COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
years of age in respect of any person under sixteen (16) years of age shall be punished
worth [sic] rigorous imprisonment for a term not less than 10 years and not exceeding
20 years and with a fine and shall also be ordered to pay compensation of amount
determined by court to the person in respect of whom the offence was committed for the
injuries caused to such a person.‘‖
19.05 The Status of Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgendered Persons in Sri Lanka,
NGO Shadow Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women 319 , dated January 2011 noted that:
―Section 365A of the Penal Code (enacted in 1883) criminalises sexual activity between
two consenting adults of the same sex. In 1995, the government amended the word
‗males‘ in the original text to ‗persons‘, thereby criminalising same-sex sexual activity
between women as well.
―This provision discriminates against lesbian, bisexual and transgender men and
women by denying them their right to life, right to equality and right to choice.
―To date although there have been no convictions under this provision of the Penal
Code, complaints have been received by police stations citing this provision. This
criminalization paves the way for police and anti-gay groups to brand all lesbian,
bisexual, transgendered persons as ‗perverts‘ and criminals. The fear of being
apprehended and identified as a person of non-normative sexual behavior or practice
leads to a cycle of silence by members of the LBT community, by their families and
friends and by the society as a whole and makes them vulnerable to a range of abuses
including extortion, intimidation, unlawful arrest and detention, harassment and torture.‖
See also Women
19.06 The NGO, Women‘s Support Group 320 state in an undated entry on its website
(accessed on 1 June 2011) noted that: ―The Sri Lankan legal system makes it extremely
difficult for our [LGBT] community to live openly. The Penal Code based on 19th century
British law, states that homosexual sexual activity is a crime. Up till 1995, the subject of
this law was only men. However, the 1995 amendment to the Penal Code made it
‗gender-neutral' and now the Penal Code criminalizes both male and female
homosexual sexual activity.‖
19.07 The same report 321 also observed that:
319
The Status of Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgendered Persons in Sri Lanka, NGO Shadow
Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, prepared by
the Women’s support Group, dated January 2011
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/WSG_SriLanka48.pdf date accessed 25 May
2011, p2-3
320
Women’s Support Group, Introduction, undated http://www.wsglanka.com/index.html date accessed 1
June 2011
321
The Status of Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgendered Persons in Sri Lanka, NGO Shadow
Report to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, prepared by
the Women’s support Group, dated January 2011
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/WSG_SriLanka48.pdf date accessed 25 May
2011, p5
130 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.