UPR Sexual Rights Database

Step up efforts to enhance participation by women in political and public life.

The United Nations country team also underlined the need to strengthen public health programmes, which had been compromised during the pandemic, in order to revamp previous targeted preventative interventions to reach the most vulnerable, including ... persons living with HIV ... It also stressed the need to strengthen psychosocial services to antenatal and postnatal women, young persons and survivors of gender-based violence. [Para 52]

... It was concerned that discrimination also persisted against girls ... [Para 18; CRC]

ECCHR noted that female ex-combatants had limited mobility and freedom, diminished status in villages, faced a higher risk of rape and violence, and almost no recourse to justice. They were not allowed to move outside of their district without permission. GTF noted that through its vast network of checkpoints, between and within villages and towns, the security services were able to restrict the movement of residents and monitor their activities, as also noted by PEARL. [Para 48]

Establish a specific programme to produce opportunities for income for women, mainly in rural areas.

Ratify the optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure (OP-CRC-IC), to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (OP-CRPD) and to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR).

Since women head 23.4 percent of households in the North and East, in March 2015, the government set up a National Committee on Female-Headed Households (FHHs) and a National Centre for FHHs in Kilinochchi. These Committees have enabled FHHs to integrate into the workforce and access sustainable livelihoods. Cabinet approved a national policy on FHHs formulated by the MWCA, in consultation with relevant stakeholders including the civil society in October 2016 and which is currently being translated into a National Action Plan for WHH for the period 2017-2019. [Para 44]

Joint Submission 2 (JS2) noted that Articles 365 and 365A of the Penal Code prohibiting homosexual relations, described as “acts of gross indecency”, might put children in danger as these articles do not explicitly exempt children for the crime, hence a child might be treated as an offender instead of a victim in exploitative situations. [Para 74]

Strengthen efforts to protect women’s rights, including by setting a quota to increase women representation in the leadership role, both in public and private sectors, as well as step up efforts to increase investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Amend the Penal Code, particularly Sections 365 and 365A, to decriminalize consensual same-sex conduct and displays of affection, and repeal the Vagrants Ordinance.

Ensure that police properly investigate all acts of gender-based violence, including marital violence.

HRW recommended that Sri Lanka: remove all marital rape exceptions from laws criminalizing rape; and require police to investigate and appropriately prosecute acts of gender-based violence, including against a woman by her husband. JS3 made similar recommendations. [Para 60]