“WITNESS PROTECTION BILL SHOULD ENSURE HR STANDARDS”

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) along with the Colombo-based Law and Society Trust (LST) have welcomed the government’s commitment to pass the Witness Protection Bill, and have stressed the need to ensure that the Bill complies with international human rights standards and best practices on witness protection. In an open letter addressed to Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, ICJ SecretaryGeneral Wilder Tayler welcomed the statement made by Minister Hakeem on the

ICJ SecretaryGeneral Wilder Tayler welcomed the statement made by Minister Hakeem on the enactment of the ‘Assistance and Protection to Victims of Crime and Witnesses Bill’ in Geneva

enactment of the ‘ Assistance and Protection to Victims of Crime and Witnesses Bill’ in Geneva, at an event on the sidelines of the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council. However, the ICJ had expressed several concerns on the content of the proposed legislation as well as the enactment process. It has also urged the government to release the revised version of the Bill to the public. “We call on the Sri Lankan Government to publicly re- lease the final version of the Draft Bill on Assistance and Protection to Victims of Crime and Witnesses. We also urge the Government to refrain from passing the Bill as an urgent Bill. Sufficient time must be allowed for pre-enactment legal review since the Bill relates to a fundamentally important aspect of Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system ,” the ICJ letter states. Some of the concerns on the draft bill are: It does not explicitly offer protection to witnesses and victims who are charged with or convicted of crimes. It does not explicitly preclude the possibility of granting full immunity to potential witnesses in exchange for testimony. It does not include non-witnesses in the witness definition as persons beyond those who give testimony or information need witness protection in some cases.