.3 Badulla Regional Office The Badulla oﬃce received 326 complaints during this year.

There was only one relating to Torture, Assault 07, Harassment 28, Arrest and Detention 11 and no complaints regarding Missing Persons.

Complaints relating to government inaction were 50 and those relating to property & utilities were 59, employment and education related complaints were 87 and 18 respectively.

The rest were against other authorities.

There were 19 complaints not within the mandate..


The oﬃce was able to complete 204 cases.

There were 07 cases referred to the Head Oﬃce for recommendations.

Categorization of Complaints - Badulla The oﬃce made 51 visits to police stations.

There were 20 Human Rights Awareness programs targeting the police which were mainly held at the police training schools at Mahiyangana and Boralanda respectively and about three for civil society members.
There was also a programme to disseminate awareness on elders rights to community leaders.

During the year four civil society meetings and a three day youth camp were organized by the oﬃce About 1100 persons visited the oﬃce for consultations on various issues in 2012.

3.4 Batticaloa Regional Office The Batticaloa oﬃce received 389 complaints during the year under review There were 3 relating to Torture, Harassment 27 Arrest 23 and Disappearances 10.
Employment related 33, Education related 87, Inaction 85, Property & Utilities 39 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce was able to settle 297 cases during the year leaving a balance of 92 cases at the end of the year.
Categorization of Complaints - Batticaloa The oﬃce made 92 visits to police stations, 10 visits to prison and one to an elders home The Oﬃce carried out 38 Awareness/Education Programmes which included 15meetings, 04 special programmes, 02 celebrations of Womens Day, one celebration of childrens Day, a Book launch and 12 workshops targeting various groups such as students, government oﬃcers, police oﬃcers, probation oﬃcers and civil society members.

A total number of over 4000 people attended these events.
Other activities i) Complaints received from the relatives of persons who had gone missing during the years 2006 to 2009 were inquired into with the staﬀ from Head Oﬃce from 8th -10th May 2012.

A total of 182 cases were inquired into on the three days.

Report will be submitted by Head Oﬃce.

ii) Discussions with parents and relatives of disappeared persons and members of the Citizens Committee regarding the problems faced by the aggrieved persons.
iii) Discussion on child rights with the Zonal Education Directors, probation oﬃcers, child protection oﬃcers, government oﬃcers, ngo sector and civil society as there had been an increase of child labour in the Batticoloa district due to poverty.

iv) Workshop for civil society members on rights of senior citizens.
v) Inquiry into the attack of two Muslim girls at Kattankudy - Report in Chapter 4 3.5 Jaffna Regional Office The Jaﬀna oﬃce received 377 complaints of which 07 related to Torture, Harassment 77, Arrest and Detention 55, Disappearances 26,, education related 30, employment related 62, government inaction 59, property 33 and the rest against other authorities.

During the year the oﬃce was able to conclude 139 cases.
In the year 2012 the regional oﬃce inquired into several complaints regarding the occupation of houses and lands by the Security Forces.

The action taken by the Regional oﬃce in these inquiries resulted in 82 houses and a land being handed back to the original owners during the year.

The inquiries into these cases were conducted under 3 complaints ﬁled in the oﬃce.
Categorization of Complaints - Jaﬀna The oﬃce also conducted 17 Awareness Programmes/Workshops under the UNICEF Funded Project and also had 10 meetings on Child Rights.

Further 09 Awareness programmes covering a broad range of human rights and protection remedies were conducted by the oﬃce.
International Children’s Day was celebrated by conducting an awareness programme among school children and the International Human Rights day was celebrated by conducting a discussion among the civil society members and government oﬃcers on human right norms and standards.

Four meetings with the civil society and one with the higher oﬃcers of the police were also conducted during the year under review.

3.6 Kalmunai Regional Office The Kalmunai oﬃce received 206 complaints during year 2012.
Complaints against Torture were 4, Harassment 20, Arrest and Detention 03, Disappearance /Missing 06, government inaction 69, Education related 39, Employment related 23 and the rest against other authorities.

The oﬃce completed 232 out of which 116 were complaints reported in 2012 and the others related to previous years.
Categorization of Complaints - Kalmunai The oﬃcers made 33 monitoring visits to police stations covering all police stations in the area of the oﬃce.This oﬃce also conducted 21 Rights Awareness Programmes on a number of areas such as human rights promotion and protection, child rights, womens rights, child abuse and gender based violence.

The target groups included over 2600 school teachers and students, and about 1000 others including women, state oﬃcers and members of civil society.
Meetings, Consultations and Discussions to discuss current and urgent human right issues were Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.

The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.


Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The oﬃce made 182 visits to police stations, 11 to prisons, 5 to childrens’ homes and also made 01 visit to the rehabilitation centre.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.
No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.

The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.
Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.

A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.
As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.

Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates 34 E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 1) 2) 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

2.

3.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 1) 2) 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
35 4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get 36 all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody itself; • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of prisons; • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
37 B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

the Drug Dependent Persons • The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

38 • To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.

Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the • To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal activities.

G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
39 • The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.

Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the • The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.
The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
40 Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

41 5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language 42 Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.
right to information is not a right guaranteed under the Constitution the Supreme Court in the case of the Environmental Foundation Ltd vs UDA (Galle Face Green case) SCRF No 47/2004 stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression may include the right to information that would enable a person to eﬀectively exercise rights in respect of a matter that is of public interest.
It has to be noted that the four State Institutions had failed to follow the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 and the regulations gazetted therein, the UDA Law No 41 of 1993, the various gazettes therein especially relating the approval of development projects relating to Pradeshiya Sabha etc.
B) Recommendations The 1st, 2nd ,3rd and the 4th Respondents have violated the fundamental rights of the petitioner contained in Article 12(1) of the Constitution in that he has been deprived of the equal protection of the law and the provisions contained in Article 14(1) and also has been deprived of his freedom of information to eﬀectively exercise his rights in matters connected to Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd. and MelwireRolling Ltd.which which are matters of public interest.
Therefore HRCSL declares that the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 12(1) and 14(1) of the Constitution have been violated by the 1st to the 4th Respondents.
It is recommended that the licences granted to the following institutions be suspended until the Central Environmental Authority conducts a proper evaluation and assessment; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd It is recommended that the SLLRDC investigates whether the factory of Melwire Rolling Ltd at Temple Road Ekala is situated within the reservation of JaEla waterway, which has been declared a low lying marshland and as such prohibited from being developed.
Therefore the approval granted Melwire Rolling Ltd is to be suspended until a proper evaluation report by the SLLRDC is tendered.

C) HRCSL notes the following matters of importance; 1.

The Sri Lanka Asbestos at No30 Minuwangoda Road, Ja-Ela is operating without an EPL (Environment Protection Licence ) as such licence has not been renewed 2.

The Rhino Rooﬁng Products factory at No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road Ja Ela which is manufacturing Zinc Aluminnium sheets is operating without an EPL.

3.
The Melwire Rolling Ltd is operating an iron and steel factory at Temple Road Ekala without obtaining any authority from any state institution named as Respondents Therefore it is recommended to suspend the production activities of the following institutions until proper license and approvals; 1) 2) Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd Sri Lanka Asbestos Ltd 3) Melwire Rolling Ltd Further in terms of Section15 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No 21 of 1996 the Commission directs the Respondents to send a report back to the HRC on or before 31.01.2012 informing the Commission, of the steps taken by them to implement the Recommendation.
4.1.2.

Special Interventions on Kattankudy Incident Two girls natives of Kattankudy, one aged 17 yrs and the other 18 years had gone to Batticoloa town in search of ﬁnding a teacher to get tuition as such teacher was not available at Kattankudy.

As the teacher was not there the two girls had gone to a cyber café and a person who had seen them returning from the cyber café had telephoned a friend in Kattankudy that they were returning from an internet café after watching blue ﬁlms.
Upon arrival at Kattankudy by bus several youths on motor cycles had started chasing them and casting obscene remarks after which they have been abducted and taken in a trishaw to a house.

At this place two women had removed their clothes and examined them and thereafter subjected them to torture and inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the youths had taken the two girls to the Kattankudy Federation of All Muslim Organizations and Mosques (hereinafter referred as the Federation in this report) and handed them over to the people there.

At this place too the girls had been assaulted, scolded in ﬁlthy language and kept for 4 hours.
During this time a large crowd had been collecting around the Federation and the police using tear gas amidst a protesting crowd of more than 1000 people had taken charge of the girls for their protection.

After recording the statements of the two girls at the Kattankudy police station, the police admitted the girls to the Batticoloa Hospital and provided security for them.

The girls received treatment at the hospital for three days and after that they were kept in a children’s Home for 7 days.
Thereafter the courts handed over the girls to their parents.

In the plaint ﬁled in the courts it had been recorded that the girls had been subjected to great physical and mental abuse and as such they were unable to carry on their ordinary day to day activities.

A complaint relating to the incident received at the HRC Regional Oﬃce, Batticoloa was referred to the Head Oﬃce for necessary action.
It was alleged in the complaint that though the Kattankudy police had taken legal action in this case there were still several other suspects who should have been arrested and produced before courts.

In this petition both the Kattankudy police and oﬃcials of the Kattankudy Federation were made respondents.

The HRC summoned the police and asked them to ask them to produce the suspects who had not been arrested before courts soon.
Thereafter the police informed that all other suspects have been arrested and produced before courts.

The actions of the Federations members had violated the rights of the two girls which are so implicitly embodied in the various Articles of Conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as one girl was 17 yrs old.
However the HRCSL was not able to take any action under the Act as the actions of these oﬃcials of the Federation do not come within the deﬁnition of ‘administrative or executive’ action.

In these circumstances it was necessary for the HRCSL to take certain steps to protect the rights of women and children that have been so grossly violated as a result of this incident.
Therefore a discussion was held between the Secretary (Legal) and the Federation oﬃcials at which the Commission informed the oﬃcials that no negative social implications should take place in respect of the two girls and that suitable environment should be created for them to carry on their daily activities.
As it was revealed at the discussion that there were youths in the area who are disrespectful to law, the Commission intimated to the Federation the need to educate the public on the maintenance of law and order.

The Federation undertook to conduct workshops to educate the youth.
A second meeting was held at the Batticaloa regional oﬃce with a Commissioner of the HRC, oﬃcials of the Federation, the representatives of the Jemiyatululama of Batticoloa and Colombo and the petitioners, aggrieved parties namely the two girls.

At this discussion the Federation undertook to get all mosques in Kattankudy announce by loudspeakers the innocence of the two girls.

It was agreed by all to take steps to build a society where the girls and children could have faith, trust and security.
The Federation informed the HRCSL by letter dated 06.02.2012 that announcements regarding the innocence of the two girls had been made by all mosques in Kattankudy on 05.02.2012.
4.2 MONITORING AND REVIEW DIVISION The Report on Special Consultation with State Oﬃcials with regard to Prison matters i) Overcrowding • Overcrowding in remand prisons could be lessened if the Magistrates remand the suspects only in cases where it is necessary after a careful study of the B report and after an examina- tion of the suspects produced and grants bail in all other cases.
Thus it will be only where bail cannot be furnished that the suspects will be in remand; • Overcrowding in remand prisons could also be lessened if the drug oﬀenders are sent to diﬀerent centres where such persons could start a program of rehabilitation while in custody • Overcrowding in prisons could be reduced if the scope of the crimes in the Community Based itself; Corrections Act is increased.
ii) Long Term Remand Prisoners • to review legal, administrative and institutional causes which lead to a delay in case of persons held in detention without an indictment or charges served on them; • Appoint a Committee comprising of oﬃcers of the Attorney Generals Department, Government Analysts Department, Police Department, Ministries of Justice, Health and other relevant authorities in order to ﬁnd the causes which lead to delays to serve charges or indictment, to receive communications and reports; • Create data base and network of details of all prisoners with access to the authorities to monitor such delays; • Supervise prisons regularly to verify whether prisoners are treated in accordance with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners.
Need to ensure regular supervision of prisons by the magistrates in the exercise of their legal powers to supervise the standard of • Foster awareness among prison oﬃcials on the standard minimum rules and basic principles for the treatment of prisoners which have been adopted by the international laws and stan- prisons; dards.

iii) Condemned Prisoners To revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
A) Measures for the Treatment of Prisoners; • To have measures to certify the minimum standards and basic principles on the treatment of prisoners for better conditions in remand prisons.

• To identify skills of persons separately and help to develop them for the productive use of prisoners.

• A mechanism to increase the number of welfare oﬃcers for the prisons.
B) Measures for Long-term Detention and Overcrowding at Prisons; • Prisoners’ long term detentions at prisons prove institutional & procedural weaknesses of the Sri Lankan system.

The Attorney General’s Department, The Government Analyst’s Depart- ment, and The Police Department should eﬀectively change to overcome this gap.

Other Parties (ex: lawyers, the public) too, have a prominent role in this regard.
• To appoint a “Case Management Committee” to give and apply suitable measures for the blockage of cases, and to monitor its progress.

This authority shall include various representa- tives from related oﬃcial bodies.

• Problems regarding granting bails are at a top level.

It proves that, there is an urgent need for a strong assistance from the civil society in this regard.

• To amend or ensure the proper implementation of Act of Bail.

• More involvements on the part of the Mediation Board.
• To hold prison screening sessions/open court sessions periodically at prisons to review cases involving minor oﬀenders, and dispense rulings for remand prisoners.

• Introducing a credit awarding system to give credit to the accused at the trial for an early plea of guilt (ex: reducing bail or imprisonment period etc.).

• Making cost orders against lawyers for unnecessary adjournments.
C) Measures for the Drug Addicts; • Prison reports show that the number of prisoners who are arrested under drug-related oﬀences is increasing by a considerable percentage year by year.

Among others, heroine cases are at the top.

It seems that there is a special need for strong rehabilitating and preventing mechanisms.

Bringing the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act to a more eﬀective and practicable stage will be a better answer.
It is essential, as a part of measures to the problem of over-crowding at prisons.

• The drug addicts should be treated as patients and measures to rehabilitate them should be taken instead of jailing them as prisoners.

• To establish separate places/prisons only for drug addicts.

D) Measures for the Lack of Awareness; • To have a national level mechanism to make people aware of the facilities available for free legal assistance by the state and non-state sectors.
• Prisoners lack awareness regarding the measures which can be followed under a tortured situation.

They should be given not only the legal assistance but also the awareness which they require as remand prisoners.

• To have counseling schemes for the families of prisoners at the Divisional Secretariat level.
F) Measures for Rehabilitation and other Related Issues; • Providing adequate funds for rehabilitation programmes and vocational training activities from the government or means to obtain sponsorships for such purpose.

• Enhancing commitment among the government and other related institutions for eﬀective rehabilitation.

activities.

• Establish mid-way homes to rehabilitate them once they have left prison.
This will assist ex-prisoners to reconnect with society and prevent them from engaging in further criminal G) Measures for Reintegration Issues; • Establishment of provincial protection centers (for at least 06 months after rehabilitation) for those who conclude rehabilitation process.

• Mandatory service from government vocational training, social service institutions for the follow up of these clients in order to ensure that they are able to make a living for themselves and their families.
• To formulate a system to assist prisoners when they left the prison.

• Providing loan opportunities to released prisoners with the collaboration of banks.

H) Measures for the Lack of Closer Interrelationship between Stakeholders; • Prison authorities to have a strong and trustworthy interrelationship with the civil society.
Accordingly, genuine and responsible external organizations can be given access to prisons, to assist in having human, ﬁnancial and material resources for the purpose of improving the prison conditions.

• To establish a complete national database on prisoners with access and beneﬁt to various stakeholders (ex: Human Rights Commission, Legal Aid Commission etc.).

• To have meetings quarterly among responsible institutions for the purpose of progress assessments.
• The death penalty is not accepted by our religions and culture in our society.

The Commission also believes that is not the answer for the growing crimes in the country.

therefore it is proposed to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty.

• To ratify the second protocol to the ICCPR and amend the domestic law to meet its requirements.
• To take necessary administrative and judicial measures to revoke the sentence of death of all condemned prisoners and to sentence them for life imprisonment J) Measures for the Issues Regarding Detainees under the Immigration and Emigration Law; • Relocating the detention centre considering the existing condition of it and respecting the gender sensitivity and addressing the requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Assigning required staﬀ to manage the centre eﬀectively by the Controller of Immigration and Emigration and ensure protection of such detainees.

• To coordinate with respective country Embassies/ High Commission Oﬃces/ Consular Oﬃces and facilitate the deporting process.

• To collect and maintain a data base on such detainees.

• To rename the Institutional identity.


• Renovating the existing buildings and upgrading the condition of detention of the Mirihana detention centre until it is moved to a temporary place or proposed permanent building in Minuwangoda.

The IOM expressed their willingness to provide required ﬁnancial assistance for such reconstruction.
Chapter Five SOME OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS 5.1 Some Activities in Brief 5.1.1 Human Rights Awareness Awakened at “Dayata Kirula” HRCSL conducted a stall at the ‘Dayata Kirula’ national development exhibition held in February 2012 at Anuradhapura.

Those who visited the HRCSL stall and won a question and answer competition were presented with bags of gifts.

Educational value leaﬂets on human rights were also distributed in large numbers to those who visited the stall.
5.1.2 The Launching Ceremony of “ Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” HRCSL organized a launching ceremony of “ The Advanced Diploma in Human Rights” on 23rd April 2012 at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo.

This ceremony was held under the patronage of Justice Priyantha R.P.

Perera, Chairman, HRCSL.

This course will be conducted by the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University with the consultation of HRCSL.
5.1.3 The International Day in support of Victims of Torture -2012 The HRCSL organized a programme to mark the International Day in support of the Victims of Torture under the theme of “Rehabilitation work is a torture survival right”.

This was held under the patronage of the Chairman of the HRCSL – Justice Priyantha R P Perera on 26th June 2012 at the HRCSL Head Oﬃce Auditorium.

OICs of the Western Province Police Department, Prison Rehabilitation Oﬃcers and Civil Societies also participated 5.1.4.
HRCSL intervention helped to protect rights of persons with mental illness Dr. Jayan Mendis – Director, Institute of Mental Health participated in a special lecture organized by the HRCSL for its staﬀ on 25.07.2012 at the HRCSL Auditorium.

He said that he faced many challenges to develop the Institute and that the HRCSL supported to uplift the conditions of persons who came within the purview of the Institute.
On this occasion posters on “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care” which were printed by the HRCSL in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English) were handed over to Dr. Jayan Mendis.

5.1.5 Civil Society Meeting A meeting with the civil society was held in October 2012 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium.
The invitation to participate at the meeting was through a newspaper notice which action was com- mented as a positive move to counteract allegations that civil society organizations to participate at events of this nature were handpicked by the Commission.
Lack of knowledge of the UPR at grass root level, the possibility of getting access to places of detention by Human rights Defenders( HRD) as visits by lawyers to such places are costly, the need for awareness of the HRCSL mandate and activities among people in general, were discussed among many other topics.
The participants formed 5 groups following the deliberations and completed forms issued by the HRCSL the objec- tive of which was to obtain views on the ways and means of improving the engagement of the civil society in the activities of the Commission.
5.1.6 Human Rights training Programme for Journalists The Human Rights Training Programme organized on 15th and 16th October 2012 with the support of the UNDP marked a crucial point of convergence between HRCSL and local mass communication networks, and also further enabling the Commission’s awareness eﬀorts.
Organised in the immedi- ate wake of the global acceptance of LLRC recommendations, adoption of a 2011-2016 National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and, most recently, the ﬁrst-ever submission of an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the HRCSL – content of which will feature prominently in the forthcoming Combined Report arising from the UPR, the event signiﬁed yet another important landmark for the Commis- sion in an already eventful year 5.1.7 A Poster on “Right to Claim Your Rights” A poster on “Right to claim your rights” was developed and 5000 copies printed in three languages (Sinhala, Tamil & English).
This poster was distributed through IGP to all police stations in the Island.

5.1.8 Study Conference on Human Rights for Parliamentarians.

A study Conference on human rights for parliamentarians was held for the ﬁrst time in the history of Sri Lanka Parliament in December 2012.

The purpose of this Conference was to create a basic knowledge for parliamentarians on the Human Right Instruments and our government’s obligations to these instruments.
This Conference was planned and implemented by the UN and the HRCSL and organized by the Deputy Speakers Oﬃce.

5.1.9 International Human Rights Day Celebration The programme organized by the HRCSL to celebrate the Human Rights Day was held on 10th December 2012 at the BMICH under the theme ‘My Voice Counts’---the theme announced by the UN for the 2012 Human Rights Day.
With this theme in mind the Commission included in its programme a panel discussion with eminent panelists who spoke brieﬂy on diﬀerent topics selected by the Commission.

The purpose of the discussion was to raise the voice on behalf of people who claim rights.
The selected topics were as follows; • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Right to Freedom of Expression and Language Each speaker was allocated 05 to 07 minutes to introduce the topic followed by a question and answer session with the participation of all panelists and members of the audience.

A cultural event by the students of Vivekananda College, Kotahena, Muslim Ladies College, Bambalapitiya and the elders of the Help Age ended the programme.
5.2 Meetings / Consultations / Media Briefings / Press Releases - 2012 Some matters discussed on these occasions in brief 5.2.1 Meeting with H.E.

the President Purchase of the building • Proposal to open new regional centres in the 6 districts namely Killinochchi, Puttlam, Kurune- gala, Ratnapura, Moneragala and Nuwara Eliya; • To expand the allocation for the promotional activities of HRCSL to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan 2011-2016.
5.2.2 Meeting with Government Treasury Officials • The same matters that were discussed with the President were taken up for further discussion 5.2.3 Meeting with the Officials of the UGC, Ministry of Higher Education • Matters relating to the “ Z “ score controversy discussed and suggested to obtain advice from the Hon Attorney General.
5.2.4 Meeting with Ahamediya Muslim delegation • Problems relating to the indiﬀerence to their faith by the press in the publication of unfounded stories concerning Ahamadi refugees.
5.2.5 Meeting with the Evaluation Committee of the Commonwealth Secretariat • Assess the impact and eﬀectiveness of part assistance • Improve and design delivery of future assistance 5.2.6 Meeting with the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity To facilitate a meeting with the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Qatar and thus form a close link with the Human Rights Commission of Qatar in order to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers 5.2.7 Focus Group Meeting on the National Human Rights Action Plan Attended meetings conducted by Hon Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of H.E The President on Human Rights to discuss the implementation of the NHRAP 2011 – 2016 5.2.8 Meeting –Ministry of External Affaires • On preparation of periodic reports on ratiﬁed human right conventions.
43 5.2.9 Meeting –Ministry of Rehabilitation & Prison Reforms representatives • On the promotion of human rights for prisoners 5.2.10 Meeting –National Institute of Health • To promote the rights of mentally retarded persons 5.2.11 Meeting with the IGP on 14.08.2012 • Non implementation of recommendations of the HRCSL against police oﬃcers including also cases that had been ﬁlled by employees of the Police Department against the same depart- ment.
oﬃcers purpose • Lack of knowledge of the legal provisions relating to human traﬃcking among the police • Abductions aﬃliated with white vans • Dispersal of protests and demonstrations and the use of weapons by the police for such 5.2.12 Press Release on the Right to Accessibility of Persons with Diverse Abilities • Problems faced by persons with disabilities and the fact that the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 has been postponed until 2014 by Special Gazette Notice of 18/09/2009 • HRCSL has already taken action to monitor the implementation of the said regulation • Invited persons to notify the Commission of any violations of the Accessibility Regulations 5.2.13 Media briefing on Recent Undertakings of the HRCSL • Congestion in the prisons as well as in remand prisons • Harassment of two schoolgirls in Kaththankudy • Problems faced by migrant workers • How the HRCSL recommendations could be enforced with greater eﬃcacy and eﬃciently 5.2.14 Message issued by the HRCSL for the International Migration Day • Noted that Sri Lanka has over 1.8 million workers abroad with an annual outflow of 250,000 • Important to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the economic development of persons the country Chapter Four SPECIAL REPORTS 4.1 INQUIRIES AND INVESTIGATION DIVISION 4.1.1 Environment Case Report Ms Chandra Amarasinghe vs Chairman BOI/ Chairman CEA / Chairman Sri Lanka L R&D Corp /Chairman UDA Case Nos: HRC/2073/09, HRC /1166/09,HRC/4945/09,HRC/5405/09 The complaints were in respect of the following state institutions; 1.
The Bureau of Investment (BOI) 2.

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) 3.

Sri Lanka Land Reclamation & Development Corporation(SLLRDC) 4.

The Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha The Complainant stated that the BOI had entered into an agreement with Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd and Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd at No 111 Maithree Mawatha Ekala and at Temple Road Ekala respectively without obtaining an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (Referred as EIAR in this document) from the Central Environmental Authority.
It is also stated that Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd has constructed factories in three places namely; 1.

No 111, Maithree Mawatha, Ekala 2.

No 144/11 Minuwangoda Road, Ekela 3.

No 30, Minuwangoda Road, Ekela The BOI position was that it was not necessary to prepare an (EIAR) as Rhino is not a prescribed project and that the BOI had after evaluation of the environment impact and after taking steps to minimize the said impact granted approval with the concurrence of the CEA.
The CEA had granted its concurrence to BOI subject to conditions in respect of the Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd at 111, Maithree MawathaEkala.

CEA position was that Rhino Rooﬁng Products Ltd had carried on a factory at No 30 Minuwangoda Road, Ekala earlier prior to starting the factory at Maithree Mawatha.

In respect of the earlier factory the Environmental Protection Licence had been granted which now stands cancelled.
In respect of the new factory it is only one month before production that the Environmental Protection Licence from the CEA has to be obtained.

The CEA failed to mention anything about the Melawire Rooﬁng Ltd. SLLRDC made reference to the factory at 111, Maithree Mawatha which was situated on high land and needed no licence from the SLLRDC.

No reference was made to Melwire Rooﬁng Ltd. which was alleged by the petitioner as situated on a low lying marshy land.
The position of the Ja Ela Pradeshiya Sabha was that the Rhino Rooﬁng Products had made an applica- tion to build a rest room and a store building and after obtaining approval it had started building a factory.

As a result of the public outcry the said approval was cancelled and the company ﬁled a case in the Court of Appeal.

Subsequently a settlement was entered and the company made 13 building applications that were approved by the Prdeshiya Sabha.
A sum of Rs 945000/ had been paid by the company to the Pradeshiya Sabha as legal costs.

The two projects are gazetted as prescribed projects in the gazettes published under the provisions of the National Environmental Act No 47 0f 1980 as amended by Act No 56 of 1988.

As such an Environmental Impact Assessment Report is required to be produced with the concur- rence of the CEA.
Therefore the 1st and 2nd Respondents have not acted in accordance with the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in that they failed to consider the manu- facture of asbestos and iron and steel as prescribed projects within the gazette regulations framed under the laws framed to protect the environment for which an EIAR Report has to be produced.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have not explained the circumstances under which Melawire Rolling Ltd started manufacturing steel products at Temple Road, Ekela without the approval being granted by the BOI and the CEA thus allowing the pollution of the environment, releasing industrial waste and eﬄuence without such waste being recycled or treated properly.
The 1st and the 2nd Respondents have further failed to follow the mandatory provisions of the National Environmental Act in allowing Rhino Rooﬁng Ltd to establish their factory in an area where a population of 30,000 live.
Thereby they have deprived the people in the area of the right to fresh air and proper drinking water as the air in the area had got polluted with asbestos and steel dust and the water in the wells had got polluted with the sludge from asbestos and waste from steel products which are released to the environment without being treated.

The 3rd Respondent had not taken steps to prevent Melwire Rolling Ltd encroach on land situated in a reservation area of a waterway and ﬁll a low lying marshland.
The Factory is situated in an area described in Colombo District under Identiﬁcation No18 (vide Gazettee No1545 of 17.04.2008 marked A2) as a low lying wetland.

The 3rd Respondent is also responsible for the pollution of air and water in the area.

The 4th Respondent has cancelled the building approval when there was a public out cry that Rhino Rooﬁng Products was constructing a factory under the license to build a rest room and a store building.
The company had then ﬁled an application in the Court of Appeal and obtained a stay order and the 4th Respondent had watched helplessly as the company carried on the construction on the strength of the stay order.

The 4th Respondent should have ﬁled an application seeking an order to demolish the structures already constructed which they failed to do.
A) Observations of the Inquiring Oﬃcer • The implementation of the Language policy The Petitioner had written several letters and made many representations to all the four state institutions and according to him none of these institutions had replied nor responded.
Though the • Necessary to take constructive steps to protect the human rights of migrant workers in the host countries within their local mandates E) Measures for Negative Social Issues; • Special mechanism should be formulated for considering problems relating to prisoners’ families (for their best interest, specially regarding the children in schooling age), during the time they are at the remand prison.
• The way people respond to competitive economic, social, cultural or other issues can be changed satisfactorily by formulating various steps regarding their initial background (ex: formal and informal education, cultural and social background etc.).

the impeachment process should be more transparent and more in accord with the principles of democracy.
It must be emphasized that the “latimer” commonwealth principles speciﬁcally provide for the procedure to be adopted when charges are brought against a judge and that such charges should necessarily be inquired by an independent body which could be tied up to the impeachment process.

This appears to be a matter which must be the subject of serious debate/discussion.
It is our considered view that public conﬁdence in the legal system could be sustained only within a framework acceptable through intensive discussion.

It must be conceded that presently we have missed this opportunity.

However it must be emphasized that such a procedure must indeed be followed in the future in the interest of society in general in Sri Lanka.
• Suitable steps should be initiated to change the traditional response of the civil society over Disappeared and Missing persons prisoners, as the prisoners too are a part of their own society.

I) Measures for the Issue of Capital Punishment; and the full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities in the governance of the Chapter Six FOREIGN FUNDED PROJECTS 6.1.
UN Support to National Human Rights Institutions - UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, Sri Lanka, 2012 The overarching UN support to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) since 2009 has been conducted through a UN Joint programme on Human Rights which began in November 2009.

This project was launched by the UNDP on the request made by government of Sri Lanka, following their commitment given at the 2008 Human Rights Council meeting to support to upgrade the HRCSL back to grade A.
The main objective of the programme was to provide technical and ﬁnancial support to HRCSL.

This support was targeted towards strengthening operational eﬀectiveness in key areas that were identi- ﬁed by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) for National Human Rights Institutions as the reasons for the downgrading of the HRCSL from A to B in 2007 and re aﬃrmed in 2009.
The Joint Programme was implemented by HRCSL with their staﬀ through the head oﬃce and regional oﬃces, with funding and technical support from UNDP and the UN Senior Human Rights Advisor.

In 2012 both OHCHR and UNHCR also contributed funds towards the Joint Programme.
In the reporting period of 2012, the UN Joint Programme continued to support the HRCSL in the areas of their core mandate, including: Strategic vision of the HRCSL – A 21-day capacity assessment (CA) of HRCSL was undertaken by a tripartite team comprised of the Asia Paciﬁc Forum, UNDP regional oﬃce and OHCHR through the Senior Human Rights Advisor.
In follow up to this activity, the UN Joint Programme facilitated the HRCSL in the development of a 3-year strategic plan which was based on the CA recommendations, National Human Rights Action Plan and LLRC recommendations and wide consultations with all staﬀ at national and regional levels of HRCSL.

HRCSL developed their 2012 Action Plan based on the outcomes of this workshop which had the participation of all senior staﬀ of HRCSL.
Through regular meetings between UN senior HR advisor and Commissioners and also participation of UNDP project coordinator in the HRCSL’s central committee meetings, UN has taken eﬀort to constantly communicate their perspective on HRCSL’s activities and functions.

Regional Oﬃces – The UN Joint Programme continued to provide support to the regional oﬃces in the form of technical trainings, provision of equipment, and funding to support legal consultants and engagement with civil society.
Through the Joint Programme, UNHCR supported the establishment of a mobile clinic in Kilinochchi in 2012 which is providing outreach to the former war-aﬀected areas of the north where regional oﬃces have not yet been established.
National policy and legislation – The ﬁrst of a planned series of consultations and a study conference to sensitize Members of Parliament on international human rights laws and standards was organized by a project in the Parliament in December 2012 in collaboration with HRCSL, UN and Parliament.

For the ﬁrst time in the history of Parliament, a full day study conference on Human Rights was held within Parliament with 73 Parliament Members taking part.
This was followed by a dialogue on Human Rights among Members of Parliament, HRCSL Commissioners and UN Country Team.

The project is also working with Parliament to establish a HR select committee.

As a ﬁrst step the project organized an exposure visit for Deputy Speaker and another MP to visit and discuss with HR select committee in Parliament of Philippines and the Speaker.
The project provided technical and funding support for HRCSL to hold a series of consultations at regional and national level on elders’ rights and formulate recommendations for UN OEWG (Open Ended Working Group) on elders’ rights and national policy making authorities.

Engagement with Civil Society – The Project continued support for quarterly dialogues/consultations at national and regional levels that are constructive and inclusive of a broad spectrum of civil society actors.
Though the project was able to support only 2 meetings in 2012 at national level, 34 meetings/consultations were supported by project through the 10 regional oﬃces.

Joint action plans with civil society have been developed by 7 of the regional oﬃces as a result of these consultations and are in operation at regional level.
The project supported HRCSL by developing a training module and conducting 10 numbers of 2 day residential trainings for civil society actors, on their request with support from external experts through regional oﬃces.

The project also supported a 2 day residential training for media personnel and another 3 day training for youth on human rights through HRCSL.
Public reporting – The UN Joint Programme has supported the development of a tri-lingual website for HRCSL and the maintenance of such website, publication of their overdue annual reports, provide assistance to prepare press statements and provided support for their press conferences.
National Project Co-ordinator – Ms Thanuja Navaratne 6.2 UNICEF funded Project A special project on the theme “Increase Conﬁdence of Communities in Reporting and responding to Violations of Children’s Rights was funded by the UNICEF on July 25th 2012.

The project covered six districts and the activities on various thematic areas to fulﬁll the above purpose were conducted by the regional coordinators of the HRCSL.

The following programmes were organized for the year 2012.
The Project Coordinator - Ms Shirani Rajapakse Director Education and Special Projects Chapter Seven STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN YEAR 2012 The necessity to lay emphasis on the concept of supremacy of the law n the present context, the need to protect the supremacy of law is important.

For a healthy, democratic society it is necessary for the 3 organs of government to act with respect and understanding towards each other.

This would help to maintain a healthy relationship.
The action taken in the recent past to remove the Chief Justice from her post was strictly in accordance with the law, however the procedure that was followed in achieving this objective has given rise to issues relating to the concept of the independence of the judiciary.

It would appear that there was a conﬂict between the legislature and the judiciary.
This situation necessarily weakened the conﬁdence placed by the people in the legal system and also came into conﬂict with the aspirations of society relating to the independence and impartiality of these institutions in their day to day work.

This situation has given rise to creating doubts among the people on the question whether the judiciary was capable of acting independently and also whether other institutions are prone to act in such a manner so as to weaken the independence of the judiciary.
The necessity to consider the impeachment of the Chief Justice provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the shortcomings in this regard under the prevailing law, to take steps to rectify such a situation and to introduce a policy in this matter which would necessarily strengthen the independence of the judiciary.

However unfortunately this situation far from achieving this objective highlighted the prevailing policy on this matter between the Judiciary and the State.
This situation also provided a good opportunity for political parties to demonstrate their powers and attract the attention of the public to their own selﬁsh objectives.

As a consequence this golden opportunity to highlight democratic values was lost and an unhealthy situation arose from the point of view of society.
Further, it is imperative that the judiciary of this country must be given every opportunity to maintain its independence at the highest level possible and in this regard it is our considered view that the present law must necessarily be amended with a view to strengthening the concept of judicial independence.

It is indeed essential to ensure that the judiciary is vested with an environment to act without fear and suspicion.
It is our considered view that the procedure to remove a judicial oﬃcer must necessarily be transparent and also be in accordance with the accepted principles of natural justice.

It is fairly clear that the present procedure adopted for the purpose of removing a judge and A march by women protesting of missing loved ones was organized jointly by the Committee for Investigating Disappearances and the Movement for the Release of Political Prisoners.
About 25 women mainly from the North and East took part in this symbolic march along the streets from a Hindu Kovil in Kochchikade to another Hindu Kovil in Gintupitiya.

They carried clay pots with camphor ﬁre in keeping with cultural traditions.

The women prayed and pleaded for information about their husbands, fathers and sons who had gone missing.

Some are known to have been abducted in white vans.

Extra-judicial arrests and abductions are unacceptable in a democracy.
The LLRC Report had also stated “that in many instances it was revealed that formal complaints had been made to police stations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and the ICRC.

Yet the next of kin continue to complain that the where about of many of these missing persons are still unknown.

The government is duty bound to direct the law enforcement authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that these allegations are properly investigated into and perpetrators brought to justice.
It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of any person who is taken into custody by governmental authorities through surrender or arrest.

Comment The Government has come up with a number of policies and action plans that include the National Policy on Social Integration, and the National Human Rights Action Plan on implementing the recommendation of the LLRC.

The National Action Plan on the LLRC recommendations has to be implemented with sincerity.
Implementing these recommendations would go a long way towards promoting national unity and peace.

The government must ignore chauvinistic and extreme nationalist elements within and without and go ahead to usher in an era of peace, stability and growth in the country.

Most importantly, the rule of law must be protected and there should not be any place for vindictiveness and revenge.
Sri Lanka has existed as a social welfare state even before it attained independence in 1948 as successive governments in the country had adopted social welfare measures in the administration of the country.
This could be attributed to movements like the Suriya Mal campaigns that were originally started to provide for the betterment of the underprivileged classes of the society in the mid 1930 s. Therefore today though no legislation has been passed by the Parliament to give legal eﬀect to the rights contained in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights unlike in the case of civil and political rights which are enshrined as Fundamental Rights in Chapter III of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties as laid down in Chapter VI of the Constitution provide for the implementation of social welfare measures for the beneﬁt of the people.
Thus these Principles state that the legislature and the executive shall be guided by the objective of promotion of social and economic welfare of the people by securing an adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions country.

During the year 2012 the massive infrastructure development of the country that was started after the cessation of the internal conﬂict in 2009 continued.
In Sri Lanka 80% of the people still live in villages and in plantation areas.

Therefore the road networks, power, water, irrigation, schools, maternal clinics have been included in the Gama Neguma village development programme.
In the year 2012 a program was also launched where Rs one million was given to construct / develop any one project in each village in the island under the scheme ‘ Gamakata eke wedakka’ (one project for one village) It was found that when mega development projects were carried out in various parts of the country there were a number of small towns which were striving hard to keep pace with the development drive taking place in other parts of the country.
Therefore a program to develop 108 small towns that come under underdeveloped Pradeshiya Sabhas across the country was launched under the name ‘Pura Neguma’ this year to be completede by the year 1015.
Under this programme the respective Pradeshiya Sabhas have to develop the infrastructure facilities in these towns such as public toilets, vehicle parks including three wheel parks, market complexes, weekly fair areas, Pradeshiya Sabha buildings, libraries, childrens parks, access roads, drinking water and resting places.
Pura Neguma is implemnted in the Pradeshiya Sabhas outside the North and East as the Economic Development Ministry is launching programs in those areas focusing on the same matters Urban development gained a high momentum in the year 2012 as many projects that improved the quality of urban environment were initiated and completed.

The objective of these developments is to provide a holistic living and a working environment for the country.
Therefore public utilities, recreational facilities and urban beautiﬁcation programmes were given much importance in the year with emphasis being placed on Colombo and its suburbs.

During this year several lower middle class housing condominiums that had been constructed over 30 years ago and were in dilapidated conditions were renovated beneﬁting more than 18,000 dwellers.

The upgrading of non-permanent residences under NHDA Programs which started a few years ago continued during the year 2012.
Several luxury housing complexes are also being constructed for high income earners by the private sector with foreign collaboration.

A number of housing schemes have been launched in the North and the East to ﬁnd permanent housing for displaced persons.

In the North special loans under a foreign funded project were given to displaced families and the construction of houses was done through a participatory approach, thus enhancing the resettlement eﬀorts of the government.
With urbanization and change of lifestyle of the people the demand for pipe born water is also rising in all cities.

All people have to be provided with clean drinking water and in drawing up plans for the development of towns and cities the provision of for rest areas with drinking water and washroom facilities have been made compulsory The literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 90.8% as primary and secondary education has been free and compulsory for over 40 years.
Even university education is free in the state universities.

The state policy is to teach both Sinhala and Tamil in schools thus promoting ethnic harmony from the young days.

However the lack of qualiﬁed teachers for this project is causing problems at present.

Emphasis is also placed on teaching English and computer education in schools.

In 2012 a project to develop 1000 secondary schools across the island was launched.
The Ministry of Education entered into several joint ventures with the private sector to improve the IT knowledge of students in these schools.

Thus in one venture with The State Trading Corporation and the Etiselat Company, one thousand laptops with internet facilities were provided, the main objective of venture being to provide school children with subject knowledge via internet from teachers approved by the National Institute of Education.
In another venture with Intel Sri Lanka the teachers in schools who had been already trained by Intel Sri Lanka, were being helped to integrate ICT into their lessons and empower the students to keep abreast with the rest of the world.

The continued work stoppage activities of the University teachers hindered the studies of students.
The severe lack of accommodation in state universities as only 22,000 of the 150,000 students who get qualiﬁed for admission are unable to secure placement in the universities remains unsolved.

In addition the Universities are faced with the admission of a further 5800 students due to the Z score issue.
The government has stated very categorically that state universities will not be privatized but is agreeable to recognize quality private education in Sri Lanka so that the ﬂow of foreign exchange out of the country could be saved.

Thus the private medical college at Malabe continues with a new teaching Hospital as the students were unable to get the required training in state hospitals due to objection by the doctors union.
Only 29% of the Arts graduates are employed compared to 95% Engineering graduates and 90% of MBBS graduates who have secured employment.

Therefore a proposal to change the composition of the BA degree subjects with emphasis on languages like Sinhala, Tamil and English is being studied.

Life expectancy of Sri Lankan women and men has increased to 80 and 76 years respectively, thus reﬂecting an improvement in the health care services and living standards of the people.
In Sri Lanka State hospitals and health clinics are free and accessible to all persons including even foreigners.

There are 593 government hospitals in the island with 73,437 beds .

A recent survey has revealed that 20% 3 of hospital beds are occupied by patients fallen ill due to use of tobacco and alcohol and 72% of illnesses in the country are NCDs which are mainly related to tobacco and alcohol.
The attempt to have a warning against smoking in picture form so that it will be a more eﬀective than the already existing written warning on the box of cigarettes was heavily opposed by the cigarette dealers who have taken the matter to courts and the Health Ministry is awaiting a decision by the courts.

There is an alarming increase of Non Communicable Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, cardio vascular diseases, strokes etc.
The major risk factors for NCDs are considered unhealthy dietary habits, job stress, physical inactivity.

Therefore the Ministry of Health has been actively engaged in the promotion of an awareness campaign of the value of eating proper food and exercise for a healthy life among school children, youth and the general public.

Communicable diseases such as dengue, ﬁllaria and recently malaria which was almost eradicated a few years back also still remain a public concern.
In September 2012 Jaﬀna peninsula was connected to the national grid after 25 years.

The Upper Kothmale Hydro Power Plant was added to the national grid during the current year.

The steps are also taken to construct over 100 mini hydro power projects with the aim of making the national grid a system where electricity is provided by the public.

Already the private sector operates around 100 mini hydro power projects in the country.
Construction works of the second phase of Norochcholai and the new coal plant at Sampur are in progress.

As the cost of electricity has been going up yearly, the search alternative energy sources such as solar power, sea waves, wind and nano technology related energy continues.

Already 74 MW wind power,11.5 MW biomass energy and 1.4 MW solar is connected to the national grid4 .
The ﬁrst Dendro (gliricidia) energy power plant situated at Anuradhapura, began feeding 500 KW to the national grid in July 2012 The“ Divi Neguma” National Program that was launched in March 2011 was aimed to provide food security, eradicate hunger and poverty and help improve the nutritional standards of the people.

In 2012 this programme has had tremendous success in all areas especially agriculture, livestock, industrial and in the ﬁsheries sector.
The progrmme has been implemented in all 25 districts and coconut saplings, vegetable seeds, fruit plants herbal plants, minor export crops etc have been distributed to the selected households.

Resources to commence projects such as growing mushrooms, bee keeping, growing ornamental ﬂowers etc have also been provided.

Steps have been taken to promote people to grow certain crops that can be grown in Sri Lanka but is at present being imported from foreign countries.
These crops are green gram, peanuts, dry chillies, soya, maize.

Already Sri Lanka has started exporting maize.

The distribution of chicks and milch cows under this program has helped to improve the nutrition of the family while improving their incomes.

It has been found that milk production can be increased by keeping cows in a restricted area (cowsheds) and feeding them systematically and 5292 cow sheds were constructed for this purpose.
Goat herding has also achieved considerable progress under this program in 2012.

Over 6000 ﬁsheries projects have implemented in the year and as a result fresh ﬁsh is available in the estate sector in Nuwara Eliya district.

It has been reported that estate labourers run to work in their ﬁsh ponds after their routine work instead of going to liquor bars.

Human smuggling was a major concern in the year 2012 with over 2000 being arrested trying to gain illegal entry to Australia.
It was found that people of Sinhala, Tamil and Moor origins were all induced to seek greener pastures and the process was operated by a network whose local agents promoted the innocent people to go on these risky voyages.

However with the Australian Government taking strong action and diverting boats ﬁrst to the Christmas Island and later to Papua New Guinea there seems to be a slowing down of the process.
In society women, children, migrant workers, physically and mentally handicapped and the aged are considered vulnerable groups who are in need of special care and attention.

In the year 2012 though there were many acts of violence against women reported in the media the such acts as a whole did not reach the levels reported in 2011.

However reported cases of violence against migrant women showed a marked increase in the current year.
This resulted in the Ministry of Foreign Employment taking several steps such as raising the age to 25 years in case of domestic employment in certain Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan and also requiring the prospective employer to deposit US $ 1000 in respective of each prospective employee before the contract is signed.

The government proposes to completely stop the migration of unskilled female domestic labour in a few years time.
According to the 2012 statistics of the SLFEB the ratio of women to men are 49% to 51%.

Sri Lanka is has failed to ﬁll skilled female job cadres in the Gulf countries such as trained baby sitters, nannies, nurses, sales girls.

Therefore it is time that the government organizes training programs to cater to such job demands though like in the case of nurses there is a reluctance to seek employment in the Middle East.
Sexual exploitation of children keeps rising yearly according to the available statistic at the National Child Protection Authority.

The Authority states that presently people are more aware of acts of abuse due to the awareness programs carried and the publicity given to the hot line and such acts get reported without being unreported as in the earlier days.

Sri Lanka has a fair percentage of persons with physical disability which could be due to the 30 years of internal conﬂict.
These persons too have a right to the full participation in the social, economic and cultural life of the community.

However the restricted access of such persons to public buildings and public transport is a barrier to their enjoyment of the normal life of the community.

The Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act No28 of 1996 and the Accessibility Regulations No 1 of 2006 made therein have provided the necessary legal framework for such persons for the equal enjoyment of the life in the society.
A very wide meaning has also been given to the words ‘Public Building/Structure’ in the Regulations as meaning any government or private sector building used by the public in daily life.

Therefore banks, hospitals shopping centres, supermarkets are all included to have accessibility for the disabled.

However even in the city of Colombo one sees banks and well patronized shopping centres today without any accessibility provision for the disabled.
In Sri Lanka there is a remarkable increase in the ageing population with the increasing life expectancy, improving health care facilities and living standards of the people.

Unfortunately this matter has not been addressed by the planners and policy makers as well as those in the health sector.

There are Day Centres for Elders in several areas which are ﬁnancially supported by the National Secretariat for Elders.
The Social Service Department has trained a home day care service available to the public at very reasonable price but this service needs to be improved to cater to the growing demand.

However there are several private retiring homes and day and night care services which are available to persons who are able to pay a high price for the service.
The level of poverty in Sri Lanka has been reduced considerably by schemes such as the Livelihood Development and Economic Empowerment programs under the Divi Neguma and Samurdi Schemes.

Several cottage industries carried out under the Livelihood Development programs of the Divi Neguma, like the production of candles, joss-sticks, cement blocks, virgin coconut oil help the poor to earn additional income.
Loan Facilities to start various livelihood programmes under the Samurdi Scheme has constantly helped to reduce the vulnerability of the poor in case of family bereavements, hospitalization and child births.

In 2012 Sri Lankan economy grew at 6.4% only as compared to the two previous years which witnessed a growth rate of 8 %.
The country has achieved many of MDGs including the halving of poverty, achieving of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women ahead of the target year 2015 and is striving hard to achieve a per capita income target of US dollars 4000 in 2016.
However the slow implementation of the LLRC Recommendations has become a matter of concern to many as it was hoped that issues which lead to the 30 year ethnic conﬂict would ﬁnd a solution in the implementation of the Recommendation.

As everyone knows it is only in a peaceful environment that fruits of the massive development programmes currently taking place could be enjoyed by all Sri Lankans both present and future.