punishment is implemented in the future. On the other hand the Department of Prisons has to pay additional attention in regard to factors such as the arrival of visitors to see these persons and the welfare of their families. Among the daily activities carried out for death row convicts, there is an occasion on which they are taken to open areas for a period of half an hour per day. This activity, which was carried out during the times when capital punishment was implemented, is continuing without any change even in the year 2004 by which 26 years have lapsed since the implementation of capital punishment was stopped. Various health problems can be seen emerging in these persons within these circumstances. Defects of vision and other physical illnesses emerge in them. This situation arises as an external problem of incarceration and in a situation in which capital punishment has not been implemented for a long period of time ,though it has been decreed by law, special attention has to be paid to this problem. Therefore action has to be taken to minimize the tendency of their becoming ill through a reasonable optional methodology. There were occasions in the recent past when the death row convicts launched demonstrations asking for their punishment be implemented or else they be released. However, it has become a big challenge to hold these persons who are held by court order until the other part of that court order is executed. Responsibility of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka in regard to Death Row Convicts. The Human Rights Commission as a national institution of human rights accepts the right of people to life. Therefore the Human Rights Commission cannot agree with the fact that people are deprived of their right to life due to the implementation of capital punishment. As per the powers conferred by the Human rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No. 21 of 1996 on the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka the Commission has powers to provide instructions to make national laws which comply with the extracts of the international law. 16