created by legislation, passed in our Parliament). These institutions have a mandate to realize human rights standards that Sri Lanka has recognized in our own legislation and Constitution, and State obligations created by the international treaties or instruments that our governments have ratified. Sri Lanka has ratified and become a State Party to the following United Nations treaties, which are relevant in this area. Successive governments have also enacted legislation (laws) and policies to incorporate or integrate these treaty obligations. It is important to recognize this development which is clear from the adoption of the laws and policies given below. (1) The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and its Optional Protocol, some aspects of which have been harmonized in national law by Parliament during the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse through the ICCPR Act (2007). (2) International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) harmonized in some aspects and perhaps inadvertently by ICCPR Act 2007. (See S. 6) (3) The Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol. CEDAW has been harmonized in a national policy document, The Women’s Charter (1993), and laws such as the Penal Code Amendments of 1995, 2006, the Domestic Violence Act (2005), and the Citizenship Act (1948) Amended 2003. (4) The Convention on Torture (CAT) harmonized in national law in the Torture Act (1994) and the Corporal Punishment Repeal Act (2005). (5) The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocols on Child Sexual Exploitation, Trafficking and Use of Children in Armed Conflict, and the Palermo Protocol to the UN Convention on Transnational Crime, harmonised in Penal Code Amendments 1995, 1998 and 2006 and the Corporal Punishment Repeal Act 2005. Amendments to the Penal Code are legislative efforts to harmonise international standards and norms of CEDAW and CRC on physical and sexual abuse and trafficking. The following Conventions have been ratified, but the treaty obligations have not yet been incorporated in post ratification legislation or policies. (1) The Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers. (2) The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Parliament has also ratified very recently the Convention on Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. Parliament has therefore incorporated important international norms and standards in our domestic law. There have been periodic efforts to bring our law and governance in conformity with these international standards. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has also used the standards of ICCPR and CAT in interpreting provisions of our own Constitution on fundamental rights protected in Chapter III. In the Manohari Pelaketiya case, the Supreme Court, for the first time referred to Sri Lanka’s treaty obligations under CEDAW and linked this to the interpretation of Women’s fundamental right to equality and non – discrimination (See Annex on Fundamental Rights Cases). Besides ratification of the Optional Protocols to ICCPR and CEDAW also give citizens who have gone through legal procedures in the country, and not obtained remedies, a right to send a communication to the Committees monitoring implementation, alleging a violation of the relevant treaty. Sri Lankans have filed such communications to the Human Rights Committee established under ICCPR, (eg. Singarasa Case, see Annex), though no case has been taken COMPENDIUM ON LAW, GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 41