UN torture prevention body to visit SL in April

As the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council comes to an end on March 22, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture will visit Sri Lanka in early April, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said yesterday.

In a statement, it said the UN Subcommittee will visit Sri Lanka, Argentina and the State of Palestine in the coming months, in addition to its previously announced visits to Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Senegal and the UK.

“The visit to Sri Lanka will take place in early April, and a media advisory announcing the precise dates, as well as further information, will be issued ahead of the visit,” it said.

The visits had been decided during the Subcommittee’s confidential session held in Geneva from February 18 to 22.

In other work during its session, the Subcommittee welcomed Panama’s recent establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism against torture, and removed the country from its list of states significantly overdue in establishing such a mechanism.

To date, the Subcommittee has completed more than 65 visits. The Subcommittee has a mandate to visit states which have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, and assist those states in preventing torture and other forms of ill-treatment. The Subcommittee communicates its observations and recommendations to states through a confidential report, which it encourages countries to make public. (Lahiru Pothmulla)