PRESS RELEASE

ALRC-PL-56-2004

(Hong Kong, July 28, 2004) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has urged the U.N. Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to conduct a study on the "exceptional collapse of the rule of law in Sri Lanka".

In a proposal submitted to the sub-commission's 56th session, the Hong Kong-based regional group said the high state of insecurity in Sri Lanka, resulting from the breakdown of the law-enforcement and legal institutions, has led to an increase in crime, particularly the spread of violence and torture.

There is a comprehensive denial of rights in Sri Lanka, which comes about by making the complaint process extremely difficult for those who suffer rights violations and by allowing fear to prevail and deter people from seeking redress, the ALRC said.

The ALRC's proposed study was aimed at helping Sri Lanka to restore the now collapsed public trust and confidence in the institutions pertaining to the rule of law and thus augment the state's effort to establish stable and sustainable peace in the country.

The U.N. sub-commission was called on to probe into the situation in Sri Lanka and make recommendations to the Commission on Human Rights according to its mandate.

However, due to technical reasons, the sub-commission did not include the ALRC's proposal in its agenda.

Speaking on behalf of the ALRC in Geneva on Tuesday, representative Ali Saleem urged the sub-commission to find a way to make the study "as one of its primary concern to contribute towards realisation of effective remedy for human rights violations and thus become relevant to those millions who suffer violation of their rights despite the existence of international human rights protectorate".

"If not, we may not have any answer to our future generations for making their life miserable and let not this august body affix its seal of approval to that situation by its consented silence," he said.

Such a study could lead to considerable improvement in conditions of Sri Lanka, which would in turn have a positive influence on the current uneasy truce in the country's long-running civil war, he said. "If, on the other hand, the present exceptional collapse of the rule of law continues, peace will remain a distant dream."

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About ALRC The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. ALRC is the sister organisation of Asian human Rights Commission.  The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels throughout Asia.