Sri Lanka organises side event at 8th session of UNTOC in Vienna

The delegation from Sri Lanka, attending the 8th session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) organised a side event on ‘International Cooperation on Combating Transnational Organised Crime’ on 18 October as an initiative of the Ministry of Justice of Sri Lanka.

The delegation comprised of officials from the Attorney General’s Department, Sri Lanka Police, Department of Immigration and Emigration, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, and the Department of Legal Draftsman.

With her opening remarks, Sri Lanka Ambassador and Permanent Representative in Vienna Priyanee Wijesekera explained the focus of the event.

Additional Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanne PC outlined the historical evolution of Sri Lanka’s legal framework, emphasising the fact that, as a member of the Commonwealth, we inherited the presumption of innocence as a basic feature of criminal justice. Therefore, confessions are treated as inadmissible. He gave a brief outline of Sri Lanka’s legal framework, legislation, judicial proceedings in relation to the transnational organised crime and protecting victims of human trafficking personnel, particularly the sexual exploitation of children and women. He referred to the legislation on Sri Lanka’s Victim’s Right Bill which was ratified recently aiming to uphold and enforce the rights and entitlement of victims of crimes and witnesses. Jayamanne stressed the importance of international cooperation on mutual legal assistance to combat transnational organised crimes and countries assisting each other in law enforcement matters.

Additional General Manager of the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment M.A.C.K. Premasiri, described the bureau’s role in regulating the employment agencies, controlling recruitment, complaint handling mechanisms, and settlement of disputes. She also highlighted Sri Lanka’s recent progress at the ‘Colombo Process’ with regard to prevention of human trafficking and emphasised the local mechanism of monitoring Sri Lanka’s progress on combating human trafficking  through the ‘National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force’. 

The Deputy Controller of the Department of Immigration and Emigration A.H.L. De Soysa outlined the challenges and sketched the measures taken by the Government to combat the human trafficking within the framework of the immigration and emigration laws of Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Legal Draftsman of the Department of Legal Draftsman described her department’s role of transforming national policies on human trafficking into law through legislation.