Our Stakeholder report to Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Dr. Amna Nazir, makes specific recommendations to the government regarding the right to life and capital punishment.
Researchers
Consultancy background
This Stakeholder Report focuses upon capital punishment and makes recommendations to the Government of Sri Lanka on this key issue, implementation of which would also see Indonesia moving towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 which aims for peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Download the stakeholder report
On 7 November 2022, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its Stakeholder Summary Report for Sri Lanka, which cited the UPR Project at BCU:
“The UPR Project at BCU noted that the death penalty remained a legal punishment in Sri Lanka’s penal system and that the last known state execution was in 1976. Despite Sri Lanka’s de facto moratorium, there had been proposals to resume executions in response to rising crime rates. JS17 recommended that Sri Lanka abolish the death penalty and commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment. The UPR Project at BCU made similar recommendations.” (para 11)
Following the pre-sessions in Geneva, the European Union Delegation to the United Nations invited Dr Nazir to present at the Informal Exchange of Views with the EU Member States which took place on 6th December 2022. Dr Nazir raised concerns over the issue of the death penalty in Sri Lanka and urged Member States to issue recommendations in this regard.
EU Submission presentation sheet
The outcome of the review was published on 19 April 2023 in the Report of the Working Group. The following relevant recommendations were made to Sri Lanka:
Consider ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty ( Recommending State: North Macedonia (65.3); Chile (65.4); (Argentina) (Brazil) (Colombia) (Ecuador) (Estonia) (France) (Malta) (Mexico) (Panama) (Spain) & (Ukraine (65.5); New Zealand (65.54); Latvia (65.58); Paraguay (65.59); Portugal (65.60)
Establish a moratorium on the use of, with a view to abolishing, the death penalty. Recommending State: France (65.55); Belgium (65.56)
Commute the 1,300 death sentences still in force, despite the fact that they have not been executed since 1976. Recommending state: Spain (65.63)
Consider abolishing the death penalty. Recommending state: Timor-Leste (65.57) Brazil (65.61); (Iceland) (Slovenia) (65.62); Brazil (65.61)
These Member State recommendations are consistent with the categories of recommendations identified in the UPR Project at BCU’s Stakeholder Report for Sri Lanka’s UPR.
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights. The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.