The Human Rights Committee today, while completing its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Sri Lanka on its implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, pointed out that outstanding human rights issues still remain in Sri Lanka.

Presenting the report, Ravinatha Aryasinha, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to United Nations Office at Geneva, said although LTTE terrorist group was militarily defeated in May 2009 the threat of terrorism had not abated.  Therefore Sri Lanka had to be continuously vigilant to safeguard against any resurgence of terrorism in the country.  Successive Governments had faced the challenge of preserving human rights in the context of violent acts of terrorism but during the entire conflict the Government had continuously supplied food, medicines and other essential requirements to the citizens in terrorist-dominated areas.  Most of all, the Government had succeeded in restoring to the entirety of Sri Lanka’s population the most important right, the right to life.  He also said that Sri Lanka was fully committed to the protection of human rights defenders and media personnel or institutions.

During the discussion, Committee Experts asked a wide array of questions on the subject of reprisals against human rights defenders, discrimination, arbitrary arrest and persecution of journalists and media workers, allegations of widespread enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings, and the use of torture.  Serious concern was expressed about the reversal of the burden of proof to the detainee to prove he had been forced to make a forced confession.  The ruling of the Singeraser case that the consideration of individual communications by the Committee was tantamount to external jurisdiction was discussed.  Other issues raised included overcrowding in prisons and pre-trial detention, impunity, discrimination against women and abortion in cases of rape, and discrimination against minorities including the Tamils and Muslims.

In concluding remarks, Nigel Rodley, Chairman of the Committee, said the Committee recognized that Sri Lanka had come to the end of a bloody war fighting against a body that did not hesitate to resort to terrorist methods to achieve its ends and it was good that many displaced persons had been resettled.  However, outstanding issues included the reversal of the burden of proof for forced confessions, systematic use of torture, enforced disappearances, impunity and the ruling that the consideration of individual communications by the Committee was tantamount to external jurisdiction.

 Aryasinha, in concluding remarks, said the transition from a country fighting terrorism for 30 years to five years post conflict was not easy and he hoped the Committee would appreciate that, and also that Commissions, including the Commission of Inquiry on missing persons, often took a long time to complete their mandates.

The delegation of Sri Lanka included representatives of the Bureau for Reconciliation, Ministry of Resettlement, Ministry of Child Development and Women’s Affairs, Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reform, Ministry of Law and Order, Attorney General’s Department, Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, Ministry of External Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva.