Weed out seeds of prejudice against Sri Lanka - Mohan

Sri Lanka yesterday appealed the UNHRC and the international community to weed out from their mind any seeds of prejudice against Sri Lanka which is well on the way to reconciliation.

Speaking at the 19^th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Former Sri Lankan Attorney General Mohan Peiris said that Sri Lanka has a Zero tolerance policy on torture. 

The expression human rights defender is a very amorphous term, Peiris stated. ‘I would equally alert you not to fall prey to those who masquerade behind the readymade cloak of Human Rights defender creating political havoc wherever they are at the behest of their political masters in their execution of collateral agendas.’ He added.

Peiris stated that the alert regarding Sri Lanka is pure ‘conjecture and surmises and made with the singular purpose of causing prejudice to any constructive engagement’ between Sri Lanka and the office of the President of the UNHRC.

Excerpt of statement;

Let me congratulate both Special Rapporteurs for dealing with a difficult mandate with prudence. Sri Lanka has had the· benefit of the knowledge and experience of several of your predecessors who helped in a very constructive manner to fine tuning our criminal jurisprudence.

We have taken on board several of the suggestions and have implemented them.

The expression human rights defender is a very amorphous term. We believe you have the competency to identify those of them whose heart and soul are genuinely with Human Rights.

I would equally alert you not to fall prey to those who masquerade behind the readymade cloak of Human Rights defender creating political havoc wherever they are at the behest of their political masters in their execution of collateral agendas. The alert regarding Sri Lanka is pure conjecture and surmises and made with the singular purpose of causing prejudice to any constructive engagement between Sri Lanka and your office.

You will be pleased to note that Sri Lanka has a Zero tolerance policy on torture. This is cogently reflected in the fact that we have a constitutional guarantee against torture. We have also adopted the provisions of the Convention Against Torture into our local legislation by the enactment of the Convention Against Torture Act. We have filed several prosecutions under this law against law enforcement officers.

We are presently studying a major amendment to the Criminal Procedure to provide a Duty Attorney Scheme in every Police District on the lines of PACE in the UK providing legal services· as a mandatory right at police stations to every suspect within a short time of arrest. We also have in place the National Police Commission exclusively mandated to hear public complaints. We are sensitive to the urgent need to protect civil rights and particularly the protection against Torture.

We assure you that we will unconditionally support your work with which we share a common platform, a common objective. We are confident that we will succeed in our common stand against torture and uphold human rights as pledged in our National Action Plan and to this end we humbly ask you must take us into your confidence and weed out from your mind any seeds of prejudice against Sri Lanka which is well on the way to reconciliation.