1 State Responsibility and Legal Framework of Sri Lanka in Food Safety M.K.Geethani Jeewanthi 1# 1 Lecturer, Department of Legal Studies, Faculty of HSS, Open University of Sri Lanka # For correspondence; <mkgj26@yahoo.com> Abstract - Using different kinds of chemicals for agriculturally produced foods is a common phenomenon in Sri Lanka. The use of chemicals can be seen mostly in each and every step in the cultivation process, from nursery level till it reaches customers. Particularly this can be mostly seen in fruit ripening process. Fruit ripening is a natural process and it takes some time for fruit to ripen naturally. However, it is very pathetic to note that farmers, sellers and distributors use chemicals to get a high profit in their businesses even in off seasons and to deal with transportation and distribution issues. In appearance, the chemical treated foods are very attractive, greener and more fresh looking than untreated food; however, now this has created many challenging issues such as health, environmental, social, economic and has now become even a threat to the right to life of people in Sri Lanka. This research is basically a normative study, which focuses on the legal aspects of using chemicals for agriculturally produced foods. By adopting the rights based approach this study focuses on the State’s responsibility to a human rights regime regarding food safety. This study describes the available international human rights provisions and domestic legal provisions in this regard. The main objective of this study is to critically analyze whether the existing law regarding chemical treated food is adequate to address the current needs of society with the standards prescribed by the international community. Keywords: Food Safety, Right to health, Right to life I.INTRODUCTION Using chemicals in Sri Lanka has a long history and it is revealed that this was first used in the anti- malaria campaign. However in later stages, being aware that the use of chemicals may increase the profit level of farmers, they tended to use chemicals without considering the adverse situation which can result from using chemicals. Particularly this can be mostly seen in the fruit ripening process. Fruit ripening is a natural process and it takes some time for fruit to ripen naturally. However, it is very pathetic to note that farmers, sellers and distributors use chemicals for this process to get a high profit in their businesses even in off seasons and to deal with transportation and distribution issues.