The British government calls on all countries \u2013 including Sri Lanka \u2013 to abolish the death penalty. Although the death penalty has not been carried out in Sri Lanka since 1976, capital punishment remains legal and the death sentence continues to be handed down for crimes including murder, drug trafficking and rape. There have been occasional calls for these sentences to be carried out but it has become established practice for them to be commuted to life imprisonment. i.e. de facto moratorium.<\/p>
Sri Lanka has been a consistent supporter of UN General Assembly resolutions calling for a worldwide suspension of executions since the first such resolution was proposed in 2007. Our High Commission in Colombo joined the EU delegation in lobbying senior officials in the Sri Lankan Ministry of External Relations to maintain this position in the December 2018 UN vote, supporting a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. In January 2019, after further reporting of the intention to restart the death penalty, our High Commission in Colombo raised the issue with senior officials in the Sri Lankan government.<\/p>
The Government of Sri Lanka is well aware of the UK and EU position on the death penalty and we hope the moratorium will be sustained.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1405", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mark Field"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Cities of London and Westminster"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mark Field"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-02-12", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-02-12T13:03:37.057Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "16"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-02-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Sri Lanka: Capital Punishment"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the Government of Sri Lanka's decision to end its moratorium on the use of the death penalty.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/308", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Coventry South"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Jim Cunningham"} ], "uin" : "218174"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/169502", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/169502/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "It is for Somalia and Somaliland themselves to determine their future relationship and for neighbouring countries in the region to take the lead in recognising any new arrangements. Following the London Conference in February 2012, which \u201crecognised the need for the international community to support any dialogue that Somaliland and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) or its replacement may agree to establish in order to clarify their future relations\u201d, the TFG and Somaliland met for the first time at Chevening in the UK, in June 2012. They agreed to cooperate on matters of mutual interest. Somalia and Somaliland have held several further rounds of talks in Turkey, at Ministerial level."} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1408", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Swire"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Devon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mr Hugo Swire"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-12-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-12-17T15:58:07.067Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "16"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-12-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Somaliland"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote the reintegration of Somaliland into Somalia; and if he will make a statement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3929", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Simon Kirby"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Brighton, Kemptown"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Simon Kirby"} ], "uin" : "218174"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }