We are sharing with you a Tamil translaton of an Article published by the Asian Human Rights Commission, in Commemoraiton of the International Day in Support of Torture Victims, where the “… Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC SL) marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture in a rather unusual and impressive way. It organized a demonstration with participants carrying placards that said, “Stop Torture”. The president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, was among the demonstrators. There were also other officials, including senior police officers, who wore armbands with the words “Stop Torture” on them. Schoolchildren were also among the participants.
Symbolically speaking, this demonstration is of great significance for many reasons. The struggle to eliminate torture in Sri Lanka was a protest movement started by a few civil society organisations about fifteen years ago. It was initially a small movement, but as time went by the demand for ending police torture in particular became widely discussed. A number of organisations collected the narratives of victims of torture and presented the narratives to all relevant authorities. These narratives were also sent to the relevant UN agencies and these agencies consistently intervened with the Sri Lankan government, emphasizing on the government’s obligation to stop torture. Now there is a large body of literature, available both on print media as well as on the internet, providing graphic details of torture taking place in almost all police stations in Sri Lanka…..”
You may read the Full Article in the Tamil language HERE.
