Sri Lanka: Facts and figures, January to June 2014

Detainee welfare

Between January and June 2014, the ICRC:

• monitored the treatment of 696 people held in detention facilities and rehabilitation;
• carried out 32 detention visits in 21 places of detention under the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms and the Ministry of Law and Order;
• paid allowances to the families of 423 detainees to enable them to visit their relatives in detention, while 83 families exchanged news via Red Cross messages or oral messages over the phone.

Physical rehabilitation

Between January and June 2014, the ICRC:

• supported 551 patients with disabilities through the Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation; this included the production of 147 prostheses, 77 orthoses and 32 other devices.

Support to the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society

Between January and June 2014, the ICRC:

• trained eight Red Cross branch dissemination teams, amounting to 109 volunteers, and contributed to the World Red Cross Red Crescent Day celebrations island-wide;
• continued to provide the National Society with financial, technical and material support for its Restoring Family Links services for people in need, re-establishment of the Society’s branches in Killinochchi and Mullaitivu, and for training in first aid, search and rescue, and rapid assessment. This helped disaster response teams throughout the country to strengthen their emergency preparedness.

Promotion of international humanitarian law (IHL)

Between January and June 2014, the ICRC:

• provided training on community-oriented public order management  for over 700 members of the police force, and on IHL for over 700 military personnel to be deployed on peace-support missions;
• conducted the 24th South Asia Teaching Session (SATS) on IHL, with the support of the Ministry of External Affairs, for over 50 government officials, members of the armed forces, police services, academics and civil society organizations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as 17 local participants;
• made it possible for the Legal Officer of the Ministry of Health to attend the Health Care in Danger workshop in Brussels in January 2014, and two legal experts (one from the Attorney General's Department and the other a senior legal expert) to attend the Preparatory Meeting of Government Experts on Strengthening IHL and Protecting Persons Deprived of Their Liberty in Relation to Non-International Armed Conflict, in Geneva;
• conducted a three-day advanced seminar on IHL for armed forces at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University;
• provided training for Sri Lankan judicial medical officers and other forensic experts.