- 66 - Recommendation (k) 158. In its initial communication dated 28 March 2001 the Government of Sri Lanka informed the Committee that all magistrates are legally empowered to visit and inspect remand prisons where suspects being held on remand (on judicial orders made by magistrates) are being detained. The Committee was further informed that following discussions at the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Human Rights, it was decided to amend the existing provisions of the Emergency Regulations empowering magistrates to visit (without prior notice) and inspect all places wherein suspects are being detained under the provisions of the Emergency Regulations. 159. By communication dated 27 April 2001, the Government further informed the Committee that by order dated 6 April 2001 the President, acting under section 5 of the Public Security Ordinance, decreed that “the officer in charge of any place authorized by the Inspector General of Police as a place authorized for detention for the purpose of regulation 17 or 18, shall furnish, to the magistrate within the local limits of whose jurisdiction such place of detention is located, once in every 14 days, a list containing the names of all persons detained at such place. The magistrate shall cause such list to be displayed on the notice board of the Court. The magistrate within whose jurisdiction any such authorized place of detention is situated, shall visit such place of detention at least once in every month. It shall be the duty of the officer in charge of that place to secure that every person detained therein, otherwise than by an order of a magistrate, be produced before such visiting magistrate”. 160. Following the lapse of the Emergency Regulations, the regulatory power conferred on magistrates on 6 April 2001 to conduct unannounced visits to places of detention under the Emergency Regulations ceased. However, following a recommendation by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Human Rights on the need to empower magistrates to visit and inspect all places of detention and interview suspects, the Ministry of Justice is considering incorporating a new provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure that would enable magistrates to perform this function in relation to all suspects arrested under the various applicable laws. Recommendation (l) 161. According to the Government, all ex-militant groups have been warned of the need to adhere to the law and desist from arresting or detaining any person. In the event of such action being taken, it would be deemed in violations of the penal law and action would be taken in accordance with the law. Recommendation (m) 162. By an initial communication dated 28 March 2001 the Government of Sri Lanka explained that a Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police has been assigned the task of coordinating all efforts relating to the protection and promotion of human rights and the enforcement of the domestic laws relating to alleged violations of human rights. It is the duty of the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police to ensure that directives relating to the prevention of torture are strictly complied with.