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SL Human Rights Com. gets ‘A’ status from Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions
View(s):The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has been designated as a body that is fully compliant with the Paris Principles, adopted in 1993 by the UN General Assembly.
In broad terms, the Paris Principles require rights bodies to protect and promote human rights. There are many other obligations, too.
The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions has, following a review, granted the ‘A’ status to the Sri Lankan rights body, recognising that it complies with the Paris Principles.
The global alliance is a forum of national human rights institutions. The accreditation is recognised by the United Nations.
One criteria for receiving an ‘A’ status is political independence of a national institution both in law and in practice. Also, the national institution must reflect the diversity in the society it serves.
The commission chairperson, Dr Deepika Udagama, said that the ‘A’ status was made possible because of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, as it required the establishment of independent commissions.
Of the 120 rights bodies reviewed, Sri Lanka was among the 77 countries that were accredited with an ‘A’ status. In South Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal are the only countries to have ‘A’ grade bodies.
The accreditation attempt was unsuccessful in 2007 and 2009.
Moreover, together with the ‘A’ status, the commission will also receive approval for the scheme of recruitment.
Dr Udagama said that that due to the inability to meet government standards regarding the scheme of recruitment, approval was never permitted– as a result of which employment was frozen since early 2000.
“The employment freeze meant shortage of staff which subsequently resulted in files piling up. Hence we have adopted the process of screening cases where the most grave violations of human rights will be handled by the commission whereas others will be referred to the relevant institution,’’ she said.
She urged the Government to provide the commission with draft bills before a law is passed as it can then advise on any violations of human rights in a bill.
“Many laws violate human rights. A classic example would be that of the code of criminal procedure which was to be amended. The stated reason for the amendment was to ensure that an arrested person has access to a lawyer. However, the law drafted and passed stated that the arrested person will be allowed a lawyer only after the first statement is recorded.” According to her, in most cases, it is during the first statement that suspects are tortured at police stations.
As for the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Dr. Udagama stated that an anti terrorism law, which is a security law, must be introduced, but it should be in line with human rights standards.