The Juvenile justice Project

The Restoration & Protection Unit has been working very closely with the Department of Probation and Child Care for a considerable period of time providing free legal assistance and reunifying  the juveniles in the remand homes in the Western province. The table given below shows the statistics for the months of March, April and May 2009.

Case Study

Magistrates Courts, Trincomalee had sent 14 year old Nishanthan to the Boys remand home, Kottawa  for 2 years for committing the offence of stealing a bicycle and this had not been informed to his parents.

IHR, after much effort managed to contact his mother who came forward as his guardian. He was released after 2 years on 28th May 2009 and was referred to Sarvodaya Vocational Training Centre to be trained in motor mechanism for a period of 6 months.

Increased number of visits to remand homes

IHR increased the number of visits per month to remand homes with the objective of reunifying more children

Psychosocial support center

A Psychosocial Support Centre (PSC)  was set up at IHR to provide psychosocial services through referral services. Through this services such as legal aid, temporary shelter facilities, counseling etc. are provided.

In the months of March, April and May 2009, services have been extended as follows.

March-12 clients

April -10 clients

May -12 clients

Also several advices have been given through telephone calls.

There are clients accessing the services throuph telephone calls and visits

Orientation Programme for network lawyers

An orientation programme for the network lawyers was held on the 21st March 2009 at  the Save the Children in Sri Lanka (SCiSL) head office.

Orientation Programme for network lawyers - Mr. Sajeewa Samaranayake and external consultant addressing the lawyers

Objectives of the Programme:

▪ Provide participants with background knowledge on Juvenile justice project carried out by IHR as a partner of SCiSL.

▪ Discuss the challenges faced by the network lawyers, in the process of expediting reunification of children from remand homes.

▪  Enable the network lawyers to benefit by a technical session on the Children and Young Persons Ordinance N. 48 of 1939.

The meeting commenced with an introduction to SCiSL and IHR ‘s work on Legal aid ,reunification and the follow up process. This was followed by a presentation on a summary of the work done by Social Legal Protection (SLP) project, progress and plans for the future. The importance of the role of a network lawyers in the process of reunification was emphasized in the  presentation.The main protection aspects of the CYPO and some thought-provoking data /excerpts of reports were also presented to the participants by the resource person,  Mr. Sajeeva Samaranayake – Attorney-at-Law.

Details of cases handled

Diploma in Human Rights

The three batches, English medium, Tamil medium and Sinhala medium of the Diploma in Human Rights were conducted on every Saturday from 9.00am to 1.00pm discussing human rights topics. The 6 months programme commenced on 14th February 2009 and scheduled to conclude on 29th August 2009.

The contents of the programme are:

Introduction to human rights, Historical evolution of human rights, Civil and political rights, Economic, social and cultural rights, International human rights framework, Domestic human rights framework, Governance, participation and rule of law, Case studies on fundamental rights, Child Rights, Women’s Rights, Labour rights, Internally Displaced Persons, International Humanitarian Law, Minority Rights, Language Rights, Environmental rights, Public Interest Litigation and Corporate governance and Corporate Social Responsibility.

The programme provides an in depth study sessions on certain topics and the participants are required to do a project presentation and a social activity based on the in depth study they choose.

Case Highlights

Case No : 1

A suspect (Navy soldier) was arrested on suspicion with regard to some ammunition and a grenade found in a neighbor’s garden. The complainant had been the neigh borer. The complainant who is a witness in this case had been arrested after 11 years on open warrant due to not appearing in courts throughout the 11 years. He had been produced before the Magistrate on 08/04/2009 was remanded till 21/04/2009. It was learned from the arrestee that he had not received summons in the entire period of 11 years. On 21/04/2009 he was released on bail. He was discharged from this case on 26/05/2009.

Case No : 2

The suspect, Siriwardana Appuhamy, 72 years old was arrested on 22^nd of May 2007 on suspicious of Murder. He was in remand prison nearly for 2 years without bail. During our prison clinic on 23^rd of August 2008 we received this case. We filed a bail application in Negombo High Court on A01^st December 2008. Case was taken up for inquiry on 22^nd of April 2009 and bail was granted on conditions of Rs.10,000/= cash bail and 2 sureties.

Case No : 3

The client was a drop in client of year 2005. The Case was inquired into in May 2006. Client was a member of the Sri Lanka Army and has served in operational areas. He was ill whilst serving in an operational area. On completion of medical treatment the cost of damages caused was measured at 30% by the panel Army medical board. As he did not agree with this decision he wanted to pursue litigation to obtain damages in terms of Circular No 12/86.

On 25^th February 2005 an appeal was made to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) making the Army Commander and 8 other Army Officers most of whom were Army Medical Officers as respondents.

In order to justify the claim of our client we tried to obtained medical opinion from qualified medical surgeons who were not army medical officers. These surgeons were Dr.Upali Banagala, Dr. Rizvi Sheriff, Dr .Yoganathan and Dr.Sudath Gunasekara. However they have refused to give their opinion as it involves a member of the armed forces. Thereafter we, through the information obtained through another army soldier who had obtained benefits under the circular we were able to obtain the services of Dr. KPMA Wijesiriwardene, a retied specialist army surgeon. He was a witness in the case. After the hearing the HRC made recommendation in favour of our client. It stated that there was a violation of article 12(1) of the constitution and recommended that he be reinstated and that he be produced before an independent medical board to assess the damages and evaluate the cost of damage. The order was issued on 18^th August 2008 by the HRC.

Case No : 4

A lady, who is 21 years of age had eloped 2 years back. Her husband and his parents had tortured her mentally and physically. Within that period she was conceived. When she was 2 months pregnant the fetus was aborted due to the assault by her husband. After the incident she had left her husband’s home and came to her parents place and filed divorce action. Husband  had lodged a complaint at the Moragahahena police station that his wife’s parents abducted his wife. Due to the influence of the husband over the police, the police advised her to go and live with her husband. Accordingly she went to live with her husband. Again husband had continued to torture her and finally she came to IHR on 11^th May 2009 and complained. Our lawyer accompanied her to the Women and Children bureau and made a complaint. Police officer had requested IHR to handover her to the parents. The Police fixed the inquiry for the 20^th May. The husband too attended the inquiry. The Police warned the husband not to harass her anymore. The divorce case which was filed by some other Attorney-at-Law is still pending.

Activities carried out for the months of March, April & May 2009

Legal Aid

√ There were 3 releases in April and 2   releases of PTA/ER suspects in May respectively.

√  There were 15 visitors on PTA/ER detention matter with 9 alleged fundamental rights violations for the month of April in the Colombo office.

√  26 visitors on PTA/ER detention matters, 7 cases of Discrimination and 5 other Fundamental Rights violation cases were significant in the month of May in the Colombo office.

√ Jaffna office had 16 cases of Maintenance, 21 Assault cases and 34 Family dispute cases in the month of May.

√  The Anuradapura office received 5 alleged fundamental rights violation issues in the month of May.

Mobile legal clinics

9 mobile legal clinics were conducted, 1 in Deniyaya, 1 in Anuradhapura, 1 in Amparai, 1 in Matara and 5 in Jaffna during the period from March to May 2009

BOOSA transport service

IHR is providing a transport service to the relatives of the detainees of the Boossa prison to visit the detainees. This was concerned as most of these people are from very distance areas. During the period from March to May, transport services were provided 10 times to the Boossa prison.

Prison Clinics

9 prison clinics were conducted in the month of April, 3 in the Galle prison, 2 in the Anuradhapura prison and 4 in the Negambo prison.

Inquiries for the months of March, April and May 2009

Distribution map of visitors for the months of March, April and May 2009