848th Meeting, 35th Session, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

I call to order the 848th meeting of the Committee on the Alls of persons with disabilities.
The committee will continue under agenda item five.
Consideration of the report submitted by state party under Article 35 of the convention is consideration of the report of Sri Lanka.
We will now continue the first round of the cluster two.
As I indicated, the 40 minutes of the 60 minutes co round work completely this morning.
We therefore have a 20 minutes remaining for Tcopos question and response from the state depty.
Now, I would like to give the floor to miss Gardner Danon to continue the decos question under cluster two.
Miss Geir, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair and very good afternoon for everyone.
My question will be asked under Article 15.
The first question is, I would like to know the concrete measures taken by the state party to prohibit and eliminate the use of physical chemical restraints.
Seclusion and other restrictive practices in all residential and institutional settings.
Relating to this question, I again would like to highlight that Vkita tragedy case, because it was found that at least one of victims was found chained.
My question is related to this situation.
The second question under this is, please indicate the mechanism to monitor and investigate the use of restrictive practices, seclusion, et cetera, in order to ensure that such kind of taxes, not occur in the future.
The thirdly, please provide information on to establish legal complaint mechanism that is fully accessible for persons with disabilities and provide redress.
The last question is, I know that Sri Lanka, already ratified the CAT Convention Against Tarture but you haven't ratified optional protocol.
So let me know your plan to ratify the optional protocol of CAT.
Thank you very much.
Excellency, you have the floor to respond.
Thank you very much for that question.
It still be answered by the representative from the Department of Ve Gener.
Distinguished member, Sri Lanka has a zero tolerance policy on torture.
It is important to note that in terms of Article 11 of our Constitution, which is an entrenched provision, it is provided specifically that no person shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading Treatment or Punishment Act has been passed to give effect to the convention under the same name.
And in reference to your question regarding the mechanisms that have been put in place, distinguished member, the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that every magistrate shall at least once in every month visit places of detention under his judicial areas, and he is obliged magistrates are obliged to make a report of what they observe.
And if any detainee wishes to make a complaint, there is provision for the magistrate to record such complaint.
And if the magistrate feels that there has been a subject that the person has been subject to torture, there is provision to submit such person for medical examination.
And of course, if the medical examination shows that there has been torture, there is provision for medical care, as well as any suitable order that the magistrate thinks is appropriate, including the change of place of detention.
And the magistrate is also obliged to make a report the magistrate may make a report rather, enabling the Attorney General to indict such person responsible for such acts if there is a reasonable suspicion of such acts of torture.
It is also notable that the Human Rights Commission is the preventative mechanism in terms of the OCAT and the Human Rights Commission is also empowered to visit places of detention.
There are similar provisions in the Prevention of Terrorism Act where, again, the magistrates are obliged to make visits to places of detentions and provide similar redress.
It may be also noted that in terms of the Enforced Disappearance Act, it is prohibited for a public officer in an official capacity or acting on the authorization of acquiescence of the state to arrest, detain or wrongfully conduct, confine, abduct, kidnap, or in other form, deprive any person of their liberty.
If they are found to do so, there are steps that can be taken.
These are the safeguards that have been provided in terms of the law.
Ensure that instances of torture don't occur.
I think as the Honorable Minister referred to in a previous response, the unfortunate incident that was the subject of your question that was not a illegal detention, and I think the Secretary has explained the steps that are being taken to address that unfortunate situation.
Response to the question pertaining to the ratification of the optional protocol, I believe that the position of Sri Lanka has been explained in terms of the Sing Harasa case, and we are awaiting the decision of the divisional bench of the Supreme Court in the gaisha Sharma case.
Thank you.
Next, Article 19.
So an information we received indicated that independent living support services, including personal assistance is not widely implemented in Sri Lanka and a few the ODs run a small program with the support of the international donor organization around this area and started to implement personal assistance services, et cetera.
So Er my question is, how the state party addresses to establish comprehensive and systemic independent living support services or scheme to ensure that persons with disabilities live are included in the community and receive the needed support for their independent living and not to obliged to live in their particular living settings.
Also the plus on that question, I would like to know to what extent the state party is implementing personal assistant services, how much resources allocated.
Lastly, I would like to know whether a state party and as a concrete plan on the institutionalization to ensure that those persons with disabilities who are now in placed in the residential settings are transmitted to the community environment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for that question.
Actually, our approach for independent living is basically we use two approaches.
One is basically the economic empowerment, the other one is social empowerment.
We use both social empowerment and economic empowerment for the independent living of people with disabilities.
Community CBR program, which is a community based rehabization program and the social protection and access to support services also being implemented.
Our national Secretariat for persons with disabilities encourage inclusive employment, both in public and private sector, particularly for the private sector, employers, the government covering part of the salary wages and currently we cover 50% of the wages when private sector employ people with disabilities, thereby promoting sustainable employment opportunity in both the public and private sector.
We also conduct vocational training for the people with disabilities To improve their skills to engage in productive employment activities.
Currently, the government has around ten vocational training institutions specifically provide training and skills for the person with disabilities.
The Department of Social Services has further strengthen employment support through the employment Support Unit established in collaboration with the Department of Manpower and employment.
Employment support units operating at divisional level in our Sri Lanka, we have district and divisions.
Divisional level provide career guidance and also employee engagement and job placement services with partnership with private companies and other expanded opportunities within the open labor market.
Vocational skills development has also been strengthened through collaboration with the international labor organs ILO and private sector partners.
New industry based training programs also have been introduced together with on the job training opportunities to facilitate successful transition into employment.
Beyond employment, the government continues to support independent living through the provision of assistive devices, housing assistance, livelihood grants, caregiver awareness programs, and financial assistance post self employment.
These are not merely we payer oriented, though it's we payer component is also there, but we try to facilitate economic emproyment through this intervention.
This intervention helped to reduce unnecessary institutionalization while enabling persons with disabilities to remain within their families and communities because we believe that whenever possible, the family level and the kinship level care systems are also important.
In addition to the national security as also continue to strengthen the protection and welfare of older persons under the Protection of the right of elders Act number nine of 22,000.
Sri Lanka recognizes that community inclusion is a continuous process requiring coordinated action across government, the private sector, and the civil society.
We remain committed to expand opportunities for independent living, economic participation, and full inclusion consistent with the Article 19.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Because we have the time limitation and maybe some of your respond related to the Article 26 and 27, et cetera.
Just I would like to know whether you have a clear concrete plan on the institutionalization to ensure that those persons with disabilities who are now in residential care and other institutions are smoothly transit to the community life.
Please give the short answer.
Thank you.
Yes.
As I tried to explain that we use these three aspects of care, the family based caring community based care, institutional based care.
Institutional based care systems are the last option.
Because of the social public Sri Lankan society, most of the people with disabilities are obtain care services through the family system, but there are cases where the families are not in a position to provide adequate care.
When that kind of situations arise, we have this both the CBR program where the people with disabilities have been organized into societies where their social life is facilitated and provides other social facilitation.
When and if On we actually encourage institutional based care system.
There are institutions operate by the government as well as private sector to provide care services for the people with disability.
The government, as I explained, we have these ten vocational training institution plus two care service centers to provide those cares Thank you very much.
Response is good enough.
My next question is related to the Article 16.
Free from violations, exploitation, and abuses.
You mentioned previously that there is some shelters and there is a program and support services to victims of domestic violence, et cetera.
My first question is about, how many such kind of shelters existing in your country and those centers are and to what extent those centers are accessible for persons with disabilities? If you provide a specific number on the accessible shelters for persons with disabilities, it would be great.
Then secondly, to what extent the awareness raising program and trainings being conducted for persons with disabilities to educate them, to identify different forms of exploitation, abuses, and violations, and print complaint when they become the subject of such kind of exploitation.
Then lastly, I would like to know whether you have a comprehensive program targeting women with disabilities to ensure they are free from any kind of violations and they are provided with a needed support services when they become the subject such violations.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for that follow up questions.
This question will be answered virtually by the representatives from the Minister of Women and Child Affairs and the National Child Protection Authority.
Thank you, Chair.
Yes, we have ten shelters around the country in ten districts, and there's one specifically run by a casa that is it's a CSO, which is working on women with disabilities.
They have a shelter specifically run by them.
I like to mention that all these shelters are funded by the government funds and it's a public private partnership where we take the technical know how and expertise from the NGOs and the government funds the operation of the shelters.
I this year, up to now, we have spent about 2.5 million to the ACs shelter and we have sheltered up to now, about 73 inmates in those shelters.
And for the services programs for victims of violence is there is accessibility for these people to come come to get the services.
As I mentioned, the modes of communication, the, the help lines and they can access through the Internet and all that.
And for these ladies, the legal ladies provided for female victims, because legal aid, they have a threshold of 45,000 for, um, all the citizens, but for women, the threshold does not exist, especially for disabled women and legal aid is provided for them on domestic violence issues, divorce issues, and maintenance and in certain aspects with regard to land issues as well, and the shelter services are there.
The shelters provide them with counseling also, medical needs also is covered under the shelters, that is taken care of in that sense, and, Awareness programs are being conducted as a part of our program, especially by the women Development officers and the ministry visits districts because we have a program where we do referral mechanisms on how these victims, I mean, how people can come into the system.
There is a case of violence or any issue that they face, how they can come into the system, who is the first point of contact and how they can proceed.
The referral mechanism is being introduced and it's been rolled out in the country in all districts.
That is the kind of awareness we do and the WDS women development officers who are located at the divisional Secretariat level, which is the lowest level of administration.
It's part of their job description to do awareness to the community, women, including women with disabilities.
Those are the services provided for women.
Thank you.
So thank you very much.
Regarding this, if possible, could you provide some specific information around the numbers of the fully accessible shelters for women victims with disabilities? Just a shot if you have a number, that would be great.
If not, that's okay.
The ACASa shelter is, I think, specifically for female victims of I mean, women with disabilities.
The other shelters are for female victims.
There could be women with disabilities, but the ACASa shelter is run by the NGO that is working on disabilities, so they have the capacity.
At the moment, I think we don't have numbers, but we will try and submit in the written submission and figure.
Thank you very much.
Now I will jump to the Article 20, the personal mobility.
Of course, we also received information that in Sri Lanka persons with disabilities face some challenges to be provided the quality mobility support services and other special equipment, et cetera.
I would like to know your concrete plan.
How to extend and strengthen your program to provide persons with disabilities with the quality and assistive mobility aid devices and other equipment to ensure their independent living and social inclusion.
Also provide information on how do you ensure that trained experts around this area is adequately prepared in your country to help those persons with disabilities to repair their equipment, et cetera.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for the questions regarding Article 20.
Through the National Secretariat for persons with disabilities, we provide financial assistance to eligible persons with disabilities for the purchase of assetive devices and also mobility equipment.
These programs are complemented by a wheelchair donation initiative supported through international cooperation.
Very recently, we initiated a new electric wheelchair repairing center with the cooperation of the Ministry of Health.
So the National Secretary Personal disability also provide a wide range of assistive devices free of charge, that is the government funding, as well as through partnership with organizations such as UNIC also support us to provide some of the assistive devices.
In addition, through the visually Handicapped trust fund, the Department of Social Services provide specialized assistance to person with visual impairment.
The include white cane to support independent mobility, a specialized lens, and also mobile phones for university students with visual impairment when they need such equipment to continue their studies.
Through its CBR unit, the Department of Social Services further provide direct support for the person with disabilities that is actually to provide their essential accessibility improvement within their homes and communities.
Those initiatives include construction of accessible pathways and comote toilets, helping persons with disabilities move safely and live more independently with their communities.
Accessibility improvement in other area, especially in public transport, uh, including the introduction of low pro buses.
There is a new initiative in 2025 and accessible multimodular transport centers with the sign language interpreters further support personal mobility and independent participation in community LE, which was initiated in the year 2025.
These measures demonstrate that Sri Lanka's commitment to progressively removing P and environmental barriers, expanding access to equitable assistive technologies and ensuring that person with disability can and not only move and live, study, work, and participate in society on an equal basis with others.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Do I have time share? Should I miss Carrol still you have 5 minutes more.
Very much.
My next question is related to Article 18.
We received information that persons with disabilities still face barriers.
Accessing identity and civil registration documents for accessing identity and civil registration documents.
That is needed to access other social services.
We received this information and regarding this, my question is, how state party address these issues? Do you have any plan to pay attention to that and to remove these barriers, ensure that persons with disabilities access those needed documents including identity card needed for accessing other social services? This is the first question.
Also, there is a barrier faced by persons with disabilities, their movement and access services.
And conflict affected areas, lack of accessible transportation and other lack of accessible services, et cetera Also my next question goes to you.
Although I would like to know your plan on how do you address these issues? What is your plan to remove these barriers to ensure that persons with disabilities movement, as I stated in the CRP.
Thank you.
Madam Chair, we will provide a written answer to this question.
Thank you so much.
Miss Gros, you have a still 2 minutes.
Patton, I couldn't get your point.
I asked two questions under Article 18.
Is it clear enough or should I ask again? Actually, we didn't answer that.
We said that we will provide written answers.
Written submission will include the answer.
Thank you very much.
I, I will back to the Article 19.
So under Article 19, I have one question.
So 21 of my question was about the personal assistance services, which is really important, supporting independent living of persons with disabilities.
I couldn't get the clear response on that issue.
So could you provide more information on that? To what extent state party planning to implement personal assistance services to persons with disabilities? Thank you.
We don't have specific personal assistance assistance services, but what I mentioned was our support services to improve their mobility and provision of assistive devices and the support that extended through various services by the Department of Social Services and the National Secretariat for persons with disabilities.
Through our initiatives are basically provision of support or or the financial support to obtain assistive devices when they need.
These are we provide the sensitive devices on pre of charge based on the requirement and the assessment done by the social services officers.
In addition to that, we are not actually implementing specific personal services by the government of S Lanka.
Thank you, Chair.
On my side, I have done, so I give microphone to you.
Thank you so much, miss Geron Lib delegations.
Now we have completed the 60 minute first round cluster two in accordance with our working method, we will now move to the second round of the cluster two.
The floor is now open to committee members who are not a member of the task force, together with one member of the task force for additional and follow up questions under cluster two.
We have 30 minutes for this round.
Now, I invite non task B member wishing to intervene to raise your name please.
Miss Amalia Cao, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
And once again, my thanks to the distinguished delegation of Sri Lanka for the replies.
I have a concern on Article 10 because in addition to the deaths in this terrible fire, See that There was the death of a patient in the National Institute for Mental Health.
Measures have been adopted to investigate the circumstances of that death, but the report of the mission that was in charge that was published in 2023.
But the final report has not yet been released.
We're not aware of it.
I'm just wondering what's happened with the death of this patient in the National Institute of Mental Health.
Another question that I have relates to Article 15.
There seemed to be a worrying increasing trend in the mistreatment of children.
I'm wondering what the state in particular, please don't explain generally what laws you have in place, but I want to know precisely what is done to avoid this violation of children's rights of the rights of children with disabilities.
Allow sterilization without consent is prohibited.
It seems to continue to be a practice in reality.
How do you try to oversee this and ensure that it does not occur? Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Excellency, you have the floor to list.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for both questions.
The questions related to Article 10 will be answered by the representative from the Minister of Health virtually, while the question related to Article 15 will be answered here by the representative from the agender department.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Chair.
For the Article 10 regarding the death of a patient in National Institute of Mental Health.
After that, after that incident, the Human Rights Commission has visited and they have given recommendations to the Minister of Health and the NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health, and according to the recommendations, the Mental Health Act was drafted and now it was in the website of the Minister of Health, and so it was given, again, the consensus of the Human Rights Commission was taken and after that, now it is in the legal section of the Ministry of Health, draft Mental Health Act.
And the next is to take the cabinet approval and we are the Ministry of Health is in the process of taking the cabinet approval for this mental health act Thank you.
Our representative from the National Child Protection Authority, would you like to comment on the Article relating to Article 15.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
I just would like to get a clarification relating to what is meant by mistreatment of children.
Is it exploitation, abuse and violence or something other than that? You just answer, then we will get the clarification.
Yeah.
If it is this mistreatment expected by the learned member is exploitation, violence and abuse, then Sri Lanka is acting too on preventive activities as well as responsive activities.
Preventive preventive activities could be identified as there are three officers of my ministry that are stationed at the divisional Secretariat level, officers from the Divisional Child Protection Or, child rights Promotion officer, and early childhood care development officer.
These three officers take a lead role in catering to the needs of children living within that divisional Secretariat division.
So these officers take a lead role in identifying vulnerable children, That means children with disabilities and children whose parents are parents have disabilities.
So not only these children, the vulnerable population, vulnerable children are being identified and care plans are being drawn to address the vulnerabilities and to ensure protection from violence, harm, and exploitation of these children.
That is one preventive activity that is being conducted.
Then awareness raising is a key activity using children catering to the needs of children through school child protection committees established in school 11, then children's clubs and children's societies, then talking to addressing awareness raising amongst parents, caregivers, and government officers working with children.
All these mechanisms are being employed.
We use all these mechanisms to prevent this.
I'm, I'm sorry for interrupting.
I am asking explicitly and very specifically, how many complaints there have been and how do you give follow up to specific cases, not generally, very specifically, what follow up takes place when there are reports of child mistreatment and complaints are lodged.
How are the perpetrators punished? Is there any restorative justice for those children? Very specific cases, please.
I don't want to hear general information.
Thank you very much.
Yes.
That means you want to clarification on the response mechanism adhered to by the government of Sri Lanka when When an incident of child abuse is reported either through the helpline or as a walk in customer, the statement will be recorded.
Now, if the information comes to the call center, that is, there are a couple of help lines in operation, they will record the complaint and it will be referred to law enforcement.
If it's a criminal type of case, it will be referred to the government of Sri Lanka, the police department for enforcement of the law.
Once the information is received by the police, they will They will look for the child, they will visit the child, and they will record the statement of the child.
They will get the child into their custody.
Then there are police officers in children's and women's desks assigned to 602 police stations island wide.
The trained police officers will interview the child who's a victim of abuse, interview and record the statement of the incident.
If it is a disabled child who has difficulties in expressing, then sign language interpreters the assistance of the sign language interpreters would be ascertained.
The child's statement will be recorded, then the relevant other information, other evidences will be gathered.
Child will be sent for a medical examination by the judicial medical officer of the nearest hospital.
The judicial medical officer will examine the child for physical evidence as well as emotional.
If there's a psychological harm done to the child, then the referral will be made to the psychiatrist.
If it is a sexual type of violation, then the appropriate referrals will be made.
All these pieces of evidence is vital to prove the child case style story.
The accused will be arrested based on the information, facts will be reported to the magistrate's Court that has the jurisdiction.
According to the Criminal Procedure Code provisions, the magistrate will be the magistrate's court will be the level of courthouse that gathers the information.
The The police, after concluding the investigations, prepare a dossier of all the evidence gathered to support the matter.
There will be referrals to the government analyst to gather more evidence, more more supporting material.
A dossier will be prepared by the police and Honorable Attorney General, the dossier will be referred to the Honorable Attorney General to prepare the indictment.
All the child abuse matters are all the child abuse matters are indictable offenses.
They are tried at the high court level.
In recording the statements, if there are witnesses or victims who have difficulties in Expressing and who needs assistance of sign language, the interpreter's assistance will be obtained at the investigation stage, as well as at the trial stage.
It'll be tried at the high courts, indicted by the attorney general.
State counsel representing the attorney general leading the prosecution.
There'll be a lawyer representing the victim's rights.
A lawyer appearing free of charge, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Commission will provide legal assistance, legal support to the victim.
That means the child victim who will be the victim witness.
The case, the evidence will be led of the prosecution and of the defense.
And at the conclusion, the courts will pronounce the verdict, the decision.
That is the criminal justice system of Sri Lanka.
The handing the child's child's emotional needs will be met through the contact that is established at the judicial medical officers.
Office where the psychiatric referral, VOG referral, and the sexually transmitted disease referrals, there'll be many referrals made at the judicial medical officers office by the judicial medical officer.
There'll be a case conference conducted in order to establish the protection of the child who has undergone violence exploitation, This is the process.
There'll be a multidisciplinary team who will be addressing the needs of the child.
This includes a child with disabilities also.
Hope it's clear, ma'am.
Miss Amalia, do you satisfied President.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Miss Garner, do you have the floor.
Miss G Popo, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mine is a follow up to Article 16.
The delegation answered my colleague that there are accessible ways of reporting and that there is a shelter that have experts and also accessible for persons with disabilities or women with disabilities in this case, and that there are other shelters that persons with disabilities may be there.
My question is, Have those personnel in those others trained in disability inclusive and disability responsive support so that they can address issues like the physical abuse, the economic exploitation, and the social isolation that these women have been encountered particularly for those with intellectual and psychosocial disability and older persons.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Excellency, you have the floor.
Thank you very much for that question, which will be answered by our representative from the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs.
Yes.
Thank you, Chair.
The only shelter that accommodates female victims who are with disabilities is run by a CSO called Akasa.
It's a It's an association for women with disabilities, a network of self help groups dedicated to creating opportunities and empowering women to lead lives with dignity and independence.
I believe they have the capacity because it's a government and private partnership where the government is funding this certain association to maintain the shelter because we believe they have more capacity and technical know how than the government officers, I believe.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, that was not my question.
This one, you said it very explicitly so we understand.
But we are not to be segregated to only one center for a whole country.
And so our expectation is that all shelters for victims need to be accessible and open to women with disabilities.
Then the question is, those are the shelters and centers? What are the measures in place for the personnel there to be trained appropriately so that if someone walks in, they will not be told, this is not your place.
Go to the other side, which is probably too far away.
That is the custom place.
What measures is the state taking in place to ensure that all the centers are accessible and that the personnel are trained as an inclusive approach to welcome and support victims, particularly those with psychosocial, intellectual disability, as well as older persons with disabilities.
Thank you.
Yes.
Other shelters also have space for female victims who are with disabilities.
They can access these shelters.
I was just mentioning this specific place that we have, it has the technical know how and everything, but our other the other service providers in the other shelters like the matrons and the working officers there are also what do you call that informed and they are given training.
But why I refer to Aka it's very specifically for them.
That's why I mentioned that place.
But the other places that we have other shelters in other districts across the island.
They also accommodate women with disabilities.
Thank you so much.
There is no plugs from the member of the non task force team, so I would like to give the floor to the task force team again.
So miss Gander, do you have any follow up questions? Yes.
Mr.
Abdel Madin Maki, you have the floor.
I, in turn, would like to extend my warm greetings to the delegation of Sri Lanka and thank them for the explanations given thus far, which has shed light on many points thus far.
I'd like to ask a question that relates to Article 11.
The program of action against mines in Sri Lanka focuses on de mining and victim assistance is implemented across a number of ministries and establishments that focus on supporting former combatants and NGOs.
Although the NMAC has identified international support as necessary for subsistence, management of victims of cases of victims and investigation and international funding is focused on one particular area.
Assistance for victims does not seem to be governed by a strategy for establishing resources and identifying key areas for financing.
Against this backdrop, could Sri Lanka please explain why they haven't yet developed and presented a strategy to try to raise funds and resources to support victim assistance and plug gaps by identifying clear funding needs in areas such as prothesis, education, mental health, and psychological support.
Provision of means of subsistence as well as other forms of support for victims and support for case management.
What measures does Sri Lanka envisage taking to establish such a strategy and to garner international support in this area? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Excellent.
Thank you very much for that question.
This question will be jointly answered by our representative from the National Mine Action Center and the Ministry of Housing Construction and Wood Supply.
Thank you, Chair.
The Sri Lanka has a state party to the anti persons mine Ban treaty and the CRPD remains committed to addressing the right of the need of the people affected by the land mine and explosive ordinance.
We see victim assistance not only as a key pillar to the mine ation, but also an important humanitarian and development responsibility.
As a Sri Lanka member of the APMBC Victim Assistance Committee, we would like to share some of our experiences as Sri Lanka move towards the completion of the mine clearance, particularly on how we are looking at the sustainability victim assistance beyond the dedicated mine a structure and the funding.
For us, one important part of this transition is to mainstream victim assistance within the existing government policies, system, and services.
Rather than creating the parallel mechanism.
As the national coordination authority for the mine action, the National Mine Center works closely with the Ministry of Health, Department of Social Service, and other relevant stakeholders to coordinate victim assistance and ensure that mine and EO survivors have access to rehabilitation, health and social protection, livelihood and other disability inclusive services.
One practical and successful example is our recent work with the Minister of Health.
EO accidents are now included as a case of injury in the national sex and age deaggregated data injuries surveillance system.
This means that new EO victims can identify through the National Health System and follow up through the existing service.
In 2025, the Ministry of Health also published a national rehabilitation guideline recognize land mine and EO survivors as a priority group for the rehabilitation service.
Disabled care has further been integrated into the primary health care, strengthen the program through the community based centers, including the northern and eastern province where most survivors are residents.
Looking ahead, Sri Lanka intend to take this approach for thereby enhancing its extensive government network and community level services covering disability, social protection, skill development, livelihood and poverty elevation.
In 2026 and 27, we plan to scale up victim assistance need assessment through the government led implementation model covering both recorded and previously unrecorded victims.
This will leverage the recently established Community Development Council under the government, National Movement of eradication, multi dimension, rural poverty, embedding in the identification, ratify and follow up EO victims within the a routine government community outreach of the service delivery in Sri Lanka is keen to share this experience with other stakeholders and to learn from others as a collective works toward the more sustainable and inclusive national owned approach to the victim assistance.
Then talk about funding.
The Sri Lanka, the government has allocated 3 million Sri Lanka pees for the victim assistance the cluster.
This is I mentioned earlier that we are going to do the full island wide survey for that one and identify providing some identified needs assessment.
Same time, after the need assessment we identify, we are preparing the proposal to the world and find out some resources in the outside to grant that victims be identified.
So at the moment, we have recorded 1780 victims with the mine and ER victims, we found northern and eastern provinces, those are recorded and also we are going to re verify with the ground truth verification.
Then once we got the records, we will prepare the plan and we have the strategy for the mine action which covered the victim assistance part.
Thank you very much.
I think I covered the answer.
Thank you so much.
Miss Glor, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
I have one question under Article 16.
So we received information about the social acceptance and continued use of the corporal punishment despite the amendment to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code in 2024 to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings.
So regarding my question is, what measures taken by the state to ensure the effective implementation of these amendments to ensure that corporal punishment not practiced anymore.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Excellency, you have 2 minutes to reply.
Thank you.
I will utilize that two minute and thank you very much for the question and that will be answered by our representative from that and General Department.
Yes.
The preventive steps that have been taken are constant monitoring, and of course, other administrative steps like the publishing of circulars, circulars pertaining to educational institutions like schools, as well as other public circulars.
The legal aspect is, as was envisaged in your question also covered.
It is the implementation and the implementation happens through administration, through regulations, and constant monitoring.
And it may be also pertinent to note that in terms of corporal punishments in custody, there is also provision for complaints to be made to the National Police Commission against any police officer who engages in such a practice.
So in addition to all the other remedies that are available like moving the Supreme Court, the HRC, the Women's Commission, and the other mechanisms.
There is also the provision to complain to the NCPA to the National Police Commission rather, in respect of any transgressions by police officers.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
This conclusion close to two.
I thank all committee experts for their questions and the distinguished allegations for its participants.
We will now take a 10 minutes break and we'll reconvence at 4:10 P.M.
And proceed to close to three.
Thank you so much.
And Just a little bit.
The meeting is resumed.
We will now proceed to Clause three covering Article 21 to 30 of the convention.
The first round will be lasted 60 minutes and is allocated to a member of the task force for back to back questions and answers with the distinguished delegation.
I now give the floor to miss Imgulaa Florencia Perreo to begin the question under Clause three.
Miss Imgula Frenta Perreo, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Indeed, we're going now to start the group of questions related to Article 21 to 30.
We have ten questions for 1 hour.
We'd like to give a little bit of time for the preamble.
If we divide the time, it would be good to focus on 5 minutes answers so that we really get the time to get all the articles on the table.
So without losing more time, I would like to ask a question related to Article 21 where we welcome the fact that the right of freedom of expression and information is enshrined in the Sri Lanka Constitution and also welcome the efforts to promote sign language.
But going into more detail, I would like to really to know the practical measures not only to promote, but to guarantee those rights in the Constitution.
We read that you have ten sign language interpreters and that you do some awareness raising.
But in terms of quality criteria of those interpreters and the availability and affordability, could you please clarify what steps are being taken to ensure that these rights are guaranteed in the draft Sign Language bill and what steps you had been taking so that Sri Lanka and Tamil sign language become recognized as official languages.
Also, you devote quite a attention in the report about sign language as a way of having access to information.
But what about other means, including accessible and assistive formats like, for example, braille, easy to read, alternative and atic communication, and others? And I Finally, in terms, this access to information, how is it provided by the disability focal point at the government? What is the right to get accessible information guaranteed? A couple of questions in relation to this article.
Thank you.
Yes, Excellency, you have the floor.
Thank you very much for that question is related to Article 21.
This will be answered by the Secretary to the Minister of Pural Development, Social Security and Committee Empower.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Sri Lanka recognized that effective communication is fundamental to ensure that equal participation of the persons with hearing impairments in all aspects of public life.
The government has therefore taken a number of practical measures to strengthen the communication accessibility through promotion and use of sign language.
Sign language interpretation services are currently provided to a range of public institution in including court police stations, parliaments, universities, and other government institutions upon request.
These services facilitate communication between public officials and persons with hearing impairments when accessing public service in official information.
Recognizing the importance of institutional capacity, National Secretariat for Persons with Disabilities has started to conduct sign language training programs for government officials.
A pilot six months training program was successfully completed and training has been extended to police officers, public transport, public transport personnel, and government officers at district level.
Training is also being provided to personnel of the P Emergency Response Service to improve accessibility to emergency services for persons with hearing impairments.
Strengthen the inclusive democratic participation.
Election related information has been made more accessible through the dissemination of election results in sign language.
The provisional gaet notifications in accessible formats during the election period.
A sign language lexicon covering election related technology has also been developed to ensure consistency and clarity in communication.
Furthermore, the Department of Social Services has strengthened its institutional capacity recruiting additional sign language interpreters to improve access to public information government services.
I.
Through these initiatives, Sri Lanka continues to expand communication accessibility and strengthen the inclusion of persons with disabled with hearing impairment in public.
Thank you for that information that was largely already included in the report.
My question is, if I may reformulate the specific.
Do I take that there is no plan to formally recognize Sri Lanka sign language and Tamil sign language as official languages is of a no answer.
It is recognized in the sign language proposed sign language bill as a mode of communication in Sri Lanka, both languages in Sri Lanka, it is proposed and it will be enacted in the sign language bill bill will be adopted what are the plans because it's draft at this moment.
A representative from H department? Yes.
The proposed sign language bill was in fact submitted to the Attorney General's Department for constitutional clearance, and in order to address another concern that the committee itself raised, that is the fragmentation of laws, because there was a commission on sign language also envisaged, it was proposed that both these acts be amalgamated.
That is, that decision is under consideration.
But as the Secretary mentioned, there is a sign language bill that has been drafted and more or less finalized.
The question is whether it's going to be amalgamated with the other disabilities bill that is also in the pipeline.
In answer to your question with regard to official languages, I think the bill proposes to recognize it as a mode of communication.
But in terms of official languages, that would require a constitutional amendment and as it stands, the Constitution only provides for two official languages and English as the link language.
Thank you.
That clarification, I also take that you do not have similar instruments for other types of accessible communication means, for example, alternative and amentative communication, as I mentioned before.
So unless I am mistaken, I take that that is your answer.
Fine.
Then we can pass to Article 22, respect for privacy.
There, the report says that the state party recognized the balance between the freedom of expression and the right to privacy.
But the report focuses really on telecommunication related exchanges of information.
So In my question is in the answer of references to disability in the Personal Data Protection Act of 2022, how are the privacy rights beyond the telecom related? You do not need to expand on the telecom because that we read.
How are those protection guaranteed by law and how is data protected? For example, in areas such as health services, rehabilitation, employment, education, judicial procedures, financial matters, and medical records, just to give you some examples.
If they are protected, what enforcement measures are there and what sanctions are there for violation of data privacy and data protection, and in particular, whether this is applicable also for persons who are currently in institutions and persons that have psychosocial disabilities.
I pass you the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That question also will be answered by the Department of Attorney Gender.
In terms of Article 14A two of the Constitution, the concepts of privacy and the protection of health or morals and reputation of others is recognized as a ground on which a limitation can be imposed on the right to information.
In terms of Article 121, this applies to all persons without discrimination.
Additionally, the Personal Data Protection Act number nine of 2022, is Sri Lanka's primary law governing the collection, processing, storage, and protection of personal data, and it provides that personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently and organizations are to implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to prevent unauthorized access, unlawful disclosure, accidental loss or destruction of personal data.
That onus has been put on the organizations that implemented.
And individuals have been accorded the right to object to certain processing of data, seek remedies where their data has been mishandled.
The Act also recognizes the concept of upper guardianship of court in respect of disabled persons, and I think this is where this is to address the question on persons with psychosocial infirmities.
Um.
So the court will take a decision depending on the Need at hand on an assessment that court thinks is necessary.
Also, to further answer your question, distinguished member, the Computer Crimes Act number 24 of 2007 criminalizes the unauthorized access to computer systems and electronic data, and also unauthorized access to computer systems, interception of data transmission, unauthorized copying, modification or deletion of electronic information, illegal disclosure of confidential electronic information.
The Protection of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act recognizes the rights of dignity of persons with disabilities.
This has to be read in conjunction with the other acts and requires equal treatment and protection of persons with disabilities.
In terms of violations, the offenses have been identified in the Acts that I said, and if there is a violation, the criminal procedure the general criminal procedure is set in motion stemming, of course, from a complaint.
Thank you.
Thank you for your answer.
Now we pass to Article 23, respect for Home and Family.
I would like to pass the floor to my colleague, Amalia Gao, which is going to put a question on this.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you once again to the delegation for the responses thus far.
Although with regard to Article 23, it is recognized that while there are no legal limitations on maternity and paternity for persons with disabilities, There are restrictions in terms of persons who have psychosocial intellectual disabilities and there is no explanation given concerning their restrictions on legal capacity.
Matrimony may be canceled for having a defect, so to speak, if one of the parties has a mental, as you call it, disability, which in fact is a psychosocial disability.
Children can be put into institutions due to, as you put it, the inability of parents to take care of them due to disability or chronic illness.
I would like to know What is being done to try and do away with this notion of a flawed marriage and what measures are you envisaging for addressing this issue that relates to, as you call it, mental disabilities when in fact it's psychosocial disabilities.
Who are classified as persons who are totally disabled, as you put it? I would ask you to be very specific in your responses.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for that question.
This question will be answers our representatives virtually from the Ministry of Health.
Thank you, Chair.
The sexually and sexual health education and reproductive health education, and also for the intellectual and with the psychological disabilities.
This education is given through the family health care system, especially to the through the essential family health package.
So our family care workers, especially the public health midwives, they do the home visits and during their home visits, they identify these persons with disabilities, especially these intellectual and psychological disabilities with intellectual and psychological disabilities, and they have, identifying these persons, so they give them the relevant actually the education and also the services, especially the reproductive health, the MCH, and also the child care services, and for the adolescents, those related services, and if they are the psychologically and intellectually disabled, the family caregivers, family members, and the other people, they are giving the education for them, how these services can be used by these people.
The other thing is, in addition to the our system, all these our family health system is disability inclusive, and for the persons with disabilities, especially there are programs done by the Minister of Health with the support of the other NGOs and the other associations of the persons with disabilities and also the Family Planning Association.
And these services are more disability accessible for those people because they are giving they are having more resources than the family health system for giving the accessible information for these people.
And other than that, the Ministry of Health identified the communication barriers.
Actually, there are the communication barriers for these people.
So we have taken measures to deliver our health related messages more in sign language and also the other accessible formats like brail and also the an easy read formats and particular persons with visual, hearing, and intellectual speculator I do apologize for interrupting you, but I will try and reformulate my question.
Could you please tell me whether the state is taking measures to cancel or rather to prevent marriages from being canceled or declared null and void when one of the spouses has a social disability.
That is a very specific question.
Also my second question, who are the persons classified as persons with total disability? These are two questions and please, I would very much welcome a very specific response.
Thank you.
Doctor, would you like to continue? Yes.
If you need to reply to that in writing, we would appreciate that we get a targeted answer as it seems that you need to think about a possible reply.
And in view of time, I think we can proceed.
I would like then to proceed in relation to Article 24.
And what I would like to know is if there is any plan or a strategy with resources to increase the public disability inclusive schools, also in rural areas, in particular in rural areas.
Then what is being done to make a reality the right of education, in particular, the right to receive reasonable accommodation and as a right, of course, and how is that guaranteed and give effect? Related to that, how is assistive technology provided in that context? Also, we'd like to know what is being done for children which are not engaged in education at this moment to engage them in particular in conflict affected areas.
Very specific questions and we welcome very specific answers.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
This question will be answers our representatives from the Ministry of Education.
With regard to increasing opportunities for inclusive education, the Ministry of Education is now in a transition phase from special education to inclusive education.
Steps are being taken to build capacity in teachers, and from year 2024, there is a circular to include children who start within the special education system into the inclusive education system with necessary supports.
Also, with regard to the second question, To provide reasonable accommodations, teachers are being trained on using reasonable accommodations, as well as in addition to the classroom, the examinations department has also published guidelines in year 2025 to a Include reasonable accommodations in a larger scale, and also all officers in the examinations department are being trained and all centers are being adequately provided with these accommodations.
In addition to that, with regard to digital accessibility, a new program has been launched which will in a phase wise, introduce digital accessibility to all students who need these within the classrooms.
For that answer, I take that this means that reasonable accommodation, the provision of reasonable accommodation is a recommendation, but it is not a right that the student have and please correct me if I'm wrong.
While you do that, I will pass already to the question related to Article 25 on health.
And I would like to ask specifically what steps are the state party taken in order to remove disability discrimination from private insurances.
That's the first question, whether there are court cases related to violation of access to health care and what steps are being taken to ensure that persons who are institutionalized, particularly persons with psychosocial disabilities, they can receive and health services, in particular or including mental health services outside the institution.
In other words, that they do not need to be institutionalized to be able to have the right to get these health services and whether there is any steps or plans to remove in the mental disease ordinance, the possibility to impose mechanical and rests and physical restraints.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for that question.
This will be answers our representative virtually from the Ministry of Health.
Can you please tell the first question that one I couldn't get.
I'm sorry.
Is it okay for you to repeat that? I'm sorry.
So that is regarding the insurance.
Yes.
Removal of discrimination based on disability and private insurance.
All right.
So I think in our health system, so it is disability inclusive, our health care services all and without insurance and without any it is free of charge.
The our services and the health we have universal health coverage and we try to give all the services to all over the country with the government to government health services and because of that, I think we are not thinking of private insurance systems.
So a So because we are providing the free of health services from our government institutions.
But private institutions they are providing services.
I think they will consider these private insurance systems for paying the charges and all.
So The next one, I think the universal health coverage for universal health coverage for I think the services for the persons with disabilities from our government health services.
We are providing the curative and preventive health care services.
The curative services through our hospital sector and also the preventive health services through the community health care workers.
So we provide the services all over the country free of charge and any of the institutions anyone can go.
All these services are disability inclusive.
And the prevention and also the screening services are conducted for identifying the disabilities early in life in our family health services.
The other thing is I know we have identified some barriers of reaching the services, especially the accessibility barriers, communication and the physical accessibility.
Now we have taken measures to improve the physical accessibility, as well as the information system to deliver the information more accessible with more accessible methods, assigned language and also other accessible formats, and also the sensitization of the health workers capacity building we are doing to ensure this universal health coverage, giving the health services without any discrimination to the persons with disabilities.
So these are the things we have done to ensure the universal health coverage.
S.
I would have really liked to know about the mental health service provision for persons beyond the institutions.
But in view of time, I have to pass to Article 26 and there I have a couple of very specific questions.
You have national guidelines for rehabilitation services.
Could you provide some information about the resources available for their implementation, including for assistive technology? That is question one.
In relation to question two, the report acknowledges limited availability of rehabilitation services and points to the National Health Strategy master plan from 2016 2025, so it's already finished.
What are the plans for the coming years? The third question is if you have any measure of the success rates of these rehabilitation service programs in terms of alignment with the human rights model of disability and in terms of including persons in the community, regaining independent living and so forth.
These three questions, and in view of time really, I would appreciate very concrete answers.
Thank you.
Again, this question will also be answered by the Minister of Health.
Thank you, Chair.
And so we have yes we have published the rehabilitation guidelines and that actually that address all the levels of care primary to primary, secondary, and tertiary care.
And so in tertiary care services and secondary care services, we provide already we are having these services, rehabilitation services and all the resources and the human resources as well as the infrastructure.
Now we are in the process of improving these services in secondary health care because not all the secondary healthcare institutions they don't have these services and we are now in the process of expanding the rehabilitation services into primary health care institutions by strengthening the the human resources and also the capacity building, training, and also providing infrastructure facilities, especially the newly established the community health and wellness centers.
And all these are in the rehabilitation guidelines.
They have identified we have identified what type of services we have to give in each level of care and we have a most of the facilities now we have provided, but in primary health care institutions, we have to improve the services by the training of the human resource development and also providing equipment and infrastructure and especially the physical accessibility and with the communication, the accessibility for the persons with disabilities.
And for the second question, I think in health master plan and in 16 to 25 E they have included most of the actions regarding the rehabilitation.
And some of them we have already implemented, especially the establishment of rehabilitation services in secondary health care and also the improving the specialized rehabilitation services in the tertiary health care with the trained specialists in rehabilitation medicine.
And also the physical accessibility part.
So we have started, but now because of the financial constraints in those times, so we have started, but now we are in the process of developing these the accessibility improvement.
And so we have included we have identified the disability health and the rehabilitation as a priority area in the next ten years health master plan as well as the policy of health and well being for next ten years time.
The third question, I think that is regarding Any measure do I have to say? Yeah.
With starting the expanding rehabilitation services to the secondary health care and the improving services in tertiary, specialized services with human resources, especially the assistive device provision, and improving the local production of assistive devices with allocated funds and the issuing assistive devices selected assistive devices free of charge from the government health institutions.
We have, I think our program to enlighten model of disability.
Because the question was whether you were measuring the success of those programs in terms of gaining independent living of persons that receive rehabilitation.
I take it is a no because the rest of the information I read in the report about what measures are available.
Thank you.
I'm very concerned with the view of time because we really have to cover ten questions.
I would like then to pass to the question on work unemployment and there I have very specific questions again.
Um, so we know from the reports that there is a protection from discrimination in employment only related to recruitment.
So what are the plans to protect from discrimination in employment beyond recruitment and to mandate reasonable accommodation as an obligation in employment and denial of reasonable accommodation being discrimination.
This matter has been discussed this morning in general, I would like to know in employment now very specific.
Then, in relation to quotas, which we understand that you have, how is it they are enforced and what happens when they are not respected? Are there any penalties in relation to violation of these obligations? And in relation to the vocational training programs, we'd like to know if you have measures in terms of success for long term employment, achieved by persons with disabilities that follow those, um, trainings and in terms of access to those programs, if you have compared data between persons with and without disabilities, in particular, woman with disabilities.
If you don't have it, you just need to tell me no.
The point is not to repeat all the measures we already have read in the report.
I thank you for this effort to provide concise information.
Thank you.
This question will be answers from our representatives virtually from the Ministry of Labor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
In terms of the national employment policies and Sri Lanka is committed to promoting the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others, especially the Ministry of Labor, through the Department of Manpower and Employment works very closely with the Department of Social Services and other stakeholders under the employment Support Service Unit coordinated by management committee chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security, and Community Empowerment.
And the person with disabilities access the same public employment services as all other job seekers, including registration, career guidance, job matching, and placement.
Where skill gaps are identified, they are referred to vocational training institutions for market oriented training.
Our current focus is not only to not only job placement, but also employment retention by increasing awareness among persons with disabilities and their parents, strengthening skills and engaging employers to create inclusive workplaces.
In terms of non discrimination and reasonable accommodation, the Ministry of Labor promotes equal access to employment by encouraging employers to recruit basis based on skills and competencies rather than disability.
Through the Department of Manpower and Employment, employers are encouraged to provide reasonable accommodation, including accessible workplace, flexible working arrangements, assistive technologies, and appropriate job modification.
Human Resource Development officers who are coming under the Department of Manpower, regular training on disability inclusion, labor legislation, and employer engagement, enabling them to support both employers and job seekers.
Where specialized accommodation is required, the Department of Manpower works with the Department of Social Services and other relevant agencies.
Sri Lanka remains committed to promoting inclusive workplace and equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
And when you consider the employer awareness and inclusive employment, the Ministry of Labor has initiated discussions to incorporate the concept of reasonable accommodation into labor legislation to strengthen legal protection and improve employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
The Employer Federation of Ceylon, through its employer network on disability promotes disability, inclusive employment by sharing good good practices, improving workplace accessibility, and conducting employer awareness programs.
In parallel, Department of Manpower and employment conducts a nationwide awareness program for employers, persons with disabilities and their families to promote.
Sorry to interrupt you again.
I really would appreciate to answer the questions specifically because we have read really the reports and we appreciate all those measures.
We're trying to get additional information.
So unless you have something specific, then I would like to pass the floor to my colleague Mano Corporan to address a question on Article 28, and then I will put you two questions together for Article 29 and 30.
Mano, please.
Thank you very much in Macula.
Thank you also to the Sri Lankan delegation who are with us.
We're very grateful for all of the efforts undertaken to submit the report to us.
Now I'd like to refer to persons with disabilities who are affected disproportionately because of poverty.
This falls under Article 28, appropriate standard of living and social protection.
My questions.
At what implementation stage are the plans that have been set forth in the State Party report to improve the living conditions of persons with disabilities, including income generating mechanisms, and also for women with disabilities, tax exemptions, housing accessibility, and support services for persons with disabilities who are in a street situation.
What measures are being taken to ensure that the eligibility requirements for education do not exclude persons with disabilities? How do you coordinate assessment procedures to have access to social protection programs as a human rights based model? Instead of social assistance models.
I'd also like to know what social protection programs you have in place for persons with disabilities above and beyond support to housing.
I'm thinking about costs that would be covered related to standards of living, which guarantee an appropriate standard of living.
Currently, approximately, there are $33 So above and beyond the amount that is allocated to those who fall under the poverty threshold.
Now, we would recommend that you develop a social protection system which addresses the social costs of disability within the community and that you move away from an institutionalization type approach, including for those with a psychosocial disability.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for that questions.
The first part of the question will be answers our representative upon the Minister of Housing, construction, and wood supply.
Okay.
Thanks to Ministry of Housing, Construction and Water Supply remains firmly committed to implementation of Article 28 of the CRPD, recognizing that access to adequate housing, accessible sanitation, and social protection are essential to ensuring an adequate standard of living and promoting the dignity, independence, and inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The ministry has mainstream disability inclusion within its national housing programs to ensure that persons with disabilities are not left behind.
Under the ministry's owner driven resettlement Housing Program for internally displaced persons in conflict affected areas in northern and eastern provinces, the government has allocated 5 billion in 2026 to construct 2,475 housing units.
To promote equitable access, persons with disabilities receive additional priority under the beneficiary selection criteria through the award of 15 additional marks.
Furthermore, housing designs are adopted to meet individual accessibility requirements based on technical recommendations.
These adoptions include ramps, wider doorways, handrails, and accessible toilet and bathroom facilities, enabling beneficiaries to live safely independently and with dignity.
In addition, recognizing that adequate housing must be complemented by accessible sanitation.
The ministry has also introduced a dedicated a sanitation S pilot program through National Housing Development Authority for 2026.
With an allocation of rupees 500 million, the program will support the construction of 500 accessible toilets for persons with disabilities in the western province.
These initiatives reflect Sri Lanka's continued efforts to advance disability inclusive housing policies.
And strengthen social protection through practical rights based measures.
The Minister of Housing Construction and Water Supply remains committed to further strengthening accessibility, promoting universal designs, and working collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure the full realization of the rights of persons with disabilities in accordance with the convention.
I think I have covered the relevant area.
Thank you.
The second part was asked about the welfare support programs being implemented by the government.
But we have mentioned in the report is only one aspect where we have a range of source of welfare programs for the person with disabilities.
One is the welfare program which provides monthly allowances based on the multidimensional poverty indicator, which generally thereabout 1.5 million families of Sri Lanka receive 10,000 and 17,500 rupees respectively.
In addition to that, we provide monthly 10,000 rupees for the low income families in addition to what they are receiving the multidimensional poverty index.
Altogether, they are most, if they are on the multidimensional poverty and the income poverty, both, some of them get 20,000 rupees per month, or the most poorest of the poor, they get 17,000 plus 10,000, which is 7,000 pees per month.
Those are well payer programs we implement to support their day to day living expenses.
In addition to that in several programs, example, in the education program, but to encourage the education in addition to monthly bursaries and map scholarships, we provide additional pay to pay for the students who enter into the higher education to continue their education.
Recently, the government the presidency ateria within the granted 100,000 all the university students to support their education equity.
Likewise, we are implementing range of welfare programs to support people with disabilities financially, but I understand financial is not only the thing, in addition to what we are implementing through various other programs.
Financial supporting welfare programs are also being implemented.
Thank you.
Much.
I think we can pass now to the last two articles.
In relation to Article 29 on participation in political and public life, the State party report says there is no restrictions for political participation for persons with disabilities for standing elections nor for voting.
However, certain provisions in the Constitution put challenges to appointed persons with disabilities to management positions of responsibility in political office and public administrations.
In particular, those referring to possibility to remove a person from a position when they have ill health or physical and mental infirmity.
Unwell, as well as restrictions under Article 88 point C on the Constitution in voting for those with unsound mind or for persons deprived of legal capacity.
The question is whether there are any plans from the state to remove those provisions that put factual barriers for persons with disabilities to participate in political and public lives.
There are examples of positions such as election commissioners, auditor general, parliamentary commissions for administration, executive presidency, and so forth.
And beyond reasonable accommodation and physical accessibility for voting, whether there are plans to make braille ballots and to be able to respect the privacy in voting of persons who are blind or visually impaired.
That was Article 29 and I'm going to put the two together so that you are able to use the time available for the answer according to the information that you have.
So Article 30 is about participation in culture live, recreation, leisure, and sport.
The question is what measures are taken to ensure the accessibility of sports facilities beyond having arrangements for specific apart sport opportunities for persons with disabilities and how accessibility is also put in other places of public accommodations related to this article, cultural places, tourism, recreation facilities, and so forth.
The second question in this article is about Marrakesh Treaty, which is, in fact, could you explain what measures you have put in place for the production to increase the production of accessible books, taking the possibilities provided by the Marrakesh Treaty and if you have figures on production of the books being provided accessible through these means.
The floor is yours now to answer those two questions, those two articles.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
The first question will be answers our representative from the Department of Attorney General, while the second question will be answered virtually by our representative from the Ministry of ports and youth affairs.
The third one will be answers our representative from the minister of foreign affairs.
If time permits, the answers will be supplemented our representative from the election commission as well.
May I begin by clarifying that these provisions with regard to removal from office on grounds of physical or mental infirmities are there on a base of necessity, which would really incapacitate a person from carrying on in such office.
It is by no means a limitation based on disability in the sense we understand in the convention.
It was not intended to do so and it has never been used in that context in practice.
Also may I add that wherever those terms are used and where it forms the grounds of removal from office, it is always part of a larger process.
Involving at least two or at least two or more of the organs of government.
It is a complicated, complex, and careful process that has been put into place because these provisions also Are available in respect of very high officers.
Removal from such officers is not something that is lightly done or constitutionally envisaged.
It will have to pass muster with the executive, judiciary, and the legislature as may be applicable in the several processes, and it is most certainly not intended to refer to a mere disability in terms of the convention.
Thank you.
Representative from the Election Commission, would you like to supplement that answer? A Yes, sir.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
In Sri Lanka, there's no constitutional barrier that prevents persons with psychosocial disabilities from voting simply because of their disability.
And a person can be disqualified from voting only if the court has legally declared them they are incapable of exercising that right.
Otherwise, person with psychosocial disabilities have the right of vote.
And also further, there are no recorded instances of such cases being reported to the election commission yet.
Thank you.
The second question will be answered by the Ministry of Sports and youth affairs.
Thank you, Chair.
The government has strengthened the institutional framework for paraage ports through the new sports regulation under get notification.
The parathletic are also given opportunity to participate in sport administration and technical positions, promoting their representation and equal participation in decision making.
The governments also provide recognition and monetary rewards for successful athlete and their coaches encouraged greater participation in sports.
The National Paralympic Committee plays a key role in developing para ports and supporting athlete.
Around 60 sports clubs are registered with the committee, while national and junior Parathlete champions are conducted annually.
Island Wild Awareness and talent identification program also conduct a district level helping to overcome geogital and social barriers and identify new talent.
The Ministry of youth affairs and sports to provide monthly rounds to athlete in the high performance pool, accommodation facilities, nutritional allowance and specialized training, and financial assistance for participation in international competition, including airfare.
We also encouraged to improve the accessibility of existing sport infrastructure and also providing financial for universal design for all the disabled persons.
I think I covered it.
The last part will be answered by our representative upon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and foreign employment.
Thank you for your question on the Marrakesh Treaty.
Sri Lanka has implemented the Marrakesh Treaty through the enactment of the Intellectual Property Amendment Act number eight of 2021.
This act aligns the National Intellectual Property Framework with the treaty by introducing copyright exceptions that permit the production and distribution of accessible format copies of published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled.
Enabling regulations under the S Amendment Act have already been drafted and forwarded to the World Intellectual Property Organization to obtain expert opinion and guidance.
Some of the relevant stakeholders have also provided us with their inputs on the said draft regulations.
Once the National Intellectual Property Office receive expert opinion and guidance from the IPO, Sri Lanka will finalize the draft regulations incorporating inputs from our stakeholders and forward the same to the legal draftsmen for approval.
Sri Lanka recognizes that effective implementation of the treaty extend beyond legislative reform.
Accordingly, the government has encouraged practical measures to improve the availability of accessible format materials through close collaboration among relevant government institutions, educational establishments, libraries, organizations representing persons with disabilities and other stakeholders.
Uh, with regard to the figures on production of books, we do not have an exact figure with us right now.
It can be provided in consultation with the printing agencies and the National Intellectual Property Office, the national office in collaboration with relevant ministries, they have continued to raise awareness of the Marrakesh Treaty and its objectives through seminars, stakeholder consultations, public as programs.
The initiatives aim to enhance understanding among rights holders, educational institutions, publishers, librarians, and organizations serving persons with visual impairments regarding the practical application of the treaty and the opportunities it provides for improving access to published works.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for having answered all the questions.
I really want to thank you for having been understanding with the pressure that we are putting with the timing, but it is you have to interpret as an interest in knowing more about what you are doing.
I think I have to pass now the floor back to the chair because our time for this session section has finished.
So thank you very much.
Thank you so much, miss Emma C Excellency and respective delegation.
The floor is now open to all committee member and all task force members for additional and follow up questions under clause three.
We have a 30 minutes for this round.
I invite members of the committee, include the task force team to intervene to raise their name flag.
Mr.
Hirostaon, you have the floor.
Thank you for the answers that you recently gave.
I do have a follow up question regarding Article 29.
We have received information that women with disabilities are not included as members of the National Commission for Women.
Do you have any plans to perhaps appoint women with disabilities as members of this commission? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Amalia, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Just briefly on Article 25, I have a follow up question.
We hear that you're making efforts to ensure that clinics are accessible.
I'm wondering if The diagnostic equipment is accessible.
For example, for women who are in wheelchairs, have you got accessible treatment and equipment available? I also want to talk about tertiary care.
It seems that this is expensive, but I wonder if it seems you have a rehabilitation system for care in the community, and that's very important in remote areas because as its name would suggest, it draws on resources within the community to try to provide rehabilitation.
In Sri Lanka, over 30 years ago, this was launched, but it seems that it's been stagnant for a while or inactive.
Organizations of people with disabilities are trying to get this up and running again, but it doesn't seem that enough has been done and it would be very helpful if it could be revived.
This particular program on community rehabilitation could be revived.
Is this your plans? That's my specific question.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Miss Gerlendor, you have the floor.
No.
Miss G Popome, you have the floor.
My question is on Article 24.
With the issue of learners who are deaf blind.
It's deaf blindness is another category of disability.
They don't hear, they don't speak.
No, they don't hear, they don't see deaf blindness.
Yes.
Please, what are the opportunities for their education? If you have opportunities for them, what is the highest attainable level that you have at the moment and what employment opportunity is there for them after the education.
Practically, what's happening? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Mr.
Christopoano, you have the floor.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Distinguish delegates.
I want to ask question on Article 21.
Concerning information, access to information.
So I don't know the level of the arrangements made by Sri Lanka government to ensure that information gets across to all clusters of persons with disabilities, especially public information like documents like documents I'm talking I'm talking about constitution of the country.
To be able to reach out to people who are blind and those who are the sign language people to have access to that.
We have all public information like in education and politicies, in other governance and of life, public life.
Those documents sometimes it doesn't reach out to these people.
So what efforts have been made to put in place or missions put in place to ensure that these documents are being provided and to ensure that it reaches to all clusters of persons with disability.
The next one is about employment.
Can you give us a particular number of persons with disabilities or if there's any quota reserved for them concerning employment.
I don't know how many of them that are employed in various fields or ministries or agencies, and in polies, do we have any member of persons with disability that is in political positions and what efforts are political parties making to ensure that they are incorporated into polies and political activities.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Miss Loma Cases, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you, delegation for the work that you've put into the dialogue so far today.
My question is not directed to any specific question, but will have an impact I'm looking for an impact across several areas of cluster three, in particular, 24, education, 25 health, 26 rehabilitation.
Yeah.
I adequate standard of living and political participation.
The removal of disability inclusive and development and support programs from USAID 18 months ago in January 2025.
They were programs that supported lots of development work, inclusive development work in Sri Lanka, especially in terms of specialized assistance and rights based advocacy for people with disability.
I'm really curious about how the loss of those funds and those resources within a Disability services has been felt.
What's the impact and what strategies has Sri Lanka taken to be able to bolster other development agreements or cover those services to ensure that people with disability are not losing those localized supports and access to rehabilitation.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Mr.
Prod Maurice, you have the floor.
Very much, Ma chair.
I have, I think three questions that I want to ask.
One, I take note in your report that you indicated that a number of policy measures have been put forward since 2015 to improve the situation of persons with disabilities in education.
One of them that I took note of is 1% of the population of students to be students with disabilities.
I I'm a bit curious how you derive how you came to that 1% figure and if the number of students with disabilities who are registered at the terture level exceed that 1%.
What is the situation? What do you do? The other question that I want to ask along that line is reasonable accommodation is very important for the success of students with disabilities, especially at the tertiary level.
I would want to know if you have specific measures in place, a system in place to track the students at the tertiary level so that you can know what reasonable accommodation to provide for these individuals once they make the request.
The other question that I want to ask is relating to Article 29.
I take note in your report that you have indicated that a person with a disability has been involved with politics, albeit at a provincial level, and you articulated the point that the individual implemented programs that impacted on about 50,000 persons with disabilities.
Now, I commend that individual and his involvement.
But recognizing this data that you have shared with us, my question is, why aren't we seeing the government encouraging and giving greater support to more persons with disabilities to participate in politics, which would multiply in a significant way, the level of participation and effect on a population of persons with disabilities.
I would want to know what are you doing to expand and increase the number of persons with disabilities participating in politics in light of the success story that you have reported here.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Mr.
Martino Lorenzo, you have the floor.
Proceed.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'd like to begin underscoring the importance of the question raised by my colleague, miss Maaliago on community based rehabilitation and care.
This is really a key question.
And I would add to that that if there is a strategy that can draw on accrued experience for people with disabilities in the community In other words, a strategy to help to build solidarity amongst peers.
Regarding Article 21, I'd like to kindly ask you what about the dictionary for the Sri Lankan sign language? What's the time frame? I'm wondering, in fact, has it been updated and is it used in educational planning to ensure Development for the deaf, for training, for interpreters, and the development of the si language itself as a language within society.
On a similar note, I'm very interested to know if people with disabilities participate in tourism, if they can work as guides or if they have companies or businesses to offer services because this convention has a development component and that's one of its strengths.
What is Sri Lanka doing, therefore, to.
To take advantage as much as possible of the tourist industry that exists? How many people with disabilities visit Sri Lanka? What about residents citizens of Sri Lanka with disabilities? Are they participating in recreational life and in these activities? What about special chairs or equipment to be able to go and go to the beach and bathe in the sea? Are those available? Finally, what protocols are in place within the Ministry of Labor and public health to protect the health of artisanal fishers.
What figures exist regarding injuries connected to artisanal fishing in Sri Lanka? Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you so much.
Now I give the floor to the distinguished delegation to listen to the question listed from all committee members until 545.
If the delegation has been unable to respond to any of the question, may I kindly request the response submitted to the committee in writing within 24 hours from the conclusion of the dialogue.
Excellency, you have the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair and also all the questions raised by experts.
As Madam Chair mentioned, we will answer some of the questions with the support of relevant line ministes and if any questions remain unanswered, will be answers with a written submission within the next 24 hours.
P, I'll give the floor to a representative from the Minister of Women and Child Affairs to answer first two questions.
Thank you, Chair.
And thank you for re posing the question because I think I missed it in the earlier session.
The Women's Commission was established under the Women Empowerment Act number 37 of 2024, and it has provisions for the qualifications of the people who should be nominated as commissioners.
And the applications were called by these commissioners will be nominated by the Constitutional Council after calling for applications and doing interviews and reviewing their qualifications.
Once the Constitution Council recommends these people, the His Excellency, the president will appoint the commissioners.
The provisions are there in the Act and when the applications were called, it was published in the newspapers, the public newspapers, whoever was interested was able to apply for that.
There is no restriction to prevent any persons with disability from applying for that.
If they have the qualifications in the sectors identified under the Act, any person with disability can apply for these positions and then through the general channel, they can be appointed and the tenure of these commissioners is three years.
In another three years time, the applications will be recalled, in that time period, the people who are interested could apply.
Thank you.
Hello.
Would you also comment on the women in wheelchair questions? So, I didn't get that question.
So we will come back to that question.
Since there were two questions regarding community based rehabilitation, I asked director Department of Social Service to answer that question.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Regarding the community based rehabilitation, Sri Lanka, we utilize a decentrized CBR framework deployed by grassroots social service officers.
To support independent living and keep families together.
Database with nearly 78,704 registered persons with disabilities regarding the preparation of individual rehabilitation plan, which has informed the creation of 25,000 nearly.
Individual plans provide precious precise direct route into health care, education, vocational training, social protection, and local support networks, et cetera Then according to these rehabilitation plans, direct assistance are providing like providing water tanks, water supply, electricity supply, according to the request, and also financial assistance for livelihood projects.
Also like as example, mushroom production, egg production, apparel sector, and electrical item repairing, toys, uh, and gem cutting, et cetera.
So under the CBR program, we conduct entrepreneurship training programs to person with disabilities who like to do self employment to drive financial self reliance, Also, we recently we conduct the RNPum trade and vocational skill exhibition under the department with the guidance of the Ministry of Rural Development and Social Empowerment Ministry partnered with the International Labor Organization to execute a joint economic initiative, especially in third and fourth August in this year to showcase products and creations made by persons with disabilities.
And self help groups to build market linkages and promote entrepreneurship and will act as a direct recruitment platform connecting job seekers with disabilities.
Also, we have created the organizations within all around the divisional Secretariat, divisional level, self help organizations for persons with disabilities.
We have at the moment, they empowers beneficiaries to collectively navigate state services, join local decision making bodies and lead community companies to eliminate discrimination.
To encourage those person with disabilities who engage in empowerment program, we conduct Sabimani National Awards ceremony under the department, an island wide evaluation and recognition platform hosted by the department biannual to honor grassroots to national achievements across 18 categories, including best performing divisional and district level self help organizations, individuals successfully reintegrated into society at the household level via CBR program.
Outstanding artistic creations, craft work, and our technical innovations interventions also in our Also, we reward and also employers making significant contributions toward inclusive hiring and also the best project for program implemented by self help organizers.
Those are the award categories we are conducting that award ceremony.
So we allocate budget for the CBR program in each and every year.
This year, we have allocated 35 million rupees.
Thank you.
The next question related to article 2019 about the participation in politics and political life will be answered by our representative on the Flexion Commission.
Thank you, sir.
There are two questions relevant to our institutes.
The first one is about the quotas.
Currently there is no legal provision to provide the quotas for persons with disability in electoral politics.
However, there's one person with disability is already a member of parliament in current parliament.
Recently, Parliament has established a select committee, consider the electoral reforms.
D platform established by Election Commission with the disability organizations, submitted a proposal about giving these disabled quotas in the electoral politics.
If parliament approved it, Election Commission can implement it.
The second question, about the participation increasing of persons with disability, to increase the participation, the political participation of voters with disabilities, the Election Commission has introduced ballot paper extensive for visually impaired voters and sign language training for the poll workers during the last electoral cycle.
For the future, we plan to introduce advanced voting and mobile voting facilities, a draft bill called Special Provision Election that has been forwarded to the Legal drafts department, and we hope if that implement in the next election cycle, it will immensely increase the political participation of persons with disabled.
Thank you.
And the question related to recreational activities will be answered by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
When it come to recreational, I think they asked for the actually with the sport tourism, we're promoting Praissport tourism with national Paralympic Committee.
We encourage to facilitate and conduct international competitive and friendly tournaments.
Also, we are in the process of improving the international level sport facilities of our country.
With international Paris port standards that we can conduct international events here and gather more people for the come to recreational sport activities and is port tourism here.
Representative the Ministry of Education.
Could you answer the question pertaining to the education? Yes.
Madam Chair and distinguished members of the committee, Sri Lanka has taken significant steps to strengthen inclusive higher education until the 2026 academic year, the students with disabilities were eligible for admission to only four selected universities degrees programs, recognizing the need to ensure equal access to higher education without discrimination.
Government has decided that commencing with the 2027 academic year, all undergraduate degree programs offered by the state universities will be open to qualified students with disabilities.
Subject to the applicable academic admission requirements.
The landmark reforms will significantly expand opportunities for persons with disabilities to pursue higher education across a wider range of discipline, promote equal participation, the university life, enhance future employment prospect, and contribute to build a more inclusive and equitable higher education system within the Article 24 of the convention.
Thank you.
There are two more comments that came about education.
There was a comment about 1% of students with disabilities.
I would like to state, Madam Chairperson and the distinguished guests that distinguished committee, that this 1% is reflected because we have counted only students in the special education classrooms.
There are more children in the mainstream classrooms about The data we do not have in hand at the moment, but we have commenced a program to count these students with the intention of providing them with necessary accommodations.
There was also another question about sign language in education planning.
With regard to this, Ministry of Education is taking multiple steps to train teachers, together with the National Institute of Education.
There are multiple courses that are offered teachers in service as well as in teacher training colleges for compulsory participation in sign language courses.
Thank you.
The questions related to employability will be answers by the Ministry of Labor.
Chairperson, I think there are questions regarding that small scale fishermen.
I'm really sorry that we do not have enough information in this time, so I promise to hand over the written submission of the answers.
Thank you.
Yeah, and one more point to with regard to the occupational safety and health that was raised, actually, we have a Active Occupational Safety and Health in Sri Lanka and but that is not comprehensive, then we are working on to introduce a comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Act.
And in addition, we have recently ratified c190 Violence and harassment convention that is also related to occupational safety and with the fisheries, we are in the process of ratifying C one working fishing convention also that also will ensure protection of fisheries.
Thank you.
The questions related to information, would you like to answer, our secretary to the ministry? Thank you, Chair.
Public Administration Circular 11 2024 requires the government institution to use unicode compatible funds for documents and web pages, especially addressing accessibility challenges faced by the persons with visual impairments.
And while implementing WCAG requirements in processing, we acknowledge that compliance is not yet informed across all government websites.
Several institutions have begun adopting more advanced accessibility practices, including WCAG 2.2 level AA and government is continuing to strengthen the technical capacity accessibility standards, testing and monitoring to progressively ensure that digital public information and services are accessible to persons with disabilities.
Thank you.
I think we answered all the questions.
If there's any remaining.
Thank you so much.
S we have 5 minutes more.
So I would like to invite a member of the committee to raise the flag for questions.
Miss G forme, you have the floor.
I place wish to remind the delegation that I would like the question around education of deaf blind learners.
Deaf blind learners in particular.
What opportunities are there for them? At the moment, what's the highest level that a deaf blind person has achieved? If somebody has completed education already, then it moves to another se.
I said, what ement opportunity is there for that person? Deaf blind learners, please, not children with disabilities in general.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Miss Loch Marquess, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
Like my colleague, miss Fomi, I'd like to follow up on my question about USAIT and the removal of inclusive development funds.
Sid.
US Aid United States AI inclusive development.
The removal of the funds for inclusive development and social supports programs.
Thank you so much, Excellency, you have the floor for the last two questions.
Thank you.
And our representative from the Mi of Education or the National NIE, could you please answer the specific questions about the highest level of education achieved.
Thank you, Chairperson.
Thank you for that question.
Sorry, we missed it earlier.
With regard to learners with visual impairment, Sri Lanka established the first school for blind in 1912 and it is one of the earliest facilities for education, and we have progressed very well in the field of visually impaired students.
It is one of the areas where highest education achievements have been achieved.
And at the moment, the highest.
Highest level of education achieved in place.
Beyond master's level and there are facilities with regard to braille machines.
There are special schools for children with visual impairment, and also they are within the mainstream schools as well.
I really apologize, please, with all respect so that we can make the time.
Deaf blindness is a disability of a person who is deaf and also blind.
So that's the one we are asking about.
If you can answer that specifically, we will be glad.
Deaf blind.
Not blind, not deaf, deaf blind.
Thank you.
The facilities for deaf blind children are very minimal, I accept it.
We are now exploring digitalization and we have persons with visual impairment and deafness in our task force who are organizing these facilities.
At the moment, the facilities are very minimal and we have very few people who have attained higher educational facilities.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
Madam Chair, you give me 1 minute I mean, it's quite tricky questions to be answered, but about the aid support, I mean, the declining of aid support.
I think we globally, we all are experiencing negative impact of it.
I'm not to specifically comments about the particular agency, but we all understand they were supported in various means financially, specifically for the underdeveloped and developing countries, including Sri Lanka.
This has impact on the support to the people with disabilities as well.
I think like other similar countries, we are also experiencing negative impact on this.
Thank you for raising that question.
But my answer is very general I She was to be quite specific about what you're doing, whether you're negotiating with other development partners to be able to fill that hole or whether those programs have now just stopped running and how are people with disability being supported once those programs have shut down? They range across a variety of things from rehabilitation to education to advocacy and political participation.
So I'm interested in how that void and people with disability are being supported when those programs have been completely withdrawn.
Yeah, Madam, particularly, we are not working with only one international organization.
For example, currently, we are getting support from various international loan agencies, including ADB, ICA and also recently, we were supported by the Australian government for this accessibility audit.
Likewise, we are working with a range of bilateral organizations to get support, and also we provide as much as possible government financial support, but definitely the impact, but we will not determine the wind up any program, we will continue the program with our own finances as well as various other bilateral donor agencies supports.
Thank you so much.
We have now concluded the substantive part of our dialogue with Sri Lanka.
We will proceed to the closing remark.
Now, I give the floor doctor Opali Panilag, Honorable Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community empowerment and head of the Distinguished delegation of Sri Lanka for his closing remark.
You have the floor.
Madam Chair, distinguished members of the CRPD committee, Sri Lanka participated in this review in the spirit of openness and constructive engagement.
We appreciate the committee's recognition of the progress Sri Lanka has made, as well as the challenges the country has faced during the reporting period.
As I highlighted in my opening remarks, since the submission of our initial report, significant development have taken place have taken place in our efforts to strengthen the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.
We acknowledge that there are still issues that need to be addressed and challenges to be overcome.
The government is fully committed to ensure an ensure an environment where persons with disabilities are empowered to live with dignity, equality, independence, and full participation in society.
We have taken careful note of the views and concerns expressed by the committee during the review and responded to as many questions as possible within the time available.
Any outstanding matters that we were unable to address due to time constraints, along with updates on specific cases raised will be provided in a written response within the stipulated time frame.
On behalf of the delegation of Sri Lanka, I wish to thank the distinguished members of the committee for their constructive engagement during this review.
Madam Chair, I also wish to express my appreciation for your excellent leadership in conducting these proceedings effectively and efficiency.
I would be remissed if I did not acknowledge civil society organizations in Sri Lanka, some of whom are present in Geneva, who work very closely on the ground on issues of the person with disabilities, as well as the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, which remains constantly vigilant and complements the process of addressing relevant issues.
I would also like to thank the Secretariat for their continued cooperation and support.
Let me also thank the interpreters and comps services for their valuable assistance from the background.
I further extend my appreciation to all government officials and my delegation present here for their valuable contribution and hard work in preparing this review.
In closing, Madam Chair, I wish to reiterate that the government of Sri Lanka remains committed to the promotion and protection of human rights of all Sri Lankans, and we will continue our engagement with this committee in the spirit of cooperation and constructive dialogue.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Honorable Minister, doctor Opali Panilake.
I now give the floor to miss Gal Dorf member of the Task Force for Sri Lanka, for the closing remark of the task force.
Miss Gal Dorf, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair and once more, thank you very much for the state delegation.
This English State delegation on behalf of the task force members committee, and on my own behalf, I would like to thank Dinglish State delegation for today's opening constructive dialogue.
We really appreciate receiving your information and responses to our questions.
Those were valuable to us.
And we recognize that progress has been made since Sri Lanka ratified Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities, including developments in policies, legislations aiming at advancing the rights of persons with disabilities.
At the same time, we remain concerned that gaps in implementation and enforcement of legislations and policies, inadequate knowledge of the convention among the relevant authorities and inadequate resources may prevent from these legislations and policies are real to the lives of persons with disabilities.
To ensure no persons with disabilities left behind, Sri Lanka needs to apply holistic human centered approach using the human rights model to disability for your further action.
Also, the meaningful participation of persons with disabilities really crucial for your further activities to ensure that every policy and legislation are responsive to the needs of persons with disabilities.
We also recognize that valuable expertise and experience Of Sri Lanka's Organization of Persons with Disabilities.
The contribution very valuable to us during this dialogue.
Before concluding, I would like to emphasize that nothing about us without us must remain at the heart of implementation of conditions of the rights of persons with disabilities.
I would like to emphasize that meaningful participation of persons with disabilities through their representative organization in decision making Essential.
When I talk decision making, I'm talking about all processes, planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Persons with disabilities print unique experiences based on their lived experiences.
Again, their participation is really crucial to removing structural barriers that lead to exclusion exclusion, our exclusion.
In this regard, I again strongly encourage the government of Sri Lanka to establish effective and systematic mechanism for the meaningful participation of organizational persons with disabilities and their representatives from the diversity of disability throughout your reform.
Today's conservative dialogue has been valuable opportunity to identify the key issues that need to be addressed for your further development.
Finally, I would like to highlight a few points for your consideration at the moment.
Harmonization legislation with the connection really crucial.
Please expedite adoption of the persons with disabilities pill, strengthening protection protection against discrimination of persons with disabilities and ensuring effective remedies.
Please advancing legal capacity reform and supported decision making, ending institutionalization.
Also, they promote independent living of persons with disabilities through introducing personal assistance service.
Please ensure the inclusive education in all settings.
So we encourage the Sri Lankan government to really expedite the implementation of the Convention on the Rights in order to bring valuable change to the lives of persons with disabilities.
I wish you success for your future effort for ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, miss Garden.
On behalf of the committee, I sincerely thank Honorable Minister doctor Opali Panila again, the distinguished delegation of Sri Lanka for their constructive engagement with the committee in person and online.
I also thank doctor Geehan Gunillak commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka for his contribution to this morning's dialogue.
I special thanks to the member of the task force and and also all members of the expert for their active participation as well as the secretaria, interpreters, captioners, and all those who have supported this dialogue.
The information provided during these two meetings, together with any additional written lists, will assist the committees in preparing its concluding observation.
The conclusion observation will be formally communicated to the state parties through its permanent comision.
This concludes the committee's constellation of the report of Sri Lanka.
Thank you so much.
This meeting is adjourned.