The government’s latest attempt to replace its abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) retains numerous provisions that have enabled serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said on Monday (05).
HRW said that the proposed Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill (PSTB), which will be sent to Parliament on October 6, 2026, includes an overbroad definition of terrorism, inadequate judicial oversight, sweeping powers of search and arrest for the armed forces, and executive authority to curtail freedom of speech, assembly, association, and movement.
It noted that these provisions neither meet the benchmarks set out by United Nations human rights experts, nor comply with human rights obligations and commitments that Sri Lanka made to the European Union under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+), which links trade benefits to human rights conditions.
“Sri Lankan authorities have long used draconian counterterrorism legislation to persecute minorities and target the victims of rights abuses and activists seeking justice and accountability,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The proposed law will allow similar abuses, breaching Sri Lanka’s obligations under international law and jeopardizing its EU trade benefits.”
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power alliance pledged in its 2024 election manifesto to campaign for the abolition “of all oppressive acts including the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and ensuring civil rights of people in all parts of the country.”
The bill is the proposed replacement for the PTA, which has enabled arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture.
HRW said the law, first enacted in 1979 as a “temporary” measure, has been used to target Tamil and Muslim communities, the media, human rights defenders, and others critical of successive governments, entrenching impunity in Sri Lanka for 46 years.
In 2017, Sri Lanka committed to repealing the PTA as a condition for the EU to reinstate its GSP+ status.
Since 2018, several attempts to repeal and replace the PTA have failed.
The government introduced an earlier version of the bill in late 2025, but it was withdrawn and has been reintroduced with some changes following criticism by human rights groups, media, and others.
Meanwhile, despite the government’s pledge to abolish the PTA, the Dissanayake government continued to use the law.
In June 2026 it was used to arrest and detain Sangeethan Ganeshkumar, a 24-year-old Tamil hip-hop artist, in connection with a music video.
According to information provided to the UN by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, there were 46 PTA-related detention cases in 2025 and 12 in the first 3 months of 2026.
It has at times been used in cases—such as alleged organized crime—that should be addressed using ordinary criminal laws, not counterterrorism authority.
In 2021, UN human rights experts set out five prerequisites to ensure that any proposed counterterrorism law complies with international human rights standards. They include providing a definition of terrorism that complies with international norms to ensure precision and legal certainty, especially when the legislation may affect the rights of freedom of expression, opinion, peaceful assembly, association, and religion or belief; instituting robust measures to prevent and halt arbitrary deprivation of liberty; ensuring measures to prevent torture and enforced disappearance; and enabling overarching due process and fair trial guarantees, including judicial oversight and access to legal counsel.
The bill does not meet these standards, HRW said.
The draft law includes broad and vague definitions of terrorism and could undermine the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The definition of terrorism problematically includes “unduly compelling a government or an international organization, to do or to abstain from doing any act.”
The bill also includes a sweeping provision that anyone who, with “intention or knowledge…directly or indirectly,” induces any person to commit, attempt, abet, conspire to commit, or prepare to commit, the offense of “terrorism” by “distributing, circulating,” or providing “a service to others that enables them to obtain, read, listen to or look at a terrorist publication” commits an offense.
The risk that this authority could be used to curtail free speech is shown by the repeated use of the PTA to interrogate, arrest, and detain journalists and social media users, the rights body observed.
While the definitions of offenses under the bill are overbroad, HRW said that the bill also includes some improvements.
It provides that those who engage in protest, advocacy or dissent; industrial or labor action; or humanitarian and medical assistance will not be considered to commit an offense.
However, this does not adequately address the dangers contained in other clauses that could result in abuse.
A further serious concern, as with the previous counterterrorism drafts, is that the latest bill provides broad authority to Sri Lanka’s police, armed forces, and coast guard with “reasonable suspicion” to stop, search, question, enter premises, and take suspects into custody without a warrant.
The proposed law enables the inspector general of police or a deputy inspector general of police to obtain an order from the defense secretary to detain a suspect for two months, which can be extended up to a year.
A magistrate cannot overturn a detention order, removing effective judicial oversight. Using different provisions under the bill, a person could be held without charge for up to a total of two years.
The bill provides some safeguards, such as allowing a magistrate to visit approved detention sites without notice, interview detainees, and direct officials to bring detainees before a Judicial Medical Officer if there is suspicion of torture or ill-treatment. The magistrate can also order a change of detention site.
The bill provides for an Independent Review Committee appointed by the defense minister to review the “necessity, legality and proportionality” of a detention order within 30 days and recommend to the minister whether it should be confirmed, varied, or revoked.
While independent reviews of detention orders could reduce abuses, the committee’s appointment by the minister would place the independence of such scrutiny in doubt.
Finally, the proposed law grants sweeping government authority to curtail freedom of movement and association, including for the president to proscribe organizations without judicial oversight.
The defense secretary is empowered to designate anywhere a “prohibited place,” while a deputy inspector general of police can obtain a court order to restrict an individual’s movement and communications for up to three months.
Such broad powers with limited or no judicial oversight would have a chilling effect on free speech, association, assembly, and movement.
The Sri Lankan government should impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the PTA while it comprehensively amends the PTSB or prepares a new bill that meets international standards, HRW said.
“Sri Lanka has a grim history of misusing bad counterterrorism laws to commit serious human rights violations, and this bill would do little to stop that from happening again,” Pearson said. “The Sri Lankan government should fulfill its international legal obligations and commitments to the EU and other international partners by legislating to end these abuses instead of simply repackaging the same abusive powers in new legislation.”
