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SRI LANKA: Eight-year-old requires hospitalisation following torture by her school teacher

March 28, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

29 March 2006
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UA-109-2006: SRI LANKA: Eight-year-old requires hospitalisation following torture by her school teacher

SRI LANKA: Brutal assault of a minor; threat and intimidation; violation of the right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; violation of the right to education; collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to inform you that yet another case of torture against a school student has occurred in Sri Lanka. Having recently reported on five cases of torture of school students (please see UA-100-2006, UA-093-2006, UA-089-2006, UA-060-2006, UP-033-2006 and UA-173-2005), the AHRC has now learned that eight-year-old, Nimalka Marasinghe was tortured by her teacher, Mrs. Ranasinghe on 17 March 2006. Though Mrs. Ranasinghe has been charged, after being produced before the Kegalle Magistrate’s Court, the school principal and educational authorities are now pressuring the victim and her family to withdraw the complaint.

After the victim was tortured by Mrs. Ranasinghe, she was taken to the Rambukkana Government Hospital and then transferred to the Kegalle General Hospital. There she received treatment for three days.

Following a complaint having been lodged, the Rambukkana police arrested Mrs. Ranasinghe, and produced her before the Kegalle Magistrate’s Court, where she was charged and released on bail. While the AHRC welcomes this news, we have also learned that prior to this point the educational authorities made serious attempts to conceal this crime and to protect the alleged perpetrator. The school principal and educational authorities have also joined together to pressure the victim and her family to withdraw the complaint. Thus, instead of protecting the child’s fundamental right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to education, the education and school authorities have attempted to hinder this case, causing further victimisation to the child.

SUGGESTED ACTION
Please write to the relevant persons listed below condemning the actions of the perpetrator and concerned authorities regarding this case. Please highlight that physically punishing/assaulting schoolchildren is against the law as per the Circular issued by the Education Department. Please also note that should the teacher be found guilty, as a public officer she must be subject to the provisions of the CAT Act. An immediate investigation must be launched into this matter and if the allegations are found to be true, then the perpetrator must be held accountable for her crimes.

Suggested letter:

Dear _________,

SRI LANKA: Eight-year-old requires hospitalisation following torture by her school teacher

Name of the victim: Nimalka Marasinghe, 8 years, a grade 4 student of the Parakrama School, Rambukkana. (Father’s name: Jayantha Marasinghe, a three-wheel cab drive also of Rambukkana)
Name of the alleged perpetrator: Mrs. Ranasinghe, a teacher of the Parakrama School, Rambukkana  Date of incident: in 17 March 2006

I write to you in dismay at the news that yet another child has been tortured by her teacher in a Sri Lankan school. Having recently learned of five other cases of torture of school students, I have now discovered that eight-year-old, Nimalka Marasinghe was tortured by her teacher, Mrs. Ranasinghe on 17 March 2006. Though Mrs. Ranasinghe has been charged, after being produced before the Kegalle Magistrate’s Court, the school principal and educational authorities are now pressuring the victim and her family to withdraw the complaint.

After the victim was tortured by Mrs. Ranasinghe, she was taken to the Rambukkana Government Hospital and then transferred to the Kegalle General Hospital. There she received treatment for three days.

Following a complaint having been lodged, the Rambukkana police arrested Mrs. Ranasinghe, and produced her before the Kegalle Magistrate’s Court, where she was charged and released on bail. While I welcome this news, I have also learned that prior to this point the educational authorities made serious attempts to conceal this crime and to protect the alleged perpetrator. The school principal and educational authorities have also joined together to pressure the victim and her family to withdraw the complaint. Thus, instead of protecting the child’s fundamental right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to education, the education and school authorities have attempted to hinder this case, causing further victimisation to the child.

In light of the above, I call on you to intervene in this matter. An immediate investigation must be launched into this case and the perpetrator, if found to have committed the alleged crimes, must be held accountable. Such conduct by a teacher is a clear violation of the Circular issued by the Education Department on 11 May 2005, which prohibits physical punishment and assault of schoolchildren. Furthermore, as a public officer (or person working in an official capacity), the alleged perpetrator must be subject to the provisions of the Convention Against Torture(CAT) Act No 22 of 1994, which calls for a mandatory seven year sentence to those found guilty.

Further, the investigation should also inquire into the alleged conduct of the school principal and educational authorities. If it is found that they did indeed threaten or pressure the victim and her family to withdraw the case, then disciplinary action must be taken.

I trust your intervention will be forthcoming in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Dr. Hiranthi Wijemanne
National Child Protection Authority
330, Thalawathgoda Road
Madiwella
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 778912/13/14
Fax: +94 11 2 778975
E-mail: ncpa@childprotection.gov.lk

2. Minister for Education
Ministry of Education
SRI LANKA
Tel: + 94 11 2 785 617
Fax: + 94 11 2 784 846

3. The Provincial Director of Education
Department of Education
76, Anandakumarasamy Mawatha
Colombo 07
SRI LANKA
Fax no. +94 11 2693894

4. Bo Viktor Nylun
Head of Child Protection
UNICEF Sri Lanka
P.O. Box 143, Colombo
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 555 270 (6 lines)
Fax: +94 11 2  551 333
E-mail: colombo@unicef.org 

5. Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk 

6. Mr. Chandra Fernando
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877

7. National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: polcom@sltnet.lk

8. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421

9. Mr. J Thangawelu
DIG Legal
Police Headquarters
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: 94 11 2381 394
Email: legaldiv@police.lk 

10. Mr. Jacob Egbert Doek
Chairperson
Committee on the Rights of the Child
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917 9022

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-109-2006
Countries :
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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.