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1 Pursuant to paragraph D 1. 15 (a) of the Annex to HRC Resolution 5/1 “Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council” and paragraph II. 2 of Decision 17/119 adopted by the Council “Follow-up to the Human Rights Council resolution 16/21 with regard to the Universal Periodic Review”.
2 Sri Lanka’s HDI value is above the mean of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group and above the average of 0.548 for countries in South Asia. Sri Lanka has managed a consistent improvement in its HDI with values for the previous three years being: 2008 - 0.676; 2009 – 0.680;
2010 – 0.686. Sri Lanka with a value of 0.579 is also ahead in terms of inequality adjusted HDI when compared to the sub regional norm (South Asia has a value of 0.393) and countries with a similar level of medium human development (0.480). Between 1980 and 2011, Sri Lanka’s HDI value increased from 0.539 to 0.691, an increase of 28.0 per cent or average annual increase of about 0.8 per cent. The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
3 The CCHA was chaired by the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights with representatives from Ministries of Defence, Nation Building, Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services, Health, Education, and Foreign Affairs. The CGES and the Government Agents of the districts of the Northern Province together with the Ambassador of the United States and President of Co-chairs to the peace process, Representatives of the EU Presidency, Ambassador to Japan, UN Resident Coordinator, Heads of UN Agencies, Heads of ICRC and ECHO were also represented. The CCHA was kept fully apprised of the humanitarian situation developing on the ground and the measures taken by the Government to provide relief on an immediate, medium and a long term basis.
Based on that feedback the CCHA provided policy guidelines.
4 As at 31st May 2012 more than 434,679 anti-personnel mines, nearly 1400 anti-tank mines and nearly 369,311 Unexploded Ordnance Devices had been recovered.
5 The demining programme was carefully conceived, and priority areas were chosen to maximise efficiency and enable the speedy return of the internally displaced. The first priority was to demine the towns and villages. The second priority was to demine the plantation areas and paddy fields. The last priority was accorded to the forested areas.Approximately 2% of contaminated land remains to be demined.
6 Sri Lanka has now been delisted by the UN Secretary-General from Annex II of the UN Security Council Resolution 1612, on Children and Armed Conflict. This is a result of the concerted efforts taken by the GoSL to investigate several cases on child recruitment and comply with the
recommendations of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict and those of the UNSG’s Special Representative.
7 The Report contains annexes, compiled following interviews with over 1,000 persons who gave evidence before the Commission, and over 5,000 submissions received. The proceedings were held in public unless exceptional circumstances required in camera proceedings. The LLRC Report, records material which is verifiable.
8 The LLRC has made several core recommendations amongst a larger number of 285 “Observations and Recommendations”, which have been broadly classified into four main groups, namely,
i. Recommendations relating to National Policy
ii. Recommendations pertaining to the final phase of the conflict
iii. Recommendations related to human rights and National Security concerns iv. Recommendations related to resettlement and development
The recommendations relating to resettlement and development have been broken up into issues pertaining to Reconciliation; Language policy; Education; Religion; Arts and culture; People to people contact; Vulnerable groups; Assistance to resettled families; Land issues; Refugees from India;
Muslim IDPs; Sinhala IDPs ; Long term IDPs; Compensation and monetary relief ; Resettlement assistance; and Tamils of recent Indian origin.
9 The action plan matrix is now available at www.priu.gov.lk
10 The Task Force has identified the recommendations that have actually been implemented and those in which action is required to be taken. Following the approval of the Cabinet, the Task Force will discuss the process of implementation with key government agencies and all stakeholders. A mechanism will be set up for the supervision of the implementation of the recommendations and progress reported to the Cabinet.
11 It is proposed to set in place mediation boards in terms of Mediation (Special Provisions) Law to resolve disputes between owners who have paper titles and have been displaced and those who are in unlawful occupation, as an alternate dispute resolution mechanism.
12 For the purpose of facilitating further investigations, the material collected by and the recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry to investigate and inquire into serious violations of Human Rights (Udalagama Commission), in relation to these two cases, has been submitted to the Inspector-General.
13 These two multi-pronged regional development programmes have been implemented to address immediate requirements in the North and East. The humanitarian assistance programme includes sectoral development initiatives, resettlement, economic and social development, growth and connectivity.
14 From 2005 to 2008 recruitment of Tamil officers to the Police was 396, from 2009 to 2011 it was 393, and in the first six months of 2012 it rose to 427. The total number of Tamil speaking police officers at present is 2,582 (of whom 2,181 are deployed in the North and East). In addition, several more persons with competence in Tamil (including ex-combatants) are being inducted into the Civil Defence Force which is a localized security force comprising personnel from within the District. The Army has recruited Tamil personnel as follows: 3 officers and 86 other ranks to its regular force and 1 officer and 27 other ranks into its volunteer force.
15 Language training for the police:
a. 3,424 Police Officials have been given Tamil language training 2009 – 2012.
b. 409 Police Officials have been given English language trainings 2009 – 2012.
16 The Military has also received language training as follows:
Army: Full time Tamil language training courses for 15 Officers and 301 Other Ranks; Navy: Full time Tamil language training course for 8 Officers and 151 Sailors; Air Force: Full time Tamil language training courses for 15 Officers and 141 Other ranks; and General: Tamil language package introduced into the tri-forces and police training.
17 The Palaly airport - which is to be upgraded, and the Kankesanthurai (KKS) harbour - are located less than 10 kilometres from the Industrial Zone, thus providing additional logistical advantages to investors.
18 Many former LTTE combatants are now in active politics. The LTTE's one time Eastern Province Commander is a junior Cabinet Minister. A former LTTE child soldier, was the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province. A number of former LTTE cadres have also become members of local government bodies.
19 The Supreme Court in its Special Determination No. 01/2010 determined that the Bill may be passed into law by being approved by the special majority required by the Constitution.
20 Multi-party discussions and analysis revealed that the arrangements under the 17th Amendment were insufficient to guarantee against political influence impacting upon appointments, as members of the erstwhile Constitutional Council were themselves nominees of leaders of political parties.
21 The motion was adopted by Parliament and Government has already nominated its members to the PSC and is awaiting the nomination of members representing the opposition, after which its sittings can commence.
22 Emergency was re-imposed after the assassination of the then Foreign Minister in August 2005.
23 The NHRAP addresses 08 areas, viz, civil and political rights (CPR), economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR), children's rights, labour rights, migrant worker rights, the prevention of torture (PoT), women’s rights and the rights of IDPs. An inter-ministerial committee on human rights has been established that will oversee its implementation and action is being taken to act upon other identified initiatives in keeping with the stipulated time frames. At the operational level, a body of senior officials of key institutions has been charged with overseeing implementation in line with their respective mandates and a dedicated unit has been established to support the various oversight mechanisms.
24 Examples of implementation of significant activities include the preparation of draft legislation on occupational safety, health and welfare at work by the Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations (Labour Rights), directives issued by the Police Department to ensure physical safety of persons taken into custody and the provision of access to legal counsel as of right (Prevention of Torture), the adoption and implementation of a national Trilingual policy as well as the enhancement of scope and reach of national vocational qualification (NVQ) by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (Economic Social and Cultural Rights), accelerated demining and awareness raising among IDPs of risks due to mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) (Rights of IDPs), implementation of the national action plan supporting the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 2005 (Rights of Women), strengthening capacity to support Child Helpline (Rights of Children), establishment by the Sri Lanka Police Department of a special unit to combat human smuggling and trafficking (Rights of Migrant Workers), completion of review and improvement of training syllabus and period of training for police officers including more emphasis on human rights and language training (especially Tamil language training) (Civil and Political Rights).
25 Available at http://www.statistics.gov.lk/PopHouSat/VitalStatistics/EVE2011_FinalReport.pdf (last accessed 12 July 2012).
26 The principal poverty alleviation programme which saw a commitment of Rs. 9.5 billion benefiting approximately 1.6 million persons. Consistent investment in ths programme has seen the poverty headcount ratio drop from 22 percent in 2002 to 8.9 percent by 2009/10.
27 In 2011 the Government spent approximately 42 billion on fertilizer subsidies – the biggest single item of welfare expenditure. The subsidy has important implications for agriculture, livelihoods and food security.
28 The several phases of the criminal justice system sought to be expedited are, (i) the conduct of criminal investigations by the police; (ii) conduct of forensic investigations by the judicial medical service and reporting; (iii) consideration of the institution of criminal proceedings by the Attorney- General and the institution of criminal proceedings; and (iv) the conduct of the trial. Time frames have been specified for each of these phases.
29 The project is presently being implemented as a pilot activity in the Western Province (High Court zone of Gampaha), North Central Province (HC zones of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa), Eastern Province (HC zone of Batticaloa) and the Northern Province (HC zone of Jaffna). The implementation of the project is monitored by a National Steering Committee headed by the Secretary Justice and involves the participation of representatives of the Attorney-General, Inspector General of Police, Chairman of the NCPA, Secretary to the Ministry of Health and a UNICEF representative.
30 IGP’s Circular 2328/2011 dated 29 December 2011 (Safety of Persons in Police Custody).
31 Extraordinary Gazette Notification 1758/36 dated 18 May 2012.
32 1,602 Police Officials have been trained on Crime Investigations and Prosecution Procedures, 2009 - 2012; Divisional Prosecution Units are headed by Assistant Superintendents of Police and have been established in the nine Provinces since 2009; three special high courts have been established in Anuradhapura, Vavuniya and Colombo to expedite terrorism related cases.
33 Training in human rights and international humanitarian law have been continuously conducted for the armed services and police. During the reporting period, some of the relevant training provided includes: Army: Dedicated IHL / HRL courses 33. 251 Officers and 346 Other Ranks; Other related programmes 1,020. 10,449 Officers and 96,087 Other Ranks; c. Other seminars (ICRC/HRCSL) - 169 attended by 2,589 Officers and 13,947 Other Ranks; Navy: 658 HR training courses during 2011. 127 Officers and 18, 532 Sailors have been trained; Air Force: 26 HR training courses in 2011. 219 Officers and 4,743 Other Ranks have been trained; Police: human rights training courses from 2009 -2012. 1,173 Police Officials have been trained.
34 3,073 inquiries have been made at Colombo, Boossa and Vavuniya as at 14 May 2012 – 2,582 in person, 486 by telephone and 5 by email. The number of investigations conducted to date are 401.
35 Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (2010); WGEID (2009 to 2012), Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Detention (2010), Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (2009 to 2012).
36 Investigations reveal that among the alleged disappearances there are genuine complaints, persons later traced, deceased persons including suicides, persons who have run away, eloped or left home for other personal reasons, persons in law enforcement custody, as well as a number of false complaints/
instances of misreporting.
37 The total number of persons reported allegedly missing in 2010 was 7,940 out of which 6,653 have been found. The corresponding numbers for 2011 are 7,296 and 5,185. In 2010 the number of persons allegedly “abducted” was 225 of whom 207 were later traced. The number of allegedly abducted in 2011 was 239 of whom 226 have been traced. Investigations continue into unresolved cases.