The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake with updates on steps it has taken to implement eight recommendations issued by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions Sub-Committee on Accreditation (GANHRI SCA) for maintaining its ‘A’ status accreditation, Daily FT reported.
The reaccreditation recognised that the HRCSL’s current mandate, appointment process and work adequately meet the standards reflected in the Paris Principles on the Status of National Human Rights Institutions. In its report, the SCA also made eight recommendations aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and independence of the commission.
In its letter to President Dissanayake, the HRCSL provided updates on implementation progress and presented proposals to the government on strengthening the Human Rights Commission Act, No. 21 of 1996, to fully give effect to the SCA’s recommendations. The updates covered unannounced visits to places of deprivation of liberty, interaction with the international human rights system, cooperation with other human rights bodies and civil society organisations, financial autonomy, pluralism and diversity of staff, term of office, selection and appointment, and the commission’s handling of violations including violence, discrimination, custodial deaths, torture and enforced disappearance.
The report also contained proposals on strengthening the HRCSL Act to enhance the autonomy of the commission and improve enforcement of its recommendations. The engagement comes against the backdrop of recent HRCSL activity on conditions in correctional facilities, including the violations recorded by the prisons chief inquiry earlier in the cycle, and is the commission’s first formal Presidential-level engagement on its Paris Principles accreditation track this year.
Source: Daily FT.
