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"Devastating" report on torture is a wake up call for Sri Lankan president - ITJP

A UN report describing Sri Lanka’s culture of torture should be a wake up call to the country’s president to comply with international obligations, an international justice group has said.

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in a press release responding to to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture’s report on Sri Lanka, said a UN report describing a “culture of torture” in Sri Lanka reinforced by decades of impunity is a wake up call to President Sirisena’s Government to comply with its obligations under international law and to the international community to put torture prevention at the core of its engagement with the new Government.”

Welcoming the “devastating” report, ITJP’s executive director, Yasmin Sooka said “there has been a deep seated reluctance to accept the evidence on the on-going violations but without security sector reform these sorts of violations will inevitably continue. Denying the evidence of ongoing abductions because they are politically inconvenient is an unforgivable affront to the scores of victims whose cases have been painstakigly documented by ITJP, our medical colleagues and other human rights groups.” 

Read ITJP’s full press release here.

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