COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
11.03 The USSD 2010 211 report also observed that: ―Outside of alleged secret, and therefore
incommunicado, detentions and prisons, detainees were allowed access to family
members. A number of observers complained about the slow pace of the judicial
process, with some estimates claiming that more than half those in prison were either
awaiting or undergoing trial.‖
11.04 The UNCAT‘s Concluding Observations of 25 November 2011 212 observed:
―8. Notwithstanding the statement of the Sri Lankan delegation categorically denying all
allegations about the existence of unacknowledged detention facilities in its territory, the
Committee is seriously concerned about reports received from non-governmental
sources regarding secret detention centres run by the Sri Lankan military intelligence
and paramilitary groups where enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial
killings have allegedly been perpetrated…
―12. The Committee notes that according to the State party‘s core report, more than
80,000 persons were imprisoned annually between 2000-2005, of whom more than
60,000 were unconvicted. Furthermore, according to the additional written information
provided by the State party‘s delegation, 765 persons are detained in Sri Lanka under
administrative detention orders as of 11 November 2011 but there is no central registry
on detentions carried out under the PTA. The Committee recalls with concern that, in
response to the Committee‘s confidential inquiry under article 20 of the Convention
(April 1999 - May 2002, A/57/44, paras. 123-195), the State party informed it that a
computerized central police registry had been established, yet now reveals this has not
happened…‖
―14. The Committee is concerned at the deplorable levels of overcrowding and poor
conditions prevailing at police stations and prisons, especially the lack of hygiene,
inadequate medical care, the non-separation of convicted and remand prisoners and
the failure to keep adult detainees and juvenile offenders separate, as reported by the
Special Rapporteur on torture (A/HRC/7/3/Add.6 and A/HRC/13/39/Add.6). In this
respect, the Committee regrets the absence of information provided by the State party
on measures taken to improve conditions of detention for those held on remand and for
convicted persons…‖
11.05 The Tamil Information Centre‘s submission to the Committee Against Torture on Sri
Lanka 213 , October 2011 noted:
―Conditions in some military and police places of detention in which people detained
under the PTA are held are so appalling as to amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment. People providing testimony on their detention by both the military and the
211 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 1d
212 UNCAT, Forty-seventh session, 31 October–25 November 201, Consideration of reports submitted by
States parties under article 19 of the Convention, Advance Unedited Version, Concluding observations of
the Committee against Torture, 25 November 2011
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/co/CAT.C.LKA.CO.3-4_en.doc date accessed 7 February
2012
213 Tamil Information Centre submission to the Committee Against Torture on Sri Lanka,
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/ngos/TIC_SriLanka47.pdf date accessed 13 January 2012,
Conditions in detention
96 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.