Green-lighting torture

It’s getting rather difficult these days to keep track of which liberties exactly the Government is painfully extricating from its people. While much of the country is up in arms about the incoming price hikes of several essential commodities, the Government quietly went about gazetting an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Bill on 8 October.

This piece of legislation, if it comes to pass, will essentially enable Police and prison officials to request a magistrate “dispense with the personal attendance in court of a suspect” held in custody. Not only does this damage constitutional safeguards against torture, but it also goes against the UN’s Convention Against Torture, which says that it should be ensured “that detained persons are promptly brought before a judge within the time limit established by law, which should not go beyond 48 hours.”

Considering the spotlight on Sri Lanka’s human rights record with regard to it keeping the GSP+, and that just earlier this year, human rights activists had highlighted how political detainees in Sri Lanka were being tortured while in Police and military custody – and despite the Government denying such accusations – such moves can only be viewed in the most negative of lights.

Indeed, even without the passing of the newly gazetted amendments, detainees have frequently not been brought before a magistrate within 24 hours as required by law, and magistrates many a time have not given serious consideration to allegations of mistreatment, including by ensuring that the detainee receives proper medical attention from a judicial medical officer.

To be clear, domestic and international law prohibit police from excessive force; arbitrary arrests and detentions; and torture or other ill-treatment of suspects in custody. However, the police often bypass or ignore procedural safeguards that exist in Sri Lankan law and are required under international human rights law, including in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sri Lanka is a party. These include the right to be informed of criminal charges, to have access to a lawyer of one’s choosing, and to be promptly brought before a judge. Sri Lanka’s Code of Criminal Procedure contains further safeguards, including registration of arrest and production of the accused before a magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest

It is well-known that the police frequently use torture to try to obtain confessions rather than undertaking the more difficult and time-consuming process of gathering evidence through investigations. Police also use beatings and other forms of torture to punish suspects they believe are guilty, instead of leaving the matter properly to the courts. International and domestic human rights defenders have frequently reported that the use of torture and other ill-treatment is common, even for minor offenses.

The cases documented by Human Rights Watch and others reflect a longstanding pattern of procedural violations. Suspects frequently are not informed about the reasons for their arrest. Police sometimes fabricate charges to justify the initial arrest and subsequent abusive interrogation methods. Family members usually are not informed of an arrest or allowed access to their detained relatives. Suspects may have little or no access to legal representation, and protection mechanisms such as examination by medical officers are haphazardly or improperly implemented.

If this new legislation is allowed to pass, it will be yet another nail in the already flimsy human rights afforded to detainees in Sri Lanka, as no longer will torture be tacitly enabled, it will at that point provide perpetrators all the legal means necessary to get away with their crimes.