PDF Format: Lesson series 1: Human rights related legal reforms

The Issue

In order to stay as close as possible to the concerns faced by people daily, either as practioners, protagonists or as victims of the legal system, "lessons" are based on the issues raised by an Appeals Court Judge in Sri Lanka concerning the need for reforms in the legal system in Sri Lanka, and reported in a newspaper article (reproduced below). Not by accident, the issues she raised echo the discussions of the consultations, and fall within the general theme of due process rights as one facet of the fundamental human rights enshrined in international law, and deal with the problems of securing the process of "fair trial" as one concrete fundament of these rights.

The Lessons