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UPDATE (Sri Lanka): A magistrate neglects an exhumation request for six months in a case of suspicious death

June 18, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-027-2010



18 June 2010

[RE: AHRC-UAC-174-2009: Police block a poor mother’s request for a criminal investigation into the death of her daughter.]
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SRI LANKA: A magistrate neglects an exhumation request for six months in a case of suspicious death

ISSUES: Administration of justice; corruption; police negligence
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned that, more than eight months since the mysterious death of a 24-year-old woman, no investigation has been opened, and requests to exhume the body for a post mortem have not been entertained. The young woman’s underprivileged mother has repeatedly appealed to the authorities to have it looked into. A Galle magistrate asked for a report at the beginning of the year but has not since followed up on the case, and no response has been received from the office of the Chief Justice. Please write to urge due judicial attention to the case, noting that the longer it takes, the more compromised any medical evidence will be.

UPDATED DETAILS:

R.G. Malini has repeatedly attempted to have the circumstances of her daughter’s death criminally investigated since September 2009, yet no follow up action has been taken by the relevant court. A court order is necessary for the girl’s body to be exhumed, and the investigation started.

As you can read in our original appeal UAC-174-2010, Malini was told that her daughter died of an unspecified sickness while in the service of her foster family, but she has not been able to find out anything further. She claims that her daughter, Vajira, had been reporting ill treatment at the residence for years.

After the police initially refused to file her complaint, no attempt has been made to look at or preserve the medical evidence. After the urgent appeal was forwarded to the Galle Magistrate’s Court in December 2009, with an exhumation request, a magistrate asked for Malini to file and send an affidavit. This was done within the month, and sent against in March as a reminder, but no further response has been given. The local NGO involved in the case has also written directly to the Chief Justice, and received no reply. It is important to note that any medical evidence will be compromised over time, reducing the likelihood of a successful investigation. The mother, who is a domestic helper with little means or formal education, reports feeling too scared to visit the court at present in an action against her daughter’s former minders; she is being helped by her employer.

There has also been no investigation done into the legal status under which Vajira lived as a minor with her foster family, for whom she reportedly worked. As noted in our appeal, Sri Lanka has obligations under the Conventions of the Rights of the Child which it ratified in 1991. There has also been no action taken against the officers who illegally refused to file the woman’s complaint, denying her right to access the law.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please join us in urging that this case be taken up without further delay.

To support this appeal please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear --------------------,

SRI LANKA: A magistrate neglects an exhumation request for six months in a case of suspicious death

Name of victim:
1. Vajira Kumari, 24, deceased
2. Ms. Malini, her mother
Negligent officials:
Officers attached to Galle Police Station, Galle Division, Southern Range
Galle Magistrate
Date of incident: 19 September 2009
Place of incident: Osanagoda, Maha Modara, Galle

I worried to hear that, more than eight months since the mysterious death of a 24-year-old woman, no investigation has been opened, and requests to exhume the body for a post mortem have not been entertained.

I understand that R.G. Malini has repeatedly attempted to have the circumstances of her daughter’s death criminally investigated since September 2009, yet no follow up action has been taken by the relevant court. A court order is currently necessary for the girl’s body to be exhumed, and the investigation started.

In 2009 Ms. Malini was told that her daughter had died of an unspecified sickness while in the service of her foster family, but she has not been able to find out anything further. She claims that her daughter, Vajira, had been reporting ill treatment at the residence for years.

After the police initially and illegally refused to file her complaint, I understand that no attempt has been made to look at or preserve the medical evidence. After the urgent appeal was forwarded to the Galle Magistrate’s Court in December 2009, with an exhumation request, a magistrate asked for Ms. Malini to file and send an affidavit. This was done within the month, and sent against in March as a reminder, but no further response has been given. The local NGO involved in the case has also written directly to the Chief Justice, and received no reply. It is important to note that any medical evidence will be compromised over time, reducing the likelihood of a successful investigation. The mother, who is a domestic helper with little means or formal education, reports feeling too scared to visit the court at present in an action against her daughter’s former minders; she is being helped by her employer.

There has also been no investigation done into the legal status under which Vajira lived as a minor with her foster family, for whom she reportedly worked. As noted in our appeal, Sri Lanka has obligations under the Conventions of the Rights of the Child which it ratified in 1991.

I also request that the negligent actions of Galle police be thoroughly looked into, in a bid to understand the extent to which the Sri Lankan system is inaccessible to those without financial means or formal education.

Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Mahinda Balasuriya
Inspector General of Police (IGP),
New Secretariat,
Colombo 1,
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440
E-mail: igp@police.lk

2. Mr. Mohan Peiris
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department,
Colombo 12,
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421

3. Secretary, National Police Commission,
3rd Floor Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road,
Colombo 03,
SRI LANKA
Tel/Fax: +94 11 2 395960
E-mail: polcom@sltnet.lk

4. Secretary, Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,
No 108 Barnes Place,
Colombo 07
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

5. The Magistrate
Magistrate Court
Fort
Galle
SRI LANKA

6. Chief Justice,
Office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
Superior Courts Complex,
Colombo-12,
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94-11-2437534


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
AHRC-UAU-027-2010
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.