CAT/C/LKA/CO/3-4 The State party should conduct investigations into the allegations of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse by military members of the MINUSTAH’s Sri Lankan contingent and report their findings and measures taken in response, including the resulting number of indictments, prosecutions and convictions, and measures taken to prevent further occurrences. The Committee encourages the State party to pursue its cooperation with the relevant United Nations departments to ensure progress in this matter. Human trafficking and violence against Sri Lankan migrant workers 24. While noting the adoption in 2006 of the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 16, the Committee is concerned about persistent reports of trafficking of women and children within the State party for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, the low numbers of convictions related to human trafficking and the detention of trafficking victims. The Committee is similarly concerned at the reported abuses of many Sri Lankan migrant workers, especially women, who travel abroad and subsequently face conditions of forced labour or other abuse in the host country, as alleged by the representative of the State party. In this regard, the Committee notes with interest the statement of the representative of the State party that the draft National Action Plan on Human Rights contains a section devoted to the protection of Sri Lankan migrant workers (arts. 2, 12 and 16). The State party should: (a) Increase its efforts to combat trafficking in human beings by taking effective measures to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible and by further strengthening international cooperation with countries of origin, transit and destination; (b) Review legislation and practices to prevent victims of trafficking from being prosecuted, detained or punished for the illegality of their entry or residence or for the activities they are involved in as a direct consequence of their situation as victims of trafficking; (c) Instruct consular or diplomatic authorities to provide protection and assistance to Sri Lankan migrant workers to protect their rights to be free from violence, confinement and abuse in violation of the Convention; (d) Consider the possibility of ratifying the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime Definition of torture 25. The Committee reiterates its view that the definition of torture included in Section 12 of the 1994 Convention against Torture Act (hereinafter, CAT Act) does not entirely reflect the internationally agreed definition set out in the Convention. It restricts acts of torture to “any act which causes severe pain, whether physical or mental”, while the Convention definition refers to “severe pain or suffering”. It thus does not cover acts that are not violent per se, but nevertheless inflict suffering (arts. 1 and 4). The Committee reiterates the recommendation made in its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 5), that the State party should amend the definition of torture included in Section 12 of the CAT Act in order to expand the definition of torture to all acts of torture, including those causing severe suffering, in accordance with article 1 of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee draws attention to its general comment No. 2 (2007), which states that serious discrepancies between the Convention’s definition and that incorporated into domestic law create actual or potential loopholes for impunity (CAT/C/GC/2, para. 9). 11