Follow words with action

The Sri Lankan Government has reiterated that it has a “zero tolerance” policy towards torture at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) but needs to implement strong measures to make its pledge a reality.   

Last year the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment who visited Sri Lanka in April-May 2016 called on Sri Lanka to investigate “routine torture” of detainees by security forces and rebuked its Government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the war. 

Despite several measures by the Government, torture remains systemic within the law enforcement system and a much stronger effort is needed to protect human rights. 

In a report, the United Nations Committee against Torture cited continuing reports of abductions of people disappearing into “white vans”, deaths in custody, poor conditions of detention and the use of forced confessions in court.

The recommendations cited “consistent reports” from national and UN sources that torture remains common in regular criminal investigations and is often used in an environment of impunity. 

The panel urged Sri Lanka to identify and prosecute perpetrators of “emblematic cases” from the conflict, including the murders in 2006 of the ‘Trincomalee Five’ students, all Tamils, on a beach and 17 local staff members – 16 of them Tamils – of the French charity Action Against Hunger. 

Custody deaths have become almost routine in Sri Lanka with five officers of the Peliyagoda police becoming the latest to be detained after a man died after he was arrested earlier this year.  

However, the number of complaints of torture has been declining in the last three years, from 600 complaints in 2013 to 420 complaints in 2015 and 208 so far this year, according to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. But even the current numbers are high, showing that little change has been made within the police to protect suspects against torture. 

The HRCSL says the prevailing culture of impunity where those accused of torture is concerned is also a contributing factor to the routine use of torture as a means of interrogation and investigation. Police routinely use transfers to cover up the most heinous of acts, essentially giving offenders license to continue their despicable practices even in the case of custody deaths. As with the flagging anti-corruption efforts, lack of concrete action is hollowing out good intentions.  

The current Government continues to underplay the prevalence of torture. Activists had to fight the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code which defines the rights of those who have been arrested to have access to their lawyers. The new amendment could have provided security forces with the power to obtain statements from detained suspects before they have access to legal representation. Activists have said the move will encourage the use of torture and statements made under duress.

The insensitivity of the Government borders on carelessness in allowing such a policy that clearly disadvantages vulnerable groups to be implemented. 

The oft trotted out excuse that torture happens because of a “few bad apples” within the police is grossly understating the obvious and letting down the public’s right to protection as enshrined in the Constitution. A zero tolerance policy is merely a start. The Government needs to now crack on to prove it means what it says.