Sri Lanka grilled at UN Committee Against Torture

• GOSL delegation in Geneva 
• to reply to the Committee todayUNCAT questions GoSL 
• delegation on allegations of torture, sexual violence and proposed counter-terrorism law
• By Dharisha Bastians 

A Sri Lankan Government delegation faced tough questions before the 59th Session of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) yesterday, about torture and sexual violence by police and the military and the scope of its proposed counter-terrorism legal framework that will replace the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

For three hours at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, Government representatives were grilled by the independent experts on the Committee Against Torture about abductions, secret detention centres, torture in custody, custodial death and other rights violations.

Referring to the Government’s proposed Policy and Legal Framework on the proposed Counter Terrorism Act, UNCAT members asked the Sri Lankan delegation what safeguards were contained in the proposed policy to prevent arbitrary arrest. Committee members also raised questions about the timeline for individuals to be produced before a magistrate after arrest and whether the CTA framework provides suspects access to a lawyer before statements are given to police – two key areas of concern with the proposed CTA policy. UNCAT members also asked if the new proposed legislation provided for audio and video recording that would help to protect suspects from abuse while in custody. 

UNCAT Member Felice Gaer, the most experienced expert on the committee, told the Sri Lankan Government delegation that its report to the committee had been “vague” about how Sri Lankan military personnel had been held accountable for allegations of child sex exploitation during deployment in the Haiti UN Peace Keeping Force. Committee members said that only 23 of more than 150 Sri Lankan military personnel allegedly involved in Haiti peacekeeping operations rape had been subject to disciplinary action.

UNCAT members also asked the Government delegation what steps were being taken to vet Sri Lankan military personnel ahead of a potential deployment for a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

Gaer also said there had been no proper response to allegations of sexual violence and torture by Sri Lankan security forces and intelligence units. 

Independent experts on the UN committee questioned the detention period of 18 months under the existing PTA and called it an “excessively long time” to hold detainees in custody without trial. The Committee also noted that UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez had found during a visit to Sri Lanka earlier this year, that TID detention centres were 200% to 300% over capacity.

UNCAT noted multiple incidents of torture at unofficial detention centres had been reported in 2015 and 2016 and said the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka was receiving complaints at much higher rate than the numbers revealed in official Government statistics. Gaer observed that HRCSL had received 628 complaints of torture since the new Government took office in January 2015 to date, and said this number was 10 times higher than the data submitted in official Government records. The UNCAT member requested the Government to clarify this anomaly.

The UN committee also noted that the Government had only concluded 24 out of 170 cases of torture by police officials. UNCAT members also observed seemingly retaliatory intimidation tactics against human rights activists in 2016, and asked the Government delegation why activist Ruki Fernando who was arrested under the PTA in 2014 had been detained at the airport by the TID in October this year. 

The UN Committee Against Torture is a treaty body of the United Nations, comprising 10 independent experts to monitor states’ implementation of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or punishment. 154 states, including Sri Lanka are party to the Convention. State parties are required to submit periodic reports on how the rights are being implemented to the committee every four years. 

Sri Lanka’s two day review by UNCAT will conclude today after the Government presents its reply to questions posed by the committee members. Sri Lanka’s delegation to the UNCAT 59th Session is led by Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya. Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representatives to the UN in Geneva and New York respectively, Ambassadors Ravinatha Aryasinha and Dr. Rohan Perera, and senior officials of the Attorney General’s Department are also part of the delegation.

Chief of the Centre for National Intelligence DIG Sisira Mendis and Head of the Police Legal Division DIG Ajith Rohana are also part of the Government delegation to UNCAT. 

Human rights organisations critiqued DIG Mendis’ inclusion in the Government Delegation, pointing to allegations that surfaced in the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka Report released in October 2015, which named the senior police official and described interrogation rooms used for torture in CID Headquarters.

“That the Government of Sri Lanka could send an official who is responsible for torture perpetrated by units accountable to him, as its representative to a UN meeting on torture is an absolute affront to the victims and also to the international community,” said Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director of the International Truth and Justice Project whose work focuses on ongoing torture and sexual violence in Sri Lanka. In a press release issued yesterday, the ITJP said that DIG Mendis had been head of CID from March 2008 to June 2009 - the height of the war.