Action Plan for the protection and promotion of human rights (2 items)

Substantive improvements envisaged: Action Plan for rights protection


* Suggestions taken from all sectors
* Document will be sent to UNHR Commissioner

Rasika SOMARATHNA

The government yesterday launched its first national Action Plan for the protection and promotion of human rights, pledging to further protect and improve the country’s human rights conditions in an all-round way.

Special Envoy for Human Rights, Plantation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe briefing the media on the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, at Ministry premises yesterday. Alongside him is the former Attorney General, Legal Advisor to the Cabinet of Ministers, Mohan Peiris PC.

“It is a truly workable and practical plan for the protection and promotion of human rights, with clear goals, priorities and time bound targets,” Special Envoy for Human Rights, Plantation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. The minister said that the document containing the action plan would be sent to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, all member states of the UN Human Rights Council, relevant government and non-governmental organizations and all other stakeholders.

The minister said that the successful implementation of the plan would help strengthen reconciliation and trust among communities while not allowing terrorism to resurface.

The specific responsibilities and tasks involved and the time frame they should be implemented would be forwarded to relevant ministries from today onwards, he added.

According to the Minister, Sri Lanka would periodically update the UNHRC and all other relevant bodies on the progress made.

“I would make use of every international forum I attend, to make the international community aware on the progress we are making,” he added. The three main objectives of the action plan are, the achievement of genuine and substantive improvements in the protection and promotion of human rights, promotion of greater awareness of human rights; both among the general public and in specific sectors and the promotion of coordination of human rights activity among diverse stakeholders.

The five year action plan is divided into eight thematic areas. The implementation would be done by stakehold ministries. There would be separate monitoring and coordinating mechanisms to review progress and make necessary suggestions.

The minister said that the plan was made after a very transparent and comprehensive assessment of human rights needs in Sri Lanka which was then translated into specific goals and practical actions.

“It was not only the government, we took on board suggestions from every sector when preparing the plan. Experts in all areas were represented, from government and non-governmental organizations, to civil society and other stakeholders,” he said.

The minister also said that examples from other international best practices too were taken into consideration when formulating the plan. However, he stressed that it was a truly national undertaking. “It is nationally owned and nationally driven process,” he added.

Describing the elaborate and exhaustive steps taken in preparing the plan, the minister said that from the inception, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had taken a keen interest in the proceedings. “After we submitted the proposals to him he appointed another committee to study it and they came out with several suggestions”.

“Later the Cabinet studied the proposals for five weeks and made their observations. We then went back to all the stakeholders who contributed to prepare it and made the final draft which was approved by the Cabinet,” he said.

He noted that key performance indicators and specific time frames within which each activity should be implemented had been earmarked and an Inter-Ministerial Committee will be appointed to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan.

He stressed that this high level political commitment was vital to ensure continued achievement across different levels of government.

It will help engage all relevant sectors of our society in our human rights agenda, he added.

Explaining the background of how the plan came to be, the minister said that it was prepared in response to a pledge made by the government at its Universal Periodic Review before UN Human Rights Council in 2008.

He explained that it had begun with a review of the human rights situation in the country, which involved a desk review of several key documents including the Universal Periodic Review report on Sri Lanka, recommendations of treaty bodies under various UN human right conventions and recommendations of Special Procedures Mechanism.

“A National Action Plan will allow us to systematically consider our strengths and address our shortcomings in human rights observance,” he said.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/10/07/pol01.asp
---------------------------------------------

මානව හිමිකම් කටයුතුවලට දේශපාලනඥයන් එපා - ස්‌වාධීන කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ පත් කළ යුතුයි

තුෂාරී කළුබෝවිල

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මානව හිමිකම් ආරක්‍ෂා කිරීමේ බලතල කිසිසේත්ම දේශපාලනඥයන්ට නොදිය යුතු බවත් දේශපාලනයට ගැති නොවූ ස්‌වාධීන කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ ඒ සඳහා අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම පත්කළ යුතු බවත් වැවිලි කර්මාන්ත සහ මානව හිමිකම් විෂය භාර ඇමැති මහින්ද සමරසිංහ මහතා පැවසීය.

ඇමැතිවරයා එසේ පැවසුවේ කැබිනට්‌ මණ්‌ඩලයේ අනුමැතියෙන් යුතු මානව හිමිකම් ක්‍රියාකාරී පස්‌ අවුරුදු සැලැස්‌ම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඊයේ (6 වැනිදා) වැවිලි කර්මාන්ත අමාත්‍යාංශ ශ්‍රවණාගාරයේ පැවැති ප්‍රවෘත්ති සාකච්ඡාවකදීය.

මෙම පස්‌ අවුරුදු සැලැස්‌ම අද (7 දා) සිට අදාළ අමාත්‍යාංශ හරහා ක්‍රියාත්මක කෙරෙන බවත් ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයා බැලීම සඳහා නිරීක්‌ෂණ කමිටුවක්‌ ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පත් කිරීමට නියමිත බවත් ඇමැතිවරයා කීවේය.

අමාත්‍යාංශවල ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් හා මහජන සහයෝගිත්වයෙන් මෙම මානව හිමිකම් ක්‍රියාකාරී සැලැස්‌ම ක්‍රියාත්මක වීම පිළිබඳ ප්‍රගති සමාලෝචනයක්‌ ජාත්‍යන්තර මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කරන බවද හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

මෙම සැලසුම ක්‍රියාත්මක කිරීම සඳහා අවශ්‍ය මුදල් ප්‍රතිපාදන ලබාදීමේ වගකීම තමා භාර ගන්නා බවත් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව හරහා එම මුදල් ලබාදීමට පියවර ගන්නා බවත් මෙහිදී ඇමැතිවරයා කීවේය.

මෙවැනි සැලසුමක්‌ සකස්‌ කරනු ලැබුවේ ජිනීවා හි පැවැති විශ්ව කාලීන සමාලෝචන සැසිවාරයේදී එවැනි සැලසුමක්‌ සකස්‌ කොට ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන බවට වූ පොරොන්දුව අනුව යෑයිද හෙතෙම පැවසීය.

මෙම ක්‍රියාකාරී සැලසුමට සිවිල් හා දේශපාලන අයිතිවාසිකම්, ආර්ථික, සමාජයීය හා සංස්‌කෘතික අයිතිවාසිකම්, වදහිංසාවෙන් මිදීමේ අයිතිය, කාන්තා හා ළමා අයිතිවාසිකම්, කම්කරු අයිතිවාසිකම්, සංක්‍රමණික සේවක අයිතිවාසිකම් හා අවතැන් වූවන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් ආරක්‍ෂා කරදීම යන ක්‍රියාකාරී ක්‍ෂේත්‍ර ඇතුළත් වන අතර ඒ ඒ ක්‍ෂේත්‍රවලට අදාළ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් අමාත්‍යාංශ මට්‌ටමෙන් සිදුකිරීමට නියමිත බව මෙහිදී හිටපු නීතිපති මොහාන් පීරිස්‌ මහතා කීවේය
http://www.divaina.com/2011/10/07/news11.html