Our Statement on the Sri Lankan Government's sign-up to the UN declaration on sexual violence

Sonya Sceats, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Freedom from Torture, said:

"This is a welcome change of position by Sri Lanka under its new leadership. We are looking to President Sirisena to move quickly to translate this political gesture into real change on the ground.

By signing the declaration, Sri Lanka is implicitly signalling to its people and the world that it has a problem with sexual violence and a newfound determination to tackle it. The problem has been voluminously documented by Freedom from Torture, other human rights groups and the UN. What is needed now is a credible action plan to end sexual violence, especially in the security sector, and concrete steps to deliver justice for survivors.

Evidence collected by our clinicians shows that sexual violence including rape is still being used by the army and intelligence agencies to interrogate and terrorise Tamils with real or perceived links to the LTTE."

Freedom from Torture documented the extensive use of sexual torture in Sri Lanka in its August 2015 report Tainted Peace. Of the 148 men and women whose torture was documented, 71% reported that they had experienced sexual torture, including rape in many cases. For the fourth year running Sri Lankans have been the largest group of those referred to Freedom from Torture for clinical services.

The government commitment on sexual violence comes just days before a visit by UK Foreign Minister Hugo Swire. The UK government was instrumental in developing and supporting the declaration as part of its Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative.

In Tainted Peace, Freedom from Torture called on Sri Lanka to become an active stakeholder in the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and involve survivors in an expert capacity in plans to tackle impunity for sexual torture.