The 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the ongoing discourse around its contentious features, related to devolution of power, were discussed yesterday, during a meeting between Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem and visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, of the US Department of State, Dr Alyssa Ayres.US Ambassador Michele J. Sison, Counselor for Political Affairs Michael Honigstein and justice Ministry Secretary Kamalani de Silva were also present at the discussion.The following is the statement issued by the Justice Ministry at the conclusion of the meeting: “Minister Hakeem provided details of the reconciliation efforts and the steady progress carried out as per the LLRC recommendations pertaining to the legal sector activities. He apprised them of the vibrant judicial culture and the credible legal sector mechanisms enforced in the country.Minister Hakeem also explained the phased structure in dealing with the reconciliation work in the legal sector with reference to rehabilitation of ex-combatant and reconstruction.He remarked that the alternative dispute mechanism through mediation at the village level has a success rate over 65% that helps mete out immediate legal solutions preventing cases from being referred to the main court houses that cause a backlog. Countries such as China and Nepal have already expressed interest in replicating similar systems.He referred to plans that were underway, to extend the local Mediation Board’s activities to include remedial measures for land related issues as well. Training and capacity development programmes for mediators to deal with technicalities of documentations such as deeds and plans etc are also carried out.The 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the ongoing discourse around its contentious features related to power devolution were also referred to during the discussions.The Minister also briefed them on the rapid rise in the number of illegal migrants since June this year, particularly to Australia from the North-Western and the Eastern Coastal belts of Sri Lanka and the legal mechanism in process to deal with this situation such as awareness raising on related risks. He commended the assistance of the security, including the CID Division, and legal sectors in dealing with such illegal human trafficking.”