The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will undertake its second visit to Sri Lanka from June 15 to 24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism said on Friday.

The first SPT visit to Sri Lanka was in April 2019, following the country’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in December 2017. On accession, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) was designated as Sri Lanka’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) under OPCAT.

The four-member delegation will hold meetings at ministerial level and engage with senior officials of relevant government ministries, departments and institutions. It will also meet representatives of the HRCSL and members of civil society. The delegation comprises Aisha Shujune Muhammad of the Maldives (Head of delegation), Jakub Julian Czepek of Poland, Anica Tomsic of Croatia and Nika Kvaratskhelia of Georgia, accompanied by officials of the SPT Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Ministry said the government will engage with the Subcommittee “in an open, constructive, and transparent manner,” consistent with its policy of continued engagement with the UN and in fulfilment of treaty body obligations under the Constitution.

The visit lands during an active accountability cycle around the PTA detention of former SIS Director Suresh Sallay, the Court of Appeal writ petition by SDIG Waruna Jayasundara, and the wider Easter Sunday attacks probe. The SPT has unrestricted access under OPCAT to all places of detention and to private interviews with detainees, and routinely inspects police custody facilities, prisons, immigration detention centres and psychiatric wards. The HRCSL as NPM has been quietly active in its own inspection rounds, including a recent summons of CID over the Sallay investigation.

Update — June 15: Delegation arrives in Colombo

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism confirmed on Monday that the four-member UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture delegation has arrived in Sri Lanka and will remain in the country until June 24. The delegation is expected to hold discussions with senior officials from relevant government ministries, departments and institutions, as well as representatives of the Human Rights Commission and members of civil society over the ten-day visit.

Sources: Ada Derana; EconomyNext; Delegation of the United Nations Torture Prevention Subcommittee Arrives in Sri Lanka — NewsFirst, June 15.