A/HRC/34/54/Add.2 least, excluding extrajudicial statements that are recanted by the defendant when he or she appears before a magistrate. 86. While the Special Rapporteur was assured by the authorities that confessions alone are not sufficient for a conviction, various sources reported that, in practice, most convictions are based on a confession alone or as the main evidence. 5. Complaints procedure 87. The Supreme Court has sole jurisdiction over complaints relating to the infringement of fundamental rights (arts. 17 and 126 of the Constitution). Such “fundamental rights applications” must be filed in writing directly to the Court within one month from the occurrence of the violation and, if successful, the only remedy available is the awarding of compensation to the complainant (art. 126 (2)). As the Supreme Court is the highest and final court of Sri Lanka (art. 118), there is no possibility to appeal its decisions. Fundamental rights complaints may also be addressed to the National Human Rights Commission, whose function is to investigate and provide for resolution by conciliation and mediation (sect. 10 of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act). 88. Jurisdiction over cases filed under the Convention against Torture Act lies with the High Court (arts. 2 (4) and 4). Complaints must be addressed to the Attorney-General, who instructs the Special Investigation Unit, under the supervision of the Inspector General of Police, to investigate the alleged use of torture. The Attorney-General has discretionary power and decides whether to indict. Negative decisions may be challenged by written application to the Appeals Court. This discretionary power represents a significant weakness of the system: while a number of indictments have been filed by the AttorneyGeneral under the Act, there have been few convictions. 89. In practice, the only effective avenues for complaints are filing a “fundamental rights” case before the Supreme Court or submitting the case to the National Human Rights Commission. However, fundamental rights applications involve costly, complex litigation and are therefore not accessible to all victims. In addition, the application is not available to vacate a court order that has been based on a forced confession, as it does not lie against judicial decisions. Moreover, according to the Chief Justice, there is a worrying backlog of approximately 3,000 fundamental rights cases before the Supreme Court. 90. The National Human Rights Commission was resurrected with a credible composition of members in 2015, but needs to be further strengthened and funded. Proceedings before the Commission hold some promise for the victims, but it does not seem capable of remedying impunity for past and present serious human rights violations, which require effective prosecution. In addition, at least one victim has received threats of retaliation for filing a complaint with the Commission. 91. No formal complaint mechanism is available to detainees in the prison system. National Police Commission 92. Having been dissolved in 2006, the National Police Commission was re-established in October 2015 by constitutional amendment (art. 115). It is mandated to investigate complaints of police misconduct, and has the power to suspend and dismiss police officers. 93. The Commission advised the Special Rapporteur that it had received 455 complaints in the first quarter of 2016 concerning allegations of police inaction, partiality, abuse of power, unlawful arrest, false charges, assault, torture or ill-treatment and violence against women; 400 of those complaints were still pending investigation, and the Commission reported resource constraints. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the Commission 15