Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Click here to watch video on Article 10, The Right to Trial
When you arrest someone, and hold them in detention, you must tell them of what they are charged for, and allow them to a fair trial. A trial that is unbiased, and independent from both parties. However, in Sri-Lanka, many Tamils are arbitrarily arrested and held in detention without being charged or given the right to a fair and public hearing. Human Rights Watch have urged the Sri-Lankan government to ‘end its indefinite arbitrary detention of more than 11,000 people held in so-called rehabilitation centers and release those not being prosecuted. The Sri Lankan government has routinely violated the fundamental rights of the detainees, Human Rights Watch found.’ Those being held have a right to a trial, and by leaving them in limbo for months, without trial or charge, Article 10 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is being violated.
It must also be noted that the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) passed by the Sri-Lankan government grants security forces permission to arrest people and keep them detained for three months without ever producing them in court. This act remains in force today.
The State of Emergency Laws of Sri-Lanka, enacted in 1971, granted the state the powers to detain suspects and keep them in custody without a trial for 18 months. It also placed a curfew on citizens, and a media ban on publishing about the Sri-Lankan military.
“Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliament must get rid of draconian emergency laws that have allowed for decades of widespread human rights abuses, said Amnesty International. The emergency laws grant state authorities sweeping powers of detention and permit the use of secret prisons, a practice that encourages human rights abuses like enforced disappearances, torture and death in custody, which could constitute crimes under international law. In the last thirty years, thousands of Sri Lankans have spent years in detention without trial.” (20 April 2010, Amnesty International)
Also, according to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, a report that was released in 1999, Sri-Lanka ranked as the country with the second highest number of disappearances.
Under these laws, the burden of collecting proof is lifted, allowing for ‘confessions’ from detainees to be collected via torture. These emergency laws have been used to intimidate, and silence those individuals critical of Sri-Lanka’s military and government.
We all have a right to a trial.
Credits:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/5/apworld/20100505203727&sec=apworld
Tags: Speak Out
