“For the Human Rights Commission to be successful in pushing for policy and legal reform, the government has to be responsive. The government has not shared draft legislation with us, there have been instances where we have made repeated requests and to date we have not received any of what we asked for” says Ambika Satkunananthan, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
“The Government needs to respect the role of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and have a proper understanding of it” the commissioner has further said.
Ambika Satkunananthan has made these remarks while addressing a forum at the launch of the National Partnership to End Violence Against Children by 2030.
HRC Chairman Dr.Deepika Udugama too had earlier voiced concerns over the same issue.
Satkunananthan also asked that the government take a more constructive approach to dealing with social issues and fulfilling its obligations in the international arena.
“We have a culture of denial, we have a problem in denying we have a problem in domestic violence or child abuse; especially when we are in front of international fora. When we go before treaty bodies, when we go before periodic reviews, we need to take a more constructive approach and note that these recommendations are helpful for us to bring about change and not look at it as adversarial process,”she said as she referred to Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the international human rights arena.
With the inputs from Daily News