Prevention of police torture in Sri Lanka

Country: Sri Lanka

Contact person: Erik Wendt

Partner: Located in Hong Kong, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is a private regional human rights organization, which supports victims of torture and organized violence. The organization was started in 1983 with the goal of protecting and promoting human rights in Asia. AHRC takes a rights-based approach to its work, which involves promotion of social equality, provision of human rights training, promotion of legal and administrative reforms, conflict resolution and reconciliation processes. The organization documents human rights violations and contributes to promoting the international attention on the area - especially within UN and EU. The international advocacy and lobby efforts are followed up by concrete regional and national interventions.

Project:The project walks in the footsteps of a similar project supported by the RCT in Sri Lanka since 2004, and therefore will be able to build on the expertise and knowledge, that has already been generated. The project has a three year term (2010-2012) and the aim is to prevent police torture and obtain redress for torture victims in Sri Lanka. This will be met by two objectives - promoting legal reforms within the criminal justice sector and strengthening the professional capacity within the legal, medical and other health professions, including rehabilitation. The project will be conducted with AHRC in collaboration with partner organizations in Sri Lanka.

Main activities of the RCT and the AHRC partnership in Sri Lanka:

• Advocacy for legal reforms on the criminal justice system
• Raising public awareness and support of torture victims
• Building international concern and pressure
• Research on the legal reform package and the community approach
• Mobilizing the legal profession, medical and psychological practitioners, academics and civil society groups
• Assistance to victims for legal redress
• Documentation of torture cases
• Psychological and medical assistance to torture victims
• A Women Group will be formed to integrate the gender perspective in project activities

Read more:
In June 2011 AHRC published a report on 323 cases of police torture in Sri Lanka from 1998 to 2011. Read it here.