The issues put forward by the participants were the absence of Tamil speaking police officers to deal with woman and children related matters,   absence   of   woman’s   &   child   protection   officer   in   certain police officers, absence of any such unit in certain police stations, absence of technical facilities of these unites. Commission had decided to intervene in these issues. Rights of Elders and Human Rights A workshop was held to discuss with social services officers, Rural Development Officers and Development Officers on how the issues faced by elders could be treated as human rights and how to intervene in such issues. Woman Rights The Commission has identified that the ignorance on rights of women has contributed to the increase of gender based violence in the area and a workshop was held to provide knowledge on rights of women and the need to motivate women in making effective decisions. Getting married at a young age, having children at a young age, financial issues and migration to Middle-Eastern countries for jobs were identified as causes for the increase of violence against women. Public servants participated in the event and the Commission expressed its expectations that they would make use of the knowledge gained effectively to prevent violence against women. Prevention of torture A workshop was held to mark the Day in support of victims of torture and during the workshop various forms of torture, definition of torture, importance of prevention of torture were discussed. Police officers, probation officers, members of NGOs and counselling assistants participated in the event. Joint workshop with civil organizations A joint workshop was organized by the Muslim Woman Action Forum and the Regional Offices of Batticaloa, Kalmunai, Ampara with sponsorship of the UN Human Rights Programme. Resource persons for the workshop were a lecturer of the University Colombo, Director (Monitoring and Reviewing) of the Head Office and officials of the UNICEF. It was an important feature that the chief participants were the representatives of civil Society Activists in the Eastern Province engaged in protection of human rights of vulnerable groups. Members of Sinhala & Tamil communities, business community and NGOs and civil society 79