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Thousands of old cases of torture being dealt with by HRCSL, says chairperson
View(s):The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has started reviewing complaints of old torture cases which were suspended without being investigated, HRCSL chairperson Dr. Deepika Udagama told the Sunday Times.
“There were many cases of disappearance and torture that were suspended. Some cases were as old as seven to eight years or sometimes more,” she said.
Accordingly, files that have been accumulated upto 2014, that have piled up in thousands, are being looked into by staff who have been especially hired to look into clearing the backlog.
Meanwhile, cases after 2014, that are considered recent, are going through the normal process of being reviewed and investigated by the Commission, she said.
Torture, disappearance, custodial violation, detention and arbitrary arrests are the most common cases received by the HRCSL.
However, after the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) was instituted, disappearance cases were referred to the OMP but cases of grave human rights violations will be reviewed by the HRCSL.
According to Dr. Udagama the HRCSL has adopted a method of screening cases and referring them to the relevant authorities, which, in turn, will allow the commission to function more efficiently.